EDUCATION NEWS

UC–Davis receives award for dairy food research and education facility
The Department of Food Science & Technology at the University of California, Davis, has been awarded $100,000 from the university’s College of Agricultural & Environmental Sciences and $150,000 from the Division of Agricultural and Natural Resources to construct a Dairy Food Research and Education Facility within the department’s existing food processing laboratory.

This award, which also included a commitment of $100,000 in Shields Chair Endowment Funds, was based on a proposal submitted to the College and the Division by the Peter J.Shields Chair in Dairy Food Science, John Krochta. Thus, a total of $350,000 has been committed to construct and begin to equip the facility. Charlie Shoemaker, Department Chair, and Tu Jarvis, Human Sciences Divisional Associate Dean, provided critical encouragement and support for the proposal, leading to the award.

The Food Science and Technology Department envisions an approximately 1,500-sq-ft facility, to include the following areas:
• raw milk receiving, separation, homogenization and pasteurization;

• cheese production;

• cheese cultures;

• frozen dairy dessert production, butter production, new concept development, etc.

The updated facility will use existing departmental equipment and new dairy foods processing equipment. An Advisory Committee is being appointed to provide input during the planning and construction phases. When completed, the facility will enhance the ability of the department to work with the dairy and food industries in pilot scale processing and broaden dairy foods research and the campus classroom and outreach activities.

For more information, contact Shields Professor John Krochta, Department of Food Science & Technology, University of California,One Shields Ave., Davis, CA 95616-8598 (phone: 530-752-2164; fax: 530-752-4759; E-mail: [email protected]).

Heldman joins Rutgers food science faculty
Dennis R. Heldman has accepted an appointment as Professor of Food Process Engineering in the Department of Food Science at Rutgers University, New Brunswick, N.J. The appointment, effective August 1, 1999, will include teaching graduate and graduate courses, and limited involvement in research and outreach programs. Heldman is also active in consulting activities and publication of technical information in food engineering.

He retired In October 1998 as Professor Emeritus from the University of Missouri-Columbia. While there, between 1992 and 1998, he held positions as Unit Leader for Food Science and Engineering; Director of the Office of Value-Added Agriculture Outreach; Leader of the F21C Foods, Feeds and Products Research Cluster; and Professor of Food Process Engineering. Prior to 1992, he was affiliated with the Weinberg Consulting Group, the National Food Processors Association, Campbell Soup Company, and Michigan State University.

Within IFT, Heldman has been active on numerous committees and task forces. He has been a member of the Food Engineering Division since it was formed in 1976, and will be Division Chair during its 25th Anniversary in 2001. He served on the IFT Executive Committee from 1990 to 1993, and as Chair of the St. Louis Section (1995-96). Recently, he has been Chair of the Fellows Affairs Committee, and is currently serving on the Publications and Annual Meeting Committees. Heldman was elected an IFT Fellow in 1981.

Thomas food science/family consumer sciences scholarship established at NCSU
The Department of Food Science at North Carolina State University (NCSU), Raleigh, has established the Frank Bancroft and Rachel Kirby (Kinlaw) Thomas Food Science and Family and Consumer Sciences Scholarship. This endowment will support student scholarships in honor of Frank and Rachel Thomas, who served a combined 75 years on the NCSU faculty at North Carolina State.

Scholarships awarded through this endowment will support NCSU students based on academic merit and financial needs in pursuit of their undergraduate degrees in food science or family and consumer sciences. Emphasis will be given to production, distribution, and use of aquatic foods as well as applied research efforts in seafood technology. The Thomas endowment will be housed in the North Carolina Cooperative Extension Service Foundation within the North Carolina Agricultural Foundation.

For information on contributing to this endowment, contact Dave Green at 252-726-7341 (E-mail: [email protected]) or Chris Cammarene-Wessel at 919-515-7678 (E-mail: [email protected]).

Awards for excellence at North Carolina State . . .
John Rushing, North Carolina State University (NCSU) Cooperative Extension, Raleigh, has received the State Award for International Enhancement presented by Epsilon Sigma Phi, the national honorary extension fraternity. The award was presented to Rushing at the Extension Annual Conference held in mid-December 1999. A scholarship has also been given in Rushing’s name by the Southeastern Food Processors Association.

Harold E. Swaisgood, Professor of Food Science, won the Alexander Quarles Holladay Medal from the NCSU Board of Trustees for career excellence. This award, the highest given by NCSU, is given to faculty members who have made outstanding contributions to the University through achievement in research, teaching, or other service.

E. Allen Foegeding received the Fellow Award of the Agricultural and Food Chemistry Division of the American Chemical Society. The award, established in 1988, recognizes those members of the Division who have contributed to the advancement of agricultural and food chemistry through their research and writing of book chapters, books, and other monographs that further the field over a sustained period of time.

Other NCSU faculty members so honored include Lynn Turner, who received an award for Outstanding Teaching and Outstanding Faculty Advisor from the NCSU Alumni Association; Henry Fleming, who won the Food Safety Award from the U.S. Department of Agriculture; Todd Klaenhammer, who received an Educational Materials Certificate of Excellence in Outstanding Agronomic Educational Publication; and Donn Ward, who received the Group Honor Award for Excellence and the award for Outstanding Leadership as National Coordinator of the Hazard Analysis Critical Control Point Training Program from the U.S. Department of Agriculture Cooperative State Research, Education, and Extension Service.

Podgurski hired for dairy ingredient applications program at Cal Poly
The Dairy Ingredients Applications Laboratory at California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo, has hired Cal Poly graduate Carolyn C. Podgurski to serve as dairy ingredient applications specialist. In this role, Podgurski will conduct applied research with nonfat dry milk and other dairy-based ingredients and work on cooperative ventures with the food manufacturing industry on projects designed to facilitate the use of milk and milk products in food. She will also reinforce Cal Poly’s academic programs in dairy foods and provide hands-on student training opportunities.

Podgurski has more than ten years of food formulation experience. Before joining Cal Poly, she was Director of Nutrition Services at Massena Memorial Hospital in Massena, N.Y. She received her bachelor’s degree in dietetics and food administration from Cal Poly in 1984, and is working on her master’s of food science and nutrition at Chapman University, Orange, Calif.