Michael O'Mahony

Professor and Sensory Scientist

Degree

Ph. D. University of Bristol, 1972

Research

Professor O’Mahony performs research in the senses and brain processing and how they relate to sensory and consumer testing. Topics like bias in fine discriminations between similar foods, bias when estimating the strength or liking for food flavors, vanishing tastes and smells, inventing a language for flavor, solving the problem of false preferences and designing a food that people will like, even though it doesn’t yet exist. Professor O'Mahony conducts this research so that better methods can be developed for sensory and consumer testing.

Selected Publications

• O'Mahony, M.A. 1986. Sensory Evaluation of Food: Statistical Measures and Procedures. Taylor & Francis, New York.
• O'Mahony, M.A. 1992. Understanding discrimination tests: A user friendly treatment of response bias, rating and ranking R-index tests and their relationship to signal detection. Journal of Sensory Studies 7:1-47.
• O'Mahony, M.A., S. Masuoka and R. Ishii. 1994. A theoretical note on difference tests: Models, paradoxes and cognitive strategies. Journal of Sensory Studies 9:247-272.
• Lee, H.-J., K.-O. Kim and M.A. O'Mahony. 2001. Effects of forgetting on various protocols for category and line scales of intensity. Journal of Sensory Studies 16:327-342.
• Alfaro-Rodriguez, A. and M.A. O'Mahony. 2006. Be your own placebo: A double paired preference test approach for establishing expected frequencies. Food Quality and Preference, In Press.

Awards and Honors

• Keys of the City of Veracruz, Mexico

Extension of Knowledge Activities 

• FST 107 - Food Sensory Science
• FST 117 - Design and Analysis for Food Sensory Science
• FST 217 - Advanced Food Sensory Science
• Short courses in United States of America, Canada, Mexica, Jamaica, Costa Rica, United Kingdom, France, Germany, Norway, Korea, China, Philippines, Thailand, Australia and New Zealand
• Seminars in United States of America, Canada, Mexico, United Kingdom, France, Germany, Switzerland, Neitherlands, Norway, Denmark, Finland, Japan, Korea, China, Thailand, Philippines