Cristhiam Gurdian was born in León, Nicaragua. She graduated with academic honors in 2011 with a BS in food science and technology from Zamorano University, Honduras. She performed internships at various universities, including Purdue University (food safety and microbiology), Louisiana State University (food engineering and packaging), and Texas A&M University (human nutrition). She earned an MS in nutrition and food science from Louisiana State University in 2013. For her master’s research, she focused on mechanisms of shelf-life extension in cheese through the development of edible films containing essential oils from plants. Upon graduation, she worked in Nicaragua in an international peanut-processing company as the manager of the quality control department. For her PhD, she studied the potential of sensory cues in the acceptance, perception, and liking of foods, including those containing insect protein. She received several awards and scholarships, including The Gamma Sigma Delta Merit Honor Roll Award, the Louisiana Gulf Coast Section of the Institute of Food Technologists (IFT) award, the Philanthropic Educational Organization (PEO) International Peace Scholarship, and the Zamorano Agricultural Society (ZAS) excellence scholarship. She earned a doctorate in food sciences at Louisiana State University with a minor in statistics.