Food Science News

Vol. 33 No. 1

Tragic Loss of Graduate Student

Karin Jane Bratka was born on April 8, 1974 in Franklin Ohio. She died in her Raleigh home on June 16, 2004. She is survived by her mother, sister and father. She began working on her Masters degree in food science in the fall of 2003. She was to begin work with Dr. Tim Sanders and Dr. MaryAnne Drake this fall. She received her B.S. in Environmental Science from the Ohio State University and also completed the Culinary Arts Education at Columbus State Community College. After working several years in various aspects of the restaurant business she decided to pursue a career in quality control and research of foods which led her to NCSU Dept. of Food Science. We will mourn her early passing.

Faculty Awards

Dr. Kevin Keener was presented the annual American Egg Board Award. The award recognizes innovative research to egg science technology or marketing which has a bearing on egg or spent hen utilization. The award nominees are selected from the previous year’s published manuscripts in the Journal of Poultry Science and Applied Poultry Research. His publication was entitled "Determination of Cooling Rates and Carbon Dioxide Uptake in Commercially Processed Shell Eggs Using Cryogenic Carbon Dioxide Gas. Congratulations Dr. Keener!

Dr. Todd Klaenhammer was named ADSA Fellow at the ADSA Awards ceremony in St. Louis in July. He was previously presented the ADSA Borden Award by the association. Both awards are in recognition of the research contributions he has made to the dairy industry. In October, Dr. Klaenhammer traveled to Tokyo, Japan where he presented a plenary lecture at the Yakult Institute’s 18^th Symposium on Intestinal Microflora. He directed the annual meeting of the Southeast Dairy Research Center in August in Raleigh.

Congratulations to Dr. MaryAnne Drake for being awarded the 2004 DSM Food Specialist USA, Inc. Award. This special award was presented to Dr. Drake at the ADSA Awards ceremony in St. Louis in July. This is in recognition of her contributions to the food industry.

Dr. Kenneth Swartzel, former head of NC State University's Department of Food Science has been named director of the newly established Food Systems Leadership Institute. This institute, a program of the William Friday Institute for Higher Education Leadership at the University of North Carolina Office of the President, is co-sponsored by the National Association of State Universities and Land-Grant Colleges and supported by a five-year grant from the W.K. Kellogg Foundation. The institute, and its two-year programs, will prepare future land-grant and state university leaders for the emerging challenges within the food system in the context of larger societal issues and strengthen the position of food systems within these universities.Congratulations Dr. Swartzel.

Dr. Donn Ward of Food Science, Dr. Doug Sanders and Dr. Dennis Osborne of Horticultural Science and Ken Ilizey and Sonya Williams, of CALS communication services were co-winners of the American Society of Horticultural Science’s National Extension Materials Award in the video category for their film “Bridging the GAPS from Farm to Table”. Ward, Sanders and Osborne also teamed to publish “Interpreting the New National Fresh Produce Food Safety System in the Journal of the Association of Food and Drug Officials.

Dr. Chris Daubert has accepted the position of Associate Director of the Biomanufacturing Training and Education Center (BTEC) at NC State. He will remain a member of our faculty and contributor to our teaching and research programs but in his spare time will work closely with Dr. Peter Kilpatrick (Director of BTEC) in developing the Center’s educational and research programs as well as its research facilities on Centennial Campus.

Graduation Ceremony December 15, 2004 at the RBC

The departmental graduation ceremonies were held at the University Club in Raleigh. Recipients of Bachelor of Science Degrees in Food Science were Tiffany Brinley, Abbi Heilig, Michael Thatcher and Mary Grey Hutchison. The recipients of Bachelor of Science in Nutrition were Jamie Kelkenberg, Virginia Mosher, Danielle Furci, Shenice Wright and Mary Grey Hutchison. The Master of Science degrees went to Jessica Childs, Grey Allen, Stephenie Drake, Gregory Gharst, Rodney Green, Minoo Mehrotra, Prashant Mudgal, Nicole Souther, Zeynep Tanyel, Aswini Kumar Jasrotia and Tara Russell. Janine Beucler earned her Master of Science in Nutrition. The Doctor of Philosophy degrees were earned by Junhua Zhang, Akpene Banini and Rodolphe Barrangou in Food Science, Nutrition and Functional Genomics respectively. Congratulations to all!

Food Science Rings in the Holidays

The Departmental Christmas Party was on December 9, 2004 at Highland United Methodist Church in Raleigh. It was a wonderful time of fellowship, song and food. Many of the emeriti attended and like the staff and faculty we all enjoyed the piano music, songs, festivities and the dramatic reading of The Grinch Who Stole Christmas read by our own Dr. Chris Daubert. We hope to celebrate next year back in Schaub Hall.

Fall Kickoff

The September 9^th Kickoff picnic was a success at Pullen Park. This picnic kicks off the 2004-2005 academic year. This year’s food was North Carolina style BBQ catered by Ole Time BBQ. Luckily the Hurricanes Charlie, Frances, Gaston and Ivan did not attend with the large group of Food Science faculty, staff and students. They would have been such wet blankets.

Employee Appreciation Day was acknowledged in the department by the personal delivery of candy goody-bags. Our usual Employee Appreciation pancake breakfast will be next year in our renovated building’s kitchen.

Food Science Ice Cream at the Fair

Once again the Food Science Club’s Dairy Bar at the NC State Fair was a huge success. Everybody worked hard scooping, making shakes and wearing the lovely cow suit. A special thanks go to Brad Wright and Jeffrey Greene for co-chairing this effort and donating their time. The proceeds from the Dairy Bar go to funding scholarships and allowing the club to do many activities to benefit the community.

