To commemorate its centennial, Cornell's Department of Food Science will hold a symposium, "Building on a Century of Excellence: Food Science at Cornell University," Oct. 13-15, featuring many distinguished food science experts. The symposium is free and open to the public.
During the past 100 years, Cornell's department -- a leader in the field -- consistently has focused on improving food safety, from refining the pasteurization process to developing modern, sanitary food-handling practices. Research at Cornell improved the shelf life of milk, and Cornell food science professors, Arthur C. Dahlberg and Frank V. Kosikowski, developed the hot-pack process of making cream cheese. This process stabilized cream cheese, keeping it from spoiling.
"The food science department's greatest achievement is probably the export of graduate students, who became faculty members at other great institutions," said David K. Bandler, Cornell professor emeritus of food science.
The centennial symposium opens Oct. 13 at noon in 204 Stocking Hall with poster presentations. At 3 p.m. there will be an overview of the past century's work and achievements in food science at Cornell, discussed by Bandler.
On Oct. 14 at 9 a.m. in the David L. Call Alumni Auditorium of Kennedy Hall, the symposium's morning session focuses on "Food Science in the 21st Century: Vision for the Future," and features commentary from Susan A. Henry, dean of Cornell's College of Agriculture and Life Sciences, and New York State Commissioner of Agriculture and Markets Nathan Rudgers. Additionally "Food Science and the World Food Situation" will be discussed by Per Pinstrup-Anderson, director general of the International Food Policy Research Institute. "The Current State of the Art in Food Science" will be addressed by Pat Fox, professor emeritus of University College in Cork, Ireland, and David M. Barbano, Cornell professor of food science.
The Oct. 14 afternoon session, beginning at 2:40 p.m., features "Improving the Quality and Safety of Food," with Elsa A. Morano, undersecretary for food safety with the U.S. Department of Agriculture, and three Cornell researchers: Robert B. Gravani, professor of food science; Martin Wiedmann, assistant professor of food science; and Carl Batt, the Liberty Hyde Bailey Professor of food science.
On Oct. 15 at 9 a.m. in Call Auditorium, the symposium's final session focuses on "Delivering the Benefits of the Life Science Revolution to the Consumer" and features discussions by Rui Hai Liu, Cornell assistant professor of food science; J. Bruce German, University of California-Davis; John Finley of Kraft Inc.; Mary Schmidl, University of Minnesota; and Joseph