Margaret A. Lawson, DDW’s Chief Science Officer, is recognized internationally as a noted food industry leader. Her career is based on food ingredient technology with an emphasis on strategically leading teams to resolve technical challenges to support the business. She was recently honored among “Outstanding Alumni” at UC Davis with a 2011 Award of Distinction.

Community Involvement: Margaret remains an active, continual supporter of the food industry profession – volunteering leadership along with mentoring students entering the field. She serves on the Executive Committee of NATCOL Natural Food Colours Association, an Executive Board Member at the Robert Mondavi Insititute of Wine & Food Research at UC Davis (where she earned her Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees), and is a Fellow (and past President) of the Institute of Food Science & Technology (IFST).

For Fun: Margaret loves reading biographies, enjoys travelling the world, learning about different cultures and experiencing nature through adventure travel. Her favorite countries to visit include Mexico, China, Turkey and New Zealand and she has done work-related travel in China, Latin America, New Zealand and Europe. She can often be found cruising around town on her red Vespa (“The Red Dragon”) with her dog, Missy, riding along in the back basket.

Random Fact: Margaret once spent three weeks travelling Thailand by elephant along the Myanmar border, sleeping in native villages.