2000 Fellows of the Institute

Ten professional members of the Institute of Food Technologists were honored as Fellow of the Institute of Food Technologists at the Opening Event of IFT’s Annual Meeting held June 10, 2000, in Dallas, Tex. FELLOW is a distinction conferred on individuals with outstanding and extraordinary qualifications and experience for their contributions to the field of food science and/ or technology and service to IFT. The nominees for the award must have been Professional Members of IFT for at least 15 years and have achieved their outstanding accomplishments for a period of at least ten of those years.

The Fellow designation has been conferred on a select number of Professional Members every year since 1970. Autobiographical sketches of the 2000 Fellows are presented below.

ROBERT B. GRAVANI, Professor of Food Science, Cornell University, Ithaca, N.Y., was honored for his outstanding contributions to the profession of food science and technology, and for his service to IFT, professionals associated with IFT, and consumers.

Considered an excellent communicator and enthusiastic food scientist, Gravani shares his enthusiasm with those around him and is frequently quoted in the popular press. His expertise extends through issues of food safety, sanitation, GMPs, prerequisite programs, HACCP, and the principles of effective training, and he is nationally and internationally known for the creation of a wide variety of training programs which reach thousands of individuals. 

Gravani’s achievements have resulted in individual and industry change and his programs have served as models for others to emulate. Using emerging technology to present distant learning programs, he established an innovative extension program in food safety, working closely with all sectors of the food industry, federal and state regulatory agencies, journalists, and consumers. He has developed a wide variety of audiovisual training programs for those audiences, and planned and conducted numerous food safety and quality extension programs. From 1990 to 1997, he served on the National Advisory Committee on Microbiology Criteria for foods, where he took an active role on the listeria, campylobacter (as chair), meat and poultry, HACCP, and produce working groups. At Cornell, he has mentored and advised a number of undergraduate and graduate students who have gone on to successful careers of their own. Currently, he co-teaches a popular undergraduate course called Food Choices and Issues (200 students) and a course in Food Safety Assurances (25-30 students), and has received several awards for outstanding teaching. He received his Ph.D. in food science from Cornell University. 

In addition to his extensive academic activities, Bob Gravani has been an actively engaged and involved IFT member since 1966, when he joined the Institute as a student member. He has held several committee positions in the Chicago and Central New York Sections, was Secretary of the Food Service Division, 1991–92 Chair of the Extension Division, and served on the Executive Committees of the Food Microbiology Division and the Quality Assurance Division. At the national level, he has twice been Chair of the Continuing Education Committee (1992–93; 1984–85), and he was chair of that committee at the time IFT’s continuing education program was expanded into a year-round, professional department of IFT. Current participation includes the ad hoc Committee on HACCP Activities (from 1995); Expert Panel on Food Safety and Nutrition (from 1997); Task Force on Communicating Advocacy (from 1998); and the IFT Task Force on Consumer Outreach (from 1999).

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TODD R. KLAENHAMMER, William Neal Reynolds Professor, Dept. of Food Science, North Carolina State University (NCSU) at Raleigh; and Director of the Southeast Dairy Foods Research Center, was lauded as a distinguished professional member of IFT, having excelled in research and teaching, and having shown visionary leadership in defining the national research agenda for food science and technology. He has to date published 133 peer-reviewed manuscripts, directed 28 graduate programs, and received 14 national and international awards. 

Klaenhammer’s research group pioneered and set the standard for the application of molecular genetics to dairy lactic acid bacteria, notably through his efforts to design novel genetic strategies to provide bacteriophage resistance to bacteria used in dairy starter cultures; characterize bacteriocins produced in lactic acid bacteria; and investigate genetic and physiological properties vital to the functionality of probiotic cultures. This research is considered seminal and defines the criteria upon which new industrial starter cultures will be designed for continuous use in the fermentation of bioprocessing industries. For this work, he has received twelve outstanding research awards since 1984, including IFT’s 1989 Samuel Cate Prescott Award and 1998 Research and Development Award. In great demand as a plenary or keynote speaker at major international scientific meetings, Klaenhammer has presented scientific presentations in South America, Europe, and the Far East on the results of his research findings. 

He is recognized as an outstanding teacher both in the classroom and the research laboratory, having been named Outstanding Instructor by the NCSU Food Science Club in 1996, and Distinguished Professor by the NCSU Alumni Association in 1993. Several of his students have won prestigious awards for outstanding doctoral dissertations while under his direction. In addition to his teaching and research, Klaenhammer, as Director of the Southeast Dairy Foods Research Center, has played a primary role in the planning and operation of the current national dairy research program, in conjunction with five other Dairy Foods Research Centers and the funding partner, Dairy Management, Inc. 

