1999 Fellows of the Institute

Ten professional members of the Institute of Food Technologists were honored as Fellow of the Institute at the Opening Event of IFT’s Annual Meeting held July 24, 1999, in Chicago, Ill. 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. Brief autobiographical sketches of the 1999 Fellows are presented below:

CATHARINA Y.W. ANG, Research Chemist at the Food and Drug Administration’s National Center for Toxicological Research, Jefferson, Ark., was nominated for her outstanding contributions to poultry product quality and safety issues, for analytical methodologies of animal drug residues and vitamins in foods, and for promoting international collaborations in food science and technology.

Ang, who received her Ph.D. in food science from Michigan State University, was among the first to conduct research on nutritional implications of microwave-heated foods. She has developed several HPLC methods for the determination of thiamin, riboflavin, B₆ and tocopherols in meat and poultry products. Her research on food safety aspects included the development of chemical and/or biochemical methods to ensure the safety of heat-processed poultry meat and below tolerance levels of antibiotic residues in animal tissues. These studies have provided a valuable means of monitoring the safety of our food supply. Since 1987, she has organized and chaired or co-chaired five symposia related to food safety.

She has also been very active in supporting scientific studies of ethnic foods, including the nutritional and health aspects of Asian food. Recently, she and her colleagues edited a book dedicated to the science and technology of Asian foods. She was a founding member and former president of the Chinese American Food Society; served as a member of the Advisory Committee of the Taiwan Food Industry Development Council; was appointed twice by the United Nations Development Program as a consultant and lecturer to China; and been an invited speaker throughout the U.S., Taiwan, Singapore, Malaysia, and Hungary in addition to China.

Ang joined IFT as a student member in 1969. Besides presenting a number of technical papers at IFT meetings and affiliated national and international conferences, she was a founding member in 1990 of IFT’s International Division, serving as 1995–96 Chair of that Division. She initiated closer interactions between IFT and the Singapore Institute of Food Science and Technology, which later established a formal affiliation with IFT. At the national level, she served as a member of the 1980–81 Annual Meeting Program Events Committee, the 1985–88 International Relations Committee (IRC), and the 1993–96 Constitution and By-Laws Committee. She also served as Vice Chair, Chair, and Past Chair of the 1988–91 IRC. Currently, she is a member of IFT’s Awards Committee. For the Dixie Section, Ang served as a member of the section’s Budget Committee, Councilor, and as Chair of the By-Laws Committee.

--- PAGE BREAK ---

CLARK J. BREKKE, Professor and Department Head of the Department of Food Science and Technology, University of Tennessee, Knoxville, was honored for his dedicated, diverse, effective, sincere, and expert contributions to the field of food science and technology as a teacher, researcher, administrator, mentor, communicator, and active IFT member.

Brekke’s research is directed toward biochemical, microbial, and physical changes that affect the quality of meat products. His research has focused on the functional and physicochemical properties of meat and poultry muscle proteins; new meat processing and ingredient technologies; oxidative deterioration; and quality stability of meat products. Teaching activities directed toward these areas have resulted in such recognition as the 1990 Washington State University R.M. Wade Foundation Award for Excellence in Teaching, a 1990 National Association of Colleges and Teachers of Agriculture Teaching Award of Merit, and the 1986 “Man of the Year” Award from the Northwest Meat Processors Association. His leadership qualities as department head at the University of Tennessee (UT) have led to participation in such programs as the UT Model-Netics Management Program and the UT Institute for Leadership Effectiveness.

His international activities, particularly a linkage between the University of Tennessee and the Instituto Technológico y de Estudios Superiores de Monterrey-Campus Querétaro, Mexico, have given Brekke the opportunity to share his expertise internationally through workshops and conferences, and to provide international exchange opportunities for faculty and students. Although most involved with Mexican institutions, he has also interacted with scientists from Brazil, France, and Italy, thereby affecting science and technology issues worldwide.

His extensive IFT service is most often related to food science education. He has been an active member in four IFT Sections and seven Divisions since he first joined the Institute as a student member in 1967. Among other committee service too numerous to list here, he served the Muscle Foods Division, the Committee on Education, and the Lewis & Clark Section as Chair. From 1989 to 1993, he was an Associate Scientific Editor for the Journal of Food Science. He was Food Science Club Advisor at Washington State University three times between 1978 and 1992; served on three IFT Award Selection Juries (1985–97), and was a Phi Tau Sigma Undergraduate Paper Competition Judge during IFT’s 1988 and 1991 Annual Meetings. Brekke received his Ph.D. in meats/food science from the University of Wisconsin in 1972.

