Dr. Daphna Havkin Frenkel has unique qualifications.  She holds a BS and an MS in the area of Agriculture, a Ph.D. in Food Science and Biotechnology, and an MBA from Rutgers University.  From 1990-2003, she was the Director of the BioVan Group at David Michael, Inc. (currently IFF). Dr. Havkin Frenkel has over 35 years experience in the area of food science and flavors, in all aspects of vanilla. She has published extensively in the area of vanilla biotechnology, and has been invited to worldwide symposiums as a speaker on the subject. 

Daphna was the first to organize an international congress on vanilla in Princeton, NJ in 2003. Following this conference, she has contiuned holding these symposiusms on an annual basis in major vanilla-producing countries. She has also organized vanilla courses at Rutgers's Plant Science deparment, and was a Visiting Scientist from 1992-2022. She divides her time between  doing research on the development of new vanilla products at Bakto Flavors, LLC in Edison, NJ, combined with the continued study of how vanilla produces vanillin, the latter of which she does alongside scientists from universities worldwide. 

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Daphna has clients she consults with on all aspects of vanilla globally. For more details about consulting, please see below. 

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