Klaenhammer, who received his Ph.D. in food science from the University of Minnesota in 1978, joined IFT as a student member in 1976. He has served the Institute in a number of capacities, including Scientific Lecturer (1989–90), IFT Professional Speaker (1990–96), periodic ad hoc reviewer for the Journal of Food Science, IFT Food Microbiology Divisional Lecturer (1998), and IFT Student Association Symposium Lecturer (1999). In addition, he was a member of the 1992–93 Executive Committee of the IFT Biotechnology Division.

JOZEF L. KOKINI, Professor II, Dept. of Food Science, Rutgers University, New Brunswick, N.J., was recognized for advancing the fundamental knowledge of food rheology and the physical chemistry of food biopolymers. 

Kokini, who earned IFT’s 1986 Samuel Cate Prescott Achievement Award for outstanding ability in research, has continued to excel as one of the most creative and productive minds in his field. He has the reputation of reducing complex engineering concepts to simple ideas through analogies, and to create a high degree of enthusiasm in his students. His students learn how to apply advanced engineering science to the solution of food industry problems, and his mentoring has been such that they win all sorts of national scholarships and awards and are aggressively sought after by industry. 

His research has led to new quantitative principles in food rheology, psychophysics, extrusion, mixing, and biophysical properties of foods. In rheology, he developed predictive methods relating rheological properties to their molecular properties; he also pioneered new predictive methods which incorporate the viscous and elastic properties of such foods as wheat flour doughs, and worked with nonlinear viscoelastic properties of food materials sensitive to deformation. Molecular structure-rheology relationships are a strong function of the phase behavior of food materials, and it is necessary to understand whether the food polymer is in the glassy, rubbery, or free-flowing state. Kokini has studied the effect of the addition of various ingredients such as lipids, propylene glycol, sugars, or emulsifiers. More recently, he is studying diffusion in the glassy and rubbery states and is in the process of developing quantitative predictive relationships for diffusion—work leading to a better understanding of flavor release processes and which will help to control deteriorative reactions more accurately. 

In addition to teaching and research, Kokini has helped develop Rutgers’ Center for Advanced Food Technology (CAFT). He is in charge of the Cooperative Research and Development program of CAFT, interacting continuously with the food industry around the world and tailoring research programs to meet their needs. Through his multidisciplinary projects, he has generated more than $8 million in contracts and grants for Rutgers University and received a number of honors for his accomplishments, including Rutgers University’s Merit Award for excellent productivity in research and teaching for the years 1982, 1985, 1988, 1991, 1994, and 1996 through 1999. 

Kokini earned his Ph.D. in chemical engineering from Carnegie-Mellon University in 1977. He joined IFT in 1980, where he has served on a number of committees and scientific panels over the years both nationally and for the New York Section. Currently, he is Chair of the IFT/NAS Liaison Committee and serves as Councilor and Secretary-Elect for NYIFT.

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S. SUZANNE NIELSEN, Professor, Dept. of Food Science, Purdue University, West Lafayette, Ind., was selected as an IFT Fellow for her service to IFT, her contributions to scientific discovery, and her enthusiasm for exciting and training tomorrow’s food science professionals. 

After receiving her Ph.D. from the University of Minnesota, Nielsen joined the faculty at Purdue in 1983, first as a postdoctoral associate, then with a teaching and research appointment. Her research interests include protein chemistry and food analysis, projects which seek to improve the nutritive value of food while increasing food availability and acceptability. Her protein work focuses on relationships between proteins, proteases, and protease inhibitors in two systems: the native plasmin system bovine milk; and a plant-source protease inhibitor effective against insect digestive enzymes. For this work, she received research awards from Purdue’s School of Agriculture and from Gamma Sigma Delta. She currently chairs a university committee related to research competitiveness. 

Neilsen has received the Food Science Department’s Outstanding Teaching Award seven times in the past 14 years. Her commitment to her students is reflected in hard work, effective communication skills, efforts to provide practical knowledge and an ability to understand analytical methods and interpret the results, and a willingness to develop and teach new courses whenever needed. She edited a food analysis textbook, now in its second edition, which is the most widely used textbook for teaching food analysis in the U.S. 

As a student, she received several IFT scholarships and fellowships. She joined the Institute in 1977 and served as Midwest Area Representative in IFT’s Student Association. In 1979, she won Honorable Mention in the IFT Graduate Research Paper Competition. Since then, she has been Chair and Chair-Elect of the Indiana Section (1985–87) and served on numerous committees and task forces at the national level of the Institute, primarily on the Research Committee, which she chaired in 1997–98. She has also been a member of the Constitution and By-Laws Committee, the IFT Expert Panel, the Science Communications Committee, the Task Force on Washington Presence, and is a Membership Representative to the IFT Executive Committee. She is also a member of the Nutrition, Education, and Food Chemistry Divisions. Currently she serves as a member of the Food Chemistry and Toxicology Editorial Board of the Journal of Food Science, and chairs the Task Force on Fostering Cooperative Relations.

ANNA V.A. RESURRECCION, Professor, Center for Food Safety and Quality Enhancement, Dept. of Food Science and Technology, University of Georgia at Griffin, was lauded for her contributions in the area of sensory science and consumer research. Resurreccion has distinguished herself both nationally and internationally as a leading authority in the sensory quality of food. 

Her research ranges from applied to basic, with the underlying goal of evaluating factors that influence sensory quality and consumer preferences for food, using psychobiology, psychophysics, and mathematical, statistical, and computer techniques, along with laboratory methods and field studies. She was among the first sensory researchers to use multivariate methods and sophisticated statistical techniques to quantify food quality and acceptance by consumers, methods which resulted in new product lines and helped to increase the efficiencies in food production systems from concept to market. 

She is recognized for her landmark research on consumer acceptance of irradiated beef and poultry, and for the development and quality enhancement of peanut products. The successful transfer of peanut processing technologies she developed has led to commercialization and marketing of peanut products in the U.S. and many developing countries. In the Philippines, for example, she was instrumental in the development of Vitamin A-fortified peanut butter to alleviate Vitamin A deficiency found in 35% of Philippine preschoolers, and also a process to eliminate aflatoxin-contaminated peanuts from peanut product, resulting in increased profitability and economic development while providing sustained benefits to public health. 

In addition to the above-described accomplishments, Resurreccion has authored 106 journal articles and book chapters and another 392 scientific publications. She has been active since 1984 as principal or co-investigator on research projects through the U.S. Agency for International Development and the U.S. Department of Agriculture. She has given superior research training to graduate students and visiting scientists from all over the world, who have assumed key roles in academia and industry following graduation and many of whom have become leaders in food science and technology in their native countries. She herself has been an invited speaker at innumerable national and international seminars, symposia, workshops and meetings, and received numerous honors and awards to recognize her professional achievements. 

Resurreccion, who received her Ph.D. in food science from the University of Georgia, joined IFT as a student member in 1973. Since then, she has been a member of several committees and awards juries at the national level and an elected officer for the Dixie Section, the Product Development and Sensory Evaluation Divisions, and the Southern Sections of IFT (SAAS). She served as Associate Scientific Editor for the Journal of Food Science until 1999.

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SYED S.H. RIZVI, Professor of Food Process Engineering and Director of Graduate Studies, Institute of Food Science, Cornell University, was honored for his contributions to food processing and engineering research and education and for fostering international collaborations in food science education. 

Considered an innovative researcher and a skilled teacher, Rizvi is best known for his applications of supercritical fluids to food materials. His research, particularly on high pressure extrusion with supercritical carbon dioxide (SC-CO₂), has embraced a broad spectrum of novel and pioneering techniques. His research group was the first to use gelatinized starch in studies on the generation of microcellular structure for use in food and nonfood applications using SC-CO₂, and has provided key insights into thermodynamic properties of relevance to processing and packaging of food materials. Among his numerous contributions, Rizvi has authored or edited five books and holds five patents. His patents have been licensed for use by industry, and he has provided technical assistance and advice to a large number of domestic and international food manufacturing companies. He is also the recipient of IFT’s 2000 IFT Marcel Loncin Research Prize, which he will use to study SC-CO₂-based extrusion to clarify the relationship between solubility of solute and pressure drop effects on nucleation, cell growth, and solute deposition in extruded foods. 

His contributions to the teaching profession are substantial, too numerous to list here. He was instrumental in revising courses in food processing and engineering to make them more rigorous, up to date, and interesting to students. He has worked extensively in training scientists from a number of other countries, and served as lead scientist in writing an authoritative position paper on research needs in food engineering, processing, and packaging which has been extensively quoted. Currently, he teaches or co-teaches two undergraduate courses and one graduate course in food engineering, has organized a number of short courses and symposia, and has advised 35 Ph.D. and M.S. students, twelve postdoctoral fellows, and numerous visiting scientists and engineers. His contributions over the past two decades have been repeatedly recognized with a number of teaching awards. 

Rizvi, who earned his Master of Engineering (Chemical Engr.) from the University of Toronto and Ph.D. in food science and technology from The Ohio State University, Columbus, joined IFT in 1977 and has held a number of committee positions in the Dixie and Central New York Sections. Currently, he serves as Councilor of the Central New York Section.

KAREN M. SCHAICH, Associate Professor, Dept. of Food Science, Rutgers University, was recognized for her contributions to food science education and mentoring, her pioneering research on free radicals in lipid oxidation and in foods, and her service and distinction in promoting diversity within IFT. 

Schaich constantly strives to maximize potential in individuals, organizations, and ideals. In her classroom, students learn to do higher-order thinking instead of memorizing, and to translate food behaviors into molecular-level chemistry which can be used to solve problems with food. She developed a program for the full modernization and integrated teaching of all food science laboratory courses at Rutgers and her methods have initiated a quiet revolution in teaching in the Rutgers food science program. She has received a number of awards for this work, including the 1999 William V. Cruess Achievement Award and the Endel Karmas Award for Excellence in Teaching Food Science. Schaich is the only individual in Rutgers’ history to win the Karmas award three times. 

Her research, free radicals in lipid oxidation and their effects on proteins and DNA, are seminal, and her research on free radicals generated by extrusion has led to important new understandings of molecular changes caused by heat and shear forces. Her new chemiluminescence techniques and instrumentation for handling intact food samples detect oxidation long before sensory panels or chemical assays; when commercially available in a few years, these techniques should revolutionize industrial monitoring of lipid oxidation in foods. Her discovery of nitric oxide radical production during the thermal processing of meat opens new avenues for stabilization of meat products as well as the prevention of warmed-over flavor. Schaich’s reputation has earned her requests from three major publishers to write textbooks on food science, food chemistry, lipid chemistry, and free radicals in foods. 

Karen Schaich’s commitment to IFT is just as total. She joined the Institute in 1972 as a Student Member and was involved in organizing the Student Division, now the IFT Student Association, including writing the position statement for the proposed new organization and contacting students from food science programs nationwide. She was also the first student member of the Executive Committee of the Northeast Section. Now a member of the New York Section, she has served as Council and Alternate Councilor, been NYIFT Liaison to Rutgers University, and served as a member of the Section’s Mentoring, Professional Development, and Scholarship Committees. For the IFT Publications Committee, Schaich developed concepts and wrote style guides for Critical Reviews, Hypothesis Papers, and Forums. Her “Hot Topics for Women” Forum in 1993 led to the creation of IFT’s Task Force on Diversity, and she wrote the position statement which became the basis of IFT’s nondiscrimination policy. Since 1994, she has been instrumental in developing IFT’s Diversity Committee; currently, she serves as that committee’s Past Chair.

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R. PAUL SINGH, Professor, Department of Biological and Agricultural Engineering, University of California at Davis, is lauded as an educator who promotes food engineering. Dr. Singh has mentored more than 60 graduate students and inspired countless undergraduates and colleagues throughout the world. He also is an accomplished researcher in applying engineering principles to food processing. 

Singh is known for using the latest multimedia technology in teaching and for writing quality textbooks. He is a world leader in developing the virtual lecture hall and has created a number of class lectures on the Internet, recently winning two USDA Higher Education Challenge Grants on teaching a food engineering laboratory on the Web. His book, Computer Applications in Food Technology, introduces students to the use of computer spreadsheets for solving food technology problems. Others of his textbooks, such as Introduction to Food Engineering, are well received and continue in popularity. 

In research, Singh has been a pioneer in applying engineering principles and mathematical modeling to food processing. He is known for original, cutting-edge contributions, in particular in the areas of food dehydration, freezing, and frying. His work on frying led to greater understanding of one of the most complex phenomena in food processing and his development of computer-aided simulation of the freezing process, a program now widely used in the freezing industry, had far-reaching results. His professional stature is well recognized, as is evident from his invited participation in program reviews, advisory panels, and consulting assignments throughout the world. Among his many activities, he serves as co-editor of the Journal of Food Process Engineering. In 1997, Singh received the DFISA/FPEI Food Engineering Award, which recognized him as a leading educator and a major authority in food engineering research and technology. 

Singh joined IFT as a student member in 1972 while earning his Ph.D. in agricultural engineering from Michigan State University, East Lansing. He is active in the Food Engineering Division, having served in a number of positions including Member-at-Large and Division Chair. He is incoming Chair of the Education Division and has organized several symposia for presentation at the IFT Annual Meeting, including initiating a plan to standardize food property measurements. Among his numerous awards, Singh received IFT’s 1982 Samuel Cate Prescott Achievement Award and 1988 International Achievement Award.

JOHN G. SURAK, Coordinator of International Programs and Professor of Food Science, Clemson University, Clemson, S.C., was recognized for his contributions to teaching, research, and technology transfer in the field of total quality management worldwide. He has taken a hand’s-on approach to total quality management in the food industry in the United States and, by request, in a number of countries overseas. He is well recognized in the food processing industry as a source of reliable, practical information on total quality management. 

Surak’s research focuses on developing methods to assess the effectiveness of the quality assurance process, and he also conducts research to assess the marketability of U.S. food products in foreign markets. He developed the first teaching-research-cooperative extension program to help South Carolina food processing and packaging companies reduce production costs and increase productivity. This program, now delivered at state, national, and international levels, links total quality management and quality engineering principles with modern food technology practices, and has been expanded to apply the principles of quality management to solve food safety problems. 

Among his extensive accomplishments, he has helped implement quality management systems for companies based on ISO 9000 and statistical process control; provided technical assistance to governments, universities, and private industry throughout the world; and served on the Board of Examiners for the Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award and the editorial boards for Quality Management Journal and Quality Press. For his work, he was named a Fellow of the American Society for Quality and received IFT’s Quality Assurance Division’s Distinguished Service Award. He has received numerous other commendations as well, including the National Partnership for Reinventing Government Award (The Hammer Award) from Vice President Al Gore. 

Surak earned his Ph.D. in food science and veterinary science from the University of Wisconsin in 1974. He joined IFT in 1970 as a student member and has remained a major participant in IFT Division and Committee matters by taking leadership roles as Chair, Chair-Elect, and Alternate Councilor of the Dixie Section, and Chair and Chair-Elect of the Quality Assurance Division. From 1990 to 1996, he gave 29 lectures throughout North America as an IFT Scientific Lecturer. In addition, he has served IFT as Member of the Codex Alimentarius, Expert Panel on Food Safety and Nutrition (Chair 1998–99), and Science Communications Committees, and as IFT Liaison to the American Society for Quality. A prolific writer, he actively works with the IFT Continuing Education Committee helping to develop short courses on Total Quality Management, Statistical Process Control, and ISO 9000.

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PAMELA Y. TOM, Program Representative, Sea Grant Extension Program in the Dept. of Food Science and Technology, University of California at Davis, was honored for her outstanding service to IFT at the local and national levels, and for superior extension work in providing information to industry and consumers in the fields of seafood technology, consumer food marketing, and fruit and vegetable processing. 

Throughout her 26 years as a staff research associate, now program representative, at UC–Davis, Tom has been involved with technology transfer of information in the above-named fields through numerous channels of communication. In a diverse career, she unfailingly responds to anyone who needs her assistance. She collects and analyzes data for seafood research presentations, plans and coordinates workshops and conferences, helps write extension leaflets on seafood processing and food safety issues, and has designed and produced visual aids for extension specialists. She answers questions from the public on matters of seafood processing and food safety, supervises the only seafood technology training video tape lending library in the contiguous United States, and maintains a seafood technology e-mail mailing list and the Seafood Network Information Center Internet Web site (http://seafood.ucdavis.edu) to more widely promote the international exchange of seafood technology. 

An IFT member since 1973, Tom earned a B.S. in home economics and an M.S. in consumer science, both from the University of California at Davis. Her contributions to IFT, and especially to the Northern California Section (NCIFT) and the Seafood Technology Division, are too numerous to adequately describe here. She has served as IFT Chair of the Committee on Sections and Divisions and been a member of the Awards Committee, the ad hoc Committee on Member Needs, and the Annual Meeting Planning Committee. Currently, she is Chair of the 1999–2000 Information Systems Committee. 

Tom has been involved in every facet of NCIFT, serving as Councilor, Alternate Councilor, Chair, Chair-Elect, Membership Secretary, Executive Committee Member-at-Large, Web Editor, and UC-Davis campus reporter of the section newsletter, the Hornblower. She has also held the positions of Secretary, Executive Committee Member-at-Large, and Web Editor in the Seafood Technology Division. In 1992 she was selected NCIFT’s Outstanding Member of the Year; in 1999, she received the Seafood Technology Division’s Certificate of Appreciation.

by BETSY BAIRD
Assistant Editor