FREDRIC CAPORASO, Professor and Chairman, Department of Food Science and Nutrition, Chapman University, Orange, Calif., was elected for his exemplary service to IFT, outstanding leadership in building a strong university food science department, scholarly achievements in sensory evaluation, and laudable public information efforts on behalf of good science.

Caporaso’s contributions to food science and technology have been impressive. He took a floundering department at a small liberal arts institution and turned it around until today it is a highly rated food science program in the heart of the large Southern California food industry, and a key supplier of trained professionals for the local food industry. The Department of Food Science and Nutrition at Chapman University now has a nearly 100% placement record for B.S. and M.S. graduates and a body of alumni who hold key positions in industry, all due to Caporaso’s efforts.

As a sensory scientist, he has had a pivotal impact on the profession. He designed sensory laboratories and developed successful programs at the University of Nebraska, McGaw Laboratories,and Chapman University. He has published in top peer review journals, completed hundreds of sensory testing contracts for local, national, and international food companies, developed palatable medical food products for hospital patients, and served as an expert witness in sensory testing litigation. His sensory testing program was featured in the Wall Street Journal last November as an example of good science.

His leadership and service have been notable since joining IFT as a student member in 1972. He has been a Food Science Communicator since 1983, resulting in numerous radio, television, and newspaper features educating the public about food science and technology. He has been a Scientific Lecturer, a member of the Sections and Divisions Committee, and last year completed a three-year term as member of IFT’s national Executive Committee. At the local level, Caporaso served as Councilor and Chair of the Southern California Section and as Treasurer and Chair-elect of the Ak-Sar-Ben Section, as well as a member or chair of various committees and conferences. He is an active member of the Sensory Evaluation Division and was a founding member in 1973 of IFT’s Student Association. He also served as 1989-91 Chair of the Food Science Administrators, an organization comprised of university department chairs and heads from the U.S. and Canada. In all of these activities, Caporaso has built a reputation for thoughtful decision making and consistent advocacy for IFT. He earned his Ph.D. in food science from Pennsylvania State University in 1975.

--- PAGE BREAK ---

MANJEET S. CHINNAN, Professor of Food Science and Technology, Center for Food Safety and Quality Enhancement, University of Georgia, Griffin, is recognized for significant contributions to food engineering. His research involves using mathematical and computer modeling approaches in optimization of food processes and development of food products.

Chinnan’s research has focused on drying and postharvest operations of peanuts; processing and use of cowpeas; energy audits and energy conservation strategies in food processing plants; modified atmosphere packaging of horticultural commodities using synthetic films; rheological properties of foods; lye and steam-peeling mechanisms; mass diffusion rates during drying and deep-fat frying operations; development and characterization of edible films; and the use of edible films for horticultural commodities such as tomatoes, oxygen-sensitive foods such as nuts, reduction of fat absorption during deep-fat frying, and recovery/regeneration of abused frying oils and fats.

His food engineering background and his leadership in collaborating with scientists in developing countries led to his organizing a USAID Peanut Collaborative Research Support Program project in the Caribbean, in which he helped design equipment that was easy to make locally and helped sustain appropriate postharvest handling systems for small farmers in the area. Improved drying systems in Belize and Jamaica, for example, led to the reduction of the risk of aflatoxin contamination in peanuts and corn, a significant contribution to food safety and public health in the Caribbean. He continues to foster the international exchange of ideas in food technology, particularly in peanut processing, in Asia and Africa as well as the Caribbean.

Chinnan has served as major professor to twelve graduate students, the majority of whom have returned to their native countries where they hold high-level positions. Three of these, from Thailand, Korea, and Taiwan, received training from him in the area of computer modeling and process optimization which they now teach to their own food engineering students. His teaching and research has affected food development worldwide in this way, in addition to which he has been invited to lecture and/or collaborate with scientists in many countries, and to organize and chair numerous international symposia and workshops.

An IFT member since 1976, Chinnan has held a number of positions, including Chair, in the Dixie Section and the Food Engineering Division of IFT. Other IFT activities have included serving as Member-at-Large of the Executive Committee of IFT’s Food Packaging Division and Chair of the General Arrangements Committee for the 1998 IFT Annual Meeting in Atlanta. Currently, he serves the Dixie Section as Alternate Councilor. He received his Ph.D. in biological and agricultural engineering from North Carolina State University in 1976.

