National Academy of Sciences
Dr. Todd R. Klaenhammer, William Neal Reynolds Professor of food science and microbiology in the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences, has been elected to the National Academy of Sciences (NAS). Election to membership in the NAS is considered one of the highest honors that can be accorded a U.S. scientist. Klaenhammer is one of 72 U.S. scientists elected to the prestigious academy this year.
His election brings to nine the number of current N.C. State University faculty who are NAS members. The university also has 10 current faculty who are members of NAS’s peer institution, the National Academy of Engineering.
Klaenhammer is director of the Southeast Dairy Foods Research Center at N.C. State and is one of the world’s leading experts on the role of lactic acid bacteria in food fermentation. He is widely cited for his seminal research on the development of a genetic trap that stops the spread of bacteriophages — viruses that kill or destroy cells — in starter cultures used in industrial bioprocessing and dairy food fermentation. This defense mechanism genetically programs dairy-foods starter bacteria to die after infection by a bacteriophage, entombing the infecting phage so that it cannot propagate and spread to other cells in the food.
Klaenhammer joined the N.C. State faculty in 1978 as an assistant professor of food science. He was appointed an associate professor in 1983 and a full professor in 1988. In 1992, he was named William Neal Reynolds Professor of food science and microbiology. In 1993, he was named an N.C. State Alumni Distinguished Graduate Professor and appointed director of the Southeast Dairy Foods Research Center at N.C. State.
He is a member of the American Society for Microbiology, Sigma Xi science honor society, the Institute of Food Technologists, and the American Dairy Science Association, among other professional associations. In recognition of his contributions to research in biotechnology, food science and microbiology, he has been awarded the Institute of Food Technologists’ Research and Development Award and the American Dairy Science Association’s Borden and Pfizer Awards, among other honors.
Klaenhammer received a bachelor’s
degree in microbiology, a master’s degree in food science, and a doctoral
degree, also in food science, from the University
of Minnesota in 1973, 1975 and 1978, respectively.
