IFT NEWS
And the Nominees are . . .
This year’s nominees for president-elect are Marianne H. Gillette and Mark R. McLellan. The Tellers Committee tabulated the ballots and certified the nominees for president-elect and membership representatives to the Executive Committee. This year’s nomination process had a 75 percent return, slightly down from last year’s 77 percent return. This year marked the first time councilors could cast their ballots electronically.
President-Elect Nominee Gillette joined IFT in 1978. She attended the University of California at Davis, where she earned a B.S. and an M.S. in nutrition. She later earned an M.B.A. in marketing from the University of Baltimore. She has worked at McCormick & Co. since 1977.
Gillette has served as chairman of the Committee on Sections and Divisions and the Task Force on the Gold Report. She has also served as a member or representative on a number of other committees and task forces, including the Executive Committee, the Task Force on Governance, the Task Force on Strategic Planning, the Exhibitor Advisory Subcommittee, and the Science Communications Committee. She was the Executive Committee Liaison to the Long-Range Planning Subcommittee, as well as an IFT Scientific Lecturer. As a member of the Maryland Section, Gillette also served as chair and councilor for the section and the Sensory Evaluation Division. She was also a Philadelphia Section Scientific Lecturer.
President-Elect Nominee McLellan joined IFT in 1976. He earned a B.S. in food science at the University of Massachusettes, and later attended Michigan State University, where he earned a M.S. and a doctorate degree in the same field. McLellan is the director of the Institute of Food Science & Engineering at Texas A&M. He was also director of the Institute of Food Science at Cornell University, before he joined Texas A&M.
McLellan has served on numerous committees, including the IFT Executive Committee, the Scientific Lectureship Committee, the ad hoc Committee on Information/Communication Systems, the Information Systems Subcommittee, and the ad hoc Committee on Publications. He has also been a Food Science Communicator, as well as an IFT Scientific Lecturer.
McLellan is a member of the Western New York section. His section and division activities include the Food Engineering Division Executive Committee, the Fruit & Vegetable Division Executive Committee, where he served as chair and chair-elect, and the Western NY Section, where he also served as chair and chair-elect. He was also chairman of the Western NY Food Industry Expo and the Texas Section Food Industry Expo.
The nominees for membership representatives to the Executive Committee are Robert P. Bates, Mary Ellen Camire, Pamela Tom, and Herbert Weinstein.
Linda L. Kragt and Ronald H. Schmidt were elected as councilor representatives to the Executive Committee. Barbara Blakistone, Bruce M. Chassy, and Daniel Y.C. Fung were elected as members of the Committee on Nominations and Elections.
Zinnen lands position with House Agriculture Committee
The Institute of Food Technologists’ 2000-01 Congressional Science Fellow, Thomas M. Zinnen, Ph.D., accepted a position with the majority office of the U.S. House of Representatives Committee on Agriculture.
Zinnen will work on issues related to biotechnology and other science and technology issues, including pesticides. He officially joined the committee staff on Oct. 30.
Zinnen began his fellowship in September with a two-week orientation on Capitol Hill conducted by the American Association for the Advancement of Science, the coordinating organization for the Congressional Science Fellowship program. He will hold his position with the committee until August 31, 2001, when his one-year fellowship ends.
Zinnen received his doctorate in plant pathology from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. He is currently on leave from the University of Wisconsin/Extension where he works as a biotechnology education specialist for the UW Biotechnology Center.
Sponsored by IFT, the Congressional Science Fellowship provides an IFT member with the opportunity to share the scientific perspective on food and agricultural issues while learning about the legislative process and policy arena. IFT is currently accepting applications for the 2001-2002 fellowship. The deadline is Jan. 26.
IFT works with Boy Scouts
The Career Guidance Committee and the Boy Scouts of America have developed a Food Science Merit Badge and are looking for IFTers to help.
The merit badge program is part of the advancement plan of the Boy Scouts. It has guided the interests and energies of the organization for almost 90 years.
A Scout earns a merit badge when he has completed the requirements for one of more than one hundred subjects in a wide variety of art, craft, hobby, sport, profession, agribusiness, service, or self-improvement areas. The badge proclaims that the Scout has certain knowledge about the subject and has completed certain tasks.
Due to the food industry’s shift in emphasis from farm and ranch production of basic foods to factory production of processed and prepared foods in the latter part of the 20th century, the Career Guidance Committee saw the need for a badge concentrating on what the food industry is today and took on a project to develop a Food Science Merit Badge.
A subcommittee was established to handle development of the badge and seek its approval by the national Scouting organization. The subcommittee is looking for IFT’ers with Scouting experience to help. They would especially like Scouts who have been active with the Boy Scouts for three or more years. Present or former merit badge counselors are especially preferred.
Most of the work of the subcommittee will be done through correspondence, although there may be a meeting at the Annual Meeting in New Orleans. Contact Norman Bednarcyk via email (preferred): [email protected]; or phone: 804-975-4259.
Call for New Products & Technologies Papers—Document 2290
The New Products & Technologies Subcommittee seeks qualifying papers for presentation at the IFT Annual Meeting in New Orleans, La., in June 2001. Submissions must be received by January 19, 2001.
This forum is unique in that it seeks commercial developments, not research papers. The developments must be less than two years since introduction, they must be novel and useful, and the presentation must emphasize the technological attributes of the introduction. In the past, ingredient papers have dominated in these sessions, but the subcommittee believes there are more analytical, process, and packaging developments which would also qualify.