MICHAEL P. DOYLE, Director, Center for Food Safety and Quality Enhancement, University of Georgia, Griffin, is recognized internationally for his major role in enhancing the safety of the food supply through his innovative research and outreach contributions.

Doyle is considered the leading food safety microbiologist in the U.S., perhaps the world. He has dedicated his career to studying pathogens in food safety and distributing this information to all segments of the food industry, from producer to food processor to consumer. Among his several projects, he was the first food microbiologist to study E. coli O157:H7. His research group determined the heat treatments needed to kill the organism in ground beef, developed a chicken model to study colonization of the bacterium, and produced a monoclonal antibody to outer membrane proteins, using this antibody to develop immunoassays for more rapid detection of E. coli O157:H7. This monoclonal antibody is presently used as the principal reagent in a commercial kit used to detect this pathogen in foods.

In 1991, Doyle moved his research to the University of Georgia, where he established and heads the Center for Food Safety and Quality Enhancement. Now one of the foremost organizations in the U.S. addressing microbiological food safety issues, the Center actively participates at the request of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in investigating foodborne outbreaks across the United States. It was instrumental in solving the 1993 outbreak of contaminated ground beef on the West Coast.

Internationally, he has participated in countless meetings organized by the World Health Organization and others. He helped organize, with scientists at the University of Lagos College of Medicine, a study of fermented weanling foods in Nigeria, designed to identify unsafe conditions used to prepare the foods most frequently fed children at the time of weaning. Since 1989 he has been a member of the International Commission on Microbiological Specifications for Foods, and has served as a longtime scientific advisor for the International Life Sciences Institute—North America. He is frequently interviewed on food safety issues and is responsible for one of the most frequently used reference books on foodborne pathogens, Foodborne Bacterial Pathogens.

Doyle has received numerous awards for his contributions to public health. Among these are the 1987 IFT Samuel Cate Prescott Award and the 1996 IFT Nicholas Appert Award. His service to IFT since 1973 when he joined as a student member has also been extensive. Currently, he serves as an IFT Science Communicator. He received his Ph.D. in food microbiology from the University of Wisconsin in 1977.

--- PAGE BREAK ---

PEGGY MATTHEWS FOEGEDING, Professor of Food Science at North Carolina State University, Raleigh, is recognized as an exceptional teacher and researcher, a caring mentor, and a national leader in food safety—a role model for professionals pursuing careers in food science and technology.

Foegeding’s research addresses food processing controls to enhance food safety and shelf stability. She is an authority on the control of Listeria monocytogenes in liquid whole egg by pasteurization and aseptic packaging, and was one of the first scientists to document the heat resistance of the thermoacidophilic sporeformer, Alicyclobacillus acidoterrestris, in aseptically processed fruit juices. Students under her direction have developed antibodies to bacterial spores, an achievement which has far-reaching applications to food commodities and thermal processing.

Her commitment to teaching is apparent in her having been awarded IFT’s 1994 William V. Cruess Award. She inspires her students to extend themselves to excel in the classroom, the research laboratory, and broadly in their professional activities. North Carolina State University has presented her with the 1989 Sigma Xi Research Award, the Certificate for Distinguished Scholarly Achievement (1989), and the NCSU Food Science Club Outstanding Instructor Award (1994). In 1994 she was elected a Fellow of the Academy of Microbiologists.

She has served on the U.S. Dept. of Agriculture Competitive Grants Panel for the National Research Initiative in Food Safety, chairing the panel in 1994. This committee provides significant guidance to the funding direction of food safety research across the U.S. She also co-chaired two task forces convened by the Council for Agricultural Science and Technology (CAST), whose mission is to identify food and fiber, environmental, and other agricultural issues and to interpret related scientific research information for use in public policy decision making.

Foegeding joined IFT as a Student Member in 1975. Her committee service includes Sections and Divisions, Nominations and Elections, Long-Range Planning; International Relations; Scientific Lecturer; Regional Communicator; Advisor to the Student Association; Chair and Councilor of the Carolina-Virginia Section; and several awards juries and paper competitions. For the Microbiology Division, she served as Secretary/Treasurer, a member of the Division’s Executive Committee, and Chair of the Division’s 1986 Ordal-Ayers Awards Committee. She received her Ph.D. in food science from the University of Minnesota in 1982.

