EDUCATION NEWS

Cornell professor wins food rheology award
The American Association of Cereal Chemists awarded the G.W. Scott Blair Memorial Award for Excellence in Food Rheology to Cornell Professor M. Anandha “Andy” Rao.

Rao is a professor of food engineering in Cornell’s Department of Food Science and Technology. The award, presented at the association’s annual meeting, recognizes Rao’s research on the rheological properties of fruit juices and purees, pectin gels, and starch dispersions. He received an engraved plaque and a check for $500.

Rao is an associate editor of the Journal of Food Science.

Kansas State gets $1 million for flour mill
Archer Daniels Midland Company donated $1 million to help fund a proposed $5.2 million flour mill at the Manhattan, Kans., campus of Kansas State University.

The mill will be part of the school’s new five-building Grain Science Complex. The Department of Grain Science and Industry is the only one of its kind in the world that offers baccalaureate degrees in milling science and management, baking science and management, and feed science and management. It also offers master’s and doctoral degrees in grain science.

ADM is the lead donor in the flour mill project. Based in Decatur, Ill., the company procures, transports, stores, processes, and markets agricultural products.

University of Massachusetts, Amherst, awards Chancellor’s Medal
The University of Massachusetts, recently bestowed its highest honor to Dr. Gilbert Leveille and Mrs. Carol Leveille.

The couple received the Chancellor’s Medal, which recognizes personal accomplishments, such as professional or intellectual achievement, as well as contributions to society in general and to the University of Massachusetts in particular.

The Leveilles earned the award based on the work they’ve done and the contributions they’ve made on behalf of the school’s food science department, including the Food Science Endowment Campaign, the Fellers Endowment, the Annual Fund, and the Fergus M. Clydesdale Endowed Professorship. Both have also served on the Food Science Advisory Board since its inception.

The award also honors the work the couple has done through-out their careers. Gilbert Leveille is vice president of the Nutritionals Division of McNeil Consumer Healthcare. Carol Leveille worked for the National Institutes of Health and the President’s Biomedical Research Panel in Washington, D.C.

Gilbert Leveille is a Fellow of the Institute of Food Technologists, where he served as president from 1983 to 1984. He is also a member of the American Society for Nutritional Sciences, where he served as president in 1988.

University of Saskatchewan professor honored
In recognition of his teaching and research contributions, Dr. Frank Sosulski of the University of Saskatchewan, Canada, received the designation of Fellow by the American Association of Cereal Chemists.

The award was presented at the association’s annual meeting and acknowledged Sosulski’s contributions in the field of crop diversification and value-added processing. Sosulski, a professor emeritus of plant sciences, has published more than 230 research papers and made 183 conference presentations in collaboration with nearly 100 post-graduate students and visiting scientists.

Sosulski is also actively involved with six journals where he has served as an associate editor or board member, including the Journal of Food Science.

University of Wisconsin professor appointed to food safety task force
Dr. Michael W. Pariza, distinguished professor of food microbiology and toxicology and director of the Food Research Institute at the University of Wisconsin, was recently appointed to the Wisconsin Food Safety Task Force.

The task force focuses on identifying and prioritizing food safety issues, identifying current efforts to improve the nation’s food safety system, connecting with and providing support to identified improvement efforts, and building Wisconsin-specific improvements in areas unique and important for the state’s food business and consumers.

Pariza has been a faculty member at the University of Wisconsin-Madison since 1976. He has conducted pioneering research on conjugated linoleic acid. l

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Register early for the
2001 IFT Annual Meeting & FOOD EXPO®, June 23–27, held this year in New Orleans, Louisiana.
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