EDUCATION NEWS

Roberts wins Young Food Engineer Award
John S. Roberts, Assistant Professor of Food Science at Cornell University, has received the International Young Food Engineer Award at the Ninth International Conference on Engineering and Food in Montpellier, France.

The award is presented to a food engineer who is less than 40 years old and has submitted the best paper dealing with food engineering. Roberts’ paper, “Understanding the heat and mass transfer of hygroscopic porous materials,” investigates prediction models of moisture transfer in biological porous materials.

In his research, Roberts showed that a prediction model based on evaporation of moisture in biologically porous materia to the pore spaces significantly predicted moisture loss in biological porous materials during uniform temperature drying.

Roberts, who also works at the New York Agriculture Experiment Station, is a Professional Member of IFT.

Min wins Innovator of the Year Award David B. Min, Professor in the Dept. of Food Science and Technology at Ohio State University, recently received the 2004 Innovator of the Year Award from the Ohio Agricultural Research and Development Center.

The award recognizes research that Min and Steve St. Martin, Professor in the Dept. of Horticulture and Crops, conducted on soybean and soy foods.

Min received his B.S. degree from Seoul National University, his M.S. degree from University of Minnesota, and his Ph.D. degree from Rutgers University. A Professional Member of IFT, he is an IFT Fellow, was former chair of the Ohio Valley IFT Section, and has served as an IFT Councilor and Scientific Editor of Journal of Food Science. In 1995, he won the Stephen S. Chang Award for Lipid or Flavor Science.

McEowen joins Iowa State Univ. faculty
Roger McEowen has been named Associate Professor of Agricultural Law in the Dept. of Agricultural Education and Studies at Iowa State University’s College of Agriculture.

More than half of McEowen’s responsibilities will involve extension programming. He will also teach agricultural law courses and conduct research. McEowen earned his J.D. degree from Drake University.

Brown named visiting professor at University of Colorado
Ian Brown, Senior Director of Nutrition for National Starch and Chemical Co.’s Natural Polymers Research Group, has been appointed Visiting Professor at the University of Colorado’s School of Medicine.

He will work with researchers at the school’s Health Sciences Center on programs investigating the importance of dietary carbohydrates and understanding their role in the prevention and treatment of obesity.

Brown, who leads the research and development efforts for National Starch’s Nutrition Group, received his B.S. and M.S. degrees in biochemistry from the University of New England, Australia, and his Ph.D. degree in applied bioscience from the University of Hokkaido, Japan, and has earned postgraduate qualifications in business and education.

Aquaculture research facility opens at ISU
A new one-of-a-kind research facility in Iowa opened earlier this year at Iowa State University. The aquaculture research facility, one of the northern most aquaculture facilities in the United States, has a well, wetland sediment removal system, and six identical ponds. The ponds, which are each stocked with 3,000 channel catfish, are 8-ft deep, a depth that will allow them to be usable year-round.

The facility was designed for research and demonstration of various species of fish, including baitfish, bluegill, walleye, and hybrid striped bass. The fish are part of a research effort between the university and the Iowa Dept. of Natural Resources to determine the best management practices for raising catfish for later release into Iowa lakes.