Guidelines and submission forms may be obtained from IFT’s Web site, www.ift.org, or by requesting Document 2290 from the IFT e-XPRESS faxback service at 800-234-0270 (650-556-9176 outside the U.S. or Canada), or by telephoning IFT’s offices at 312-782-8424.
For more information, contact Subcommittee Chair Susan Tomassetti at 502-636-3712 ext. 146, or e-mail her at [email protected].
Call for Forums—Document 2285
It’s time to start planning for forum presentations at IFT’s 2001 Annual Meeting in New Orleans, La., next June. What qualifies as a forum?
Forums are not symposia. Forums consist of brief introductory remarks by three to five experts on a specified topic from different organizations, followed by discussion and audience participation. They give an opportunity to address late-breaking issues.
Because of this format, several submission deadlines are offered as follows:
• If the forum is to be listed in the preliminary mailer and program, the application form must be received by January 19, 2001.
• If received later, but before March 1, the forum will be listed in the program directory.
• After March 1, but before May 1, forums cannot be listed in the program directory, but can only be advertised at the meeting itself.
All forums are subject to review and acceptance by the Forums Subcommittee of the Annual Meeting Committee. Application forms may be obtained through the IFT Web site, www.ift.org, or by requesting Document 2285 from the IFT e-XPRESS faxback service at 800-234-0270 (650-556-9176 outside the U.S. or Canada), or by telephoning IFT’s offices at 312-782-8424.
Submit Your Fellows Nominations Now
In the seemingly complex world of IFT councils, committees, awards, honors, staff, officers, and volunteers, the accolade “Fellow” might appear to be an anomaly. But the rank of IFT Fellow is not granted to just anyone’s “good buddy.” Nor is the designation “Fellow” conferred on an IFT member as a reward for tireless service as Section program chair or secretary.
Indeed no!
Although as many as 16 IFT Professional Members might receive the treasured certificate, lapel pin, and ribbon in June 2001, the designation Fellow may be the most difficult of all IFT honors to receive.
First, to become a Fellow, a person must be nominated by an IFT member. The nominator must complete a four-page form describing the candidate’s qualifications and invite eight Fellows to endorse the candidate. Then, a jury of nine more Fellows reviews the information and votes on the basis of the nominee’s lifetime contribution to the food community. Those nominees receiving the most votes are elected Fellows.
Is the distinction worth the challenge? You’d better believe it! This gauntlet was established to ensure that only the best of our members may call themselves Fellow and wear the coveted pin and ribbon.
Several committees recently invested months discussing and debating the criteria and election process to try to ensure objectivity. Every Professional Member is eligible as long as he or she has been a member of IFT for 15 years. There are no required numbers of published papers, patents, meetings organized, conferences chaired, teaching awards received, or years of IFT committee service. Rather, Fellows are elected on the basis of the impact their careers have had on the science and technology of food.
Every IFT member who has not been living on the far side of our moon for the past three years is cognizant of the concern surrounding the election of Fellows over the past five years. Be assured that every Fellow elected during that period richly deserved the honor. It was just that some equally deserving folks might not have made the trek to the stage during the Annual Meeting Opening Event. This paucity was overtly noted with alarm by some of our senior Fellows. Their consensus initiatives have been captured in the newly revised criteria for Fellow election.
Whether your favorite is an industry executive, an inventor, a consultant, a government regulator, or a university researcher, a fair and impartial election process is assured.
So I urge you to scurry about to identify the best among your colleagues and nominate one—or more. To paraphrase Oscar Hammerstein II’s wonderful phrases from Allegro, “IFT wants everyone who deserves to be a Fellow to become a Fellow.”
You can obtain the nomination instructions and forms by visiting IFT’s Web site (www.ift.org, under Education and Careers); using the IFT E-XPRESS fax-back service at any time by dialing 800-234-0270 in the U.S. and Canada or 650-556-9176 elsewhere and requesting document 3510; or contacting Patti Pagliuco at the Institute of Food Technologists, 221 N. LaSalle St., Suite 300, Chicago, IL 60601 (e-mail [email protected]). Deadline for receipt of nominations is February 1, 2001.
Invest a few moments now to complete and submit the forms. You will bask in the reflected glory.
—Aaron L. Brody, Chair, IFT Fellows Affairs Committee
Fast Track . . . YOUR NEXT JFS MANUSCRIPT SUBMISSION!
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An increasing number of journal authors wish we could speed up the review and publishing process for JFS. The Internet can aid this process. It can speed up peer-reviewing, and can serve as a tool for capturing manuscript data and files for later production use. After much research, we’ve selected ScholarOne, Inc. as our technology partner, and are pleased to offer our authors and editors their outstanding product, “Manuscript Central.” . . . a secure, Web-based system for managing every-day reviewing tasks on the ‘Net—from submission and review to correspondence, tracking, and reporting, it’s an Editorial Office’s virtual workspace on the Web. Protected by user ID and password, but accessible from any computer with an Internet connection and Web browser, the system aids communication and access to manuscripts for editors, reviewers, and other editorial team members.
▀ IFT’s Manuscript Central site is configured to fit the workflow of the journal, and is fully created, hosted, and supported by ScholarOne and IFT. ScholarOne provides complete assistance: from initial site design and user training sessions to live support for users.
▀ JFS authors and reviewers are our most valuable assets, so ensuring a smooth transition is IFT’s top priority. We invite any interested author—past, present, and future—to visit IFT’s “Manuscript Central” <http://ift.manuscriptcentral.com> and check it out.
by SARA LANGEN KAROTTKI
Assistant Editor