New Grad Students

The following are our new graduates and their advisors: Andrea Krause is working in the lab of Dr. MaryAnne Drake; Joy Simpson is working in Dr. Tim Sanders lab; Katherine Paske is working in Dr. George Catignani’s lab; Prabhat Kumar is working in the lab of Dr. K.P. Sandeep; Tiffany Brinley is working in the lab of Dr. Van Den Truong; Yifat Yaniv and Stelios Viazis are working in Dr. Brian Farkas’ lab; Sandra Wright is working in Dr. Sophia Kathariou’s lab; Erica Bible is working in Dr. Todd Klaenhammer’s lab; Paula Schneider is working in the lab of Dr. Allen Foegeding; Jennifer Rudolth is working in Dr. Jon Allen’s lab; Stephanie Drake is working in Dr. LeeAnn Jaykus’ lab and Mina Kim is working in Dr. Dana Hanson’s lab.

IFT ( Institute of Food Technology) was the week of July 12 - 15, 2004 in Las Vegas, Nevada. The Food Science Department had another good showing in the competitions. The following were winners:

Tri Duong, a Ph.D. student in Genomics working in Dr. Todd Klaenhammer's group won the poster competition in the Biotechnology Division at IFT in Las Vegas. Rodolphe Barrangou, also a Ph.D. student in Genomics working with Dr. Klaenhammer was a co-author on the paper, titled "Functional Analysis of Trehalose Cryoprotection in Lactobacillus acidophilus. The other food science authors were Tri Duong, Michael Miller, Eric Altermann, Raul Cano and Todd Klaenhammer.

Jeff Resch won 1^st place in IFT's Dairy Food Graduate Research Competition. The title of his paper was "Processing parameter effects on the functional properties of modified whey protein ingredients".

The Food Science Club took the award of 2^nd Place Chapter of the Year Competition.

The Mac 'n' Cheese Grabbers, our submission for product development was featured in the July issue of Food Technology. This portable macaroni and cheese product won an award from DMI earlier for the most marketable product.

Janine Beucler of the Drake Lab won 3^rd place in the Dairy Poster Competition.

Stephanie Drake also of the MaryAnne Drake lab took 2^nd place in the Food Microbiology oral competition.

Congratulations to all.

Grey Allen, M.S. placed third in the Emerging Scientists Paper Competition at the 2004 International Association for Food Protection meeting in Phoenix, Arizona in August. Grey's paper was entitled "Detection and identification of histamine-producing bacteria associated with harvesting and primary processing of mahi-mahi and yellowfin tuna in North Carolina". Congratulations.

Caitlin Boon B.S. 2003 was recently awarded one of 10 J. William Fulbright Grants to study in the UK during the upcoming academic year. She will earn a MS degree in food policy from City University of London. She is currently attending the University of Massachusetts.

Dany Doucet, Ph.D. candidate working in the Dr. Allen Foegeding lab won the American Dairy Science Association/International Association of Food Industry Suppliers Graduate fellowship award. These awards were presented in July at the ADSA meeting in St. Louis, MO. This monetary award assists in the training of persons who are highly motivated and who have desirable personal and academic qualities for leadership in the sciences of dairy foods and dairy foods processing.

Two M.E. Franks Fellowships have been awarded to two NCSU Food Science students. Jacob Thompson received an undergraduate fellowship and Mary Carunchia Whetstine received a graduate fellowship. Fellowship selection is based on academic and research achievements with an emphasis on dairy products. Both of these students work in Dr. MaryAnne Drake’s lab on dairy flavor research projects.

Alumni News

Carla Shook Bailey graduated from The Ohio State University with a M.S. in Food Science. She worked at General Mills in Research and Development for 5 years in Minneapolis, MN. She is currently working in R&D for H.J. Heinz in Pittsburgh, PA.

Anne Haas has been working for Advanced Food Products Inc. for six years. She is currently the Senior R&D Manager for the East and West Coast. She is based in Lancaster County, PA and commutes to California.

Dr. and Mrs. Lynn Turner Win 2004 Outstanding Alumni Award

The NCSU Food Science Department is pleased to honor Dr. and Mrs. Lynn Turner as its Outstanding Alumni for 2004. Lynn and Beth have worked as a team for almost thirty years, making exceptional and everlasting contributions to North Carolina State University and especially the Department of Food Science. They have excelled in teaching, research and extension activities.

Lynn is the teacher that all students love and remember. It is no surprise that he has numerous teaching and advising awards. He was awarded the NCSU Alumni Distinguished Undergraduate Professor (2001-2003), named to the NCSU Academy of Outstanding teachers three different times and is a NACTA Teaching Fellow. He was also honored with the 2002 North American Meat Processors Association “Harry L. Rudnick Educators’ Award.”

Beth was a research analyst in the department until her retirement and is now a Senior Food Scientist in private industry. Beth is a dedicated scientist who provided valuable chromatographic and statistical expertise to the department. In addition to her scientific accomplishments, she also coordinated the departmental outreach program, organized an alumni advisory board and oversaw student recruitment and helped institute our NCSU IFT Breakfast.

Where Lynn and Beth excel beyond all others is in their service to the department. They are always willing to assist with every function and activity. Their readiness to donate personal time has been a tremendous asset to students, the department and the university. The Turners have arranged to continue their support of the university by endowing the Eakes-Turner scholarship for Food Science students.

The Department is most honored to name Dr. and Mrs. Lynn Turner as our 2004 Outstanding Alumni. The Turners were also selected to receive one of CALS Outstanding Alumni Awards.

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We are interested in keeping up with our staff, faculty and alumni. If you

have news and would like to have it included in the next newsletter, send an e-mail to annee_moxley@ncsu.edu.

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