RUTH M. PATRICK, State Extension Nutrition, Food Safety and Food Preservation Specialist, Louisiana State University Agricultural Center, Baton Rouge; and Chief, Nutrition Education Program, Pennington Biomedical Research Center, is honored for outstanding and exceptional contributions to the development of nutrition, food science, and food safety education programs, and for innovative communication of current research findings that improve diet and health.

Few people in the course of their career will have the beneficial impact on the public and fellow professionals that Patrick has, particularly in the area of diet, nutrition, and health. She provides leadership, training, and support for adult nutrition, food safety, and food preservation programs in all 64 parishes (counties) in Louisiana. An excellent communicator, teacher, and writer, she translates and distributes current technical information so that the average person can understand and use it in a practical way. The health and well-being of a large number of Louisiana’s residents have been improved through her bulletins, fact sheets, video tapes, weekly news articles, radio broadcasts, public presentations, seminars and workshops, and a weekly live nutrition segment on the local TV morning or evening news.

--- PAGE BREAK ---

She is responsible for many innovative seminars, workshops, and training programs, such as Louisiana’s Safe Food Handler “train-the-trainer” program designed for food handlers at festivals, fairs, or catered events, or the American Heart Food Festival, a national nutrition education program to help people become more aware of the relationships of diet and heart disease, for which she was recognized in 1991 with the American Heart Association’s Silver Torch Award.

Her influence is not limited to Louisiana. Her appointment to Pennington has provided even wider opportunities to share her expertise nationally and internationally. She was one of only three international speakers invited to make presentations at the 11^th Argentine Nutrition Congress in 1993, and one of two team members to assist in establishing a new food science department at Makerere State University, Uganda, in 1989.

For these efforts, and others, she has received numerous awards, including IFT’s 1998 Elizabeth Fleming Stier Award for unselfish dedication and pursuit of humanitarian ideals. An enthusiastic ambassador for IFT, which she joined as a student member in 1968, she helped organize the Extension and Nutrition Divisions and has served as Chair or Councilor of those and of the Gulf Coast Section. She assisted with short courses as a member of the Continuing Education Committee and helped develop IFT’s Strategic Plan. Currently, she serves as a member of the IFT Research Committee, a Councilor, and a Food Science Communicator. She received her Ph.D. in food science from Louisiana State University in 1971.

RONALD H. SCHMIDT, Professor of Food Science and Human Nutrition, University of Florida, Gainesville, is honored as an example of a food scientist with exemplary teaching talent coupled with a keen ability to communicate the goals of food science to the public; and for his extensive and ongoing service to IFT at all levels.

In his research program, Schmidt clarified the role of starter microorganism peptidases in forming and reducing bitter peptides in cheese; characterized the effects of salts and reducing agents on the gelation of whey protein and whey protein/oilseed protein blends; developed chromatographic techniques for determining acetaldehyde in yogurt products and cultures; characterized the role of threonine aldolase in acetaldehyde synthesis in mixed strain yogurt cultures; and established the mechanism for stimulating growth of Listeria monocytogenes in milk preincubated with Pseudomonas species. He is well known across the industry, particularly in the field of dairy products.

As a teacher, he has taught courses in food analysis, food chemistry, food industry, food safety and sanitation, HACCP, food fermentations, and lipids and food flavors; has lectured in numerous other courses; and has served as faculty advisor to the Food Science Club. He was nominated three times for the University of Florida College of Agriculture Teacher of the Year; received the university’s Professorial Excellence Program Award in 1998, and received the 1998 International Association of Milk, Food and Environmental Sanitarians 1998 Educator Award. Governmental experience includes regional coordination of the Grade A Interstate Milk Shippers and food service sanitation inspection programs, and participation in the interstate travel sanitation program. Since 1992, he has been the academic representative to the 3-A Sanitary Standards Committee, where he assists in developing food equipment construction and fabrication standards.

Schmidt, who joined IFT as a student member in 1963, initiated and participated in development of the Florida Section’s IFT Suppliers’ Night and the South Florida Subsection. He was Faculty Advisor to the University of Florida’s Food Science & Human Nutrition Club from 1975 to 1978 and again in 1986, and has served as Coach of IFT’s College Bowl team for the last two years. He is a Food Science Communicator, has served as Chair of IFT’s Committee on Membership and Professional Affairs (1992–93), Committee on Sections and Divisions (1995–96), and the Florida Section (1992–93). At all levels of IFT, Schmidt has served on committees too numerous to list here. He received his Ph.D. in food science and nutrition from the University of Minnesota in 1974.

--- PAGE BREAK ---

ROBERT L. SHEWFELT, Professor of Food Science and Technology, University of Georgia, Athens, is honored as a leader in the study of postharvest physiology of fresh fruits and vegetables, a teacher actively involved with his students, and an organizer who has enhanced the profession of food science and technology with his vision and assertiveness.

Shewfelt is known as a major researcher in postharvest fruit and vegetable physiology as well as fruit and vegetable chemistry and flavor. He has authored or co-authored 17 book chapters and more than 100 technical and scientific papers on the subject, organized a number of professional conferences, and has been an invited speaker to conferences throughout the United States. He is frequently cited as an expert in the area of produce processing.

An active IFT member, which he joined in 1975 as a Student Member, Shewfelt has served the Dixie Section and the Fruit and Vegetable Division in a number of roles, including Dixie Section Chair (1990–91) and Fruit & Vegetable Division Chair (1997–98). Currently, he serves as Dixie Section Councilor. He is also a member of the Sensory Evaluation Division. At the national level, he has been a member of the Annual Meeting Program Committee (Chair, 1987 Meeting); National Academy of Science Liaison Committee (1988–91); Scientific Lectureship Committee (1991–92); and the Research Committee (1992-96; Chair 1994–95). He also served as Judge of the 1993 Undergraduate Research Competition and as a member of the 1988–89 George F. Stewart International Paper Competition Award Jury. He has been a resource contact for fruits and vegetables in IFT’s Public Information Program from 1988 to the present time.

Considered an outstanding teacher and an assertive advocate for the improvement of the curriculum and the profession, Shewfelt has been honored with several recognition awards for his teaching efforts. In 1998, he received both the University of Georgia’s Graduate Professor of the Year Award and Undergraduate Professor of the Year Award. He also received Georgia’s Gamma Sigma Delta Junior Faculty Award for Research (1991); the Professional Scientist Award of the Food Science and Nutrition Section, Southern Association of Agricultural Scientists; and was an invited Visiting Fellow to the Faculty of Horticulture of the University of Western Australia (1993). Shewfelt earned his Ph.D. in food Science from the University of Massachusetts in 1982.

ERIK VON SYDOW, Chairman of Nestlé R&D Center, Bjuv AB, Sweden, was cited as a world-renowned food chemist, university professor, researcher and administrator; a skilled director of food and pharmaceutical research; Past President of the International Union of Food Science and Technology (IUFoST); and an outstanding international leader in the profession of food technology.

Von Sydow, who earned his bachelor’s and two doctorates in chemistry from the University of Uppsala, Sweden, is internationally recognized as a strong, innovative food scientist. He has given by invitation more than 100 technical and scientific papers throughout Europe and North America, and his work on solid state structures of lipids and his research on aromas, especially with respect to establishing correlations between instrumental and sensory data, is still cited. He is considered an outstanding teacher as well, having directed the degree programs of more than 20 Ph.D. or D.Sc. recipients at the University of Uppsala, Sweden, and the Chalmers Institute of Technology, Göteborg, Sweden.

At age 28, he became Director of SIK, the Swedish Institute for Food and Biotechnology. There, he completely reorganized the Institute, started a food science program, built up a large number of international liaisons, and initiated a master’s program jointly with the Chalmers Institute of Technology. After 20 years at SIK, he joined Pharmacia AB (now Pharmacia & Upjohn) in Uppsala as R&D Vice President. Three years later, he became Director of Nordreco, the Scandanavian R&D unit of the Nestlé Company and, after ten years, Senior Scientific Advisor at Nestlé’s corporate headquarters in Switzerland. At Nestlé, he strengthened international programs and contacts for the entire organization.

Among his many honors, von Sydow was elected to the Royal Swedish Academy of Engineering Sciences (1971), presented the Underwood-Prescott Memorial Award by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (1970); and appointed a full professor by the Swedish Government (1962). He has often participated in selections committees for professorships in Sweden, Norway, and Finland, and served many times as an advisor to Swedish government agencies. He served as Vice Chair and Chair of the Biotechnology Section of the Swedish Royal Academy of Engineering Sciences and 1987–91 President of IUFoST. An IFT member since 1966, he has made immeasurable contributions to both IUFoST and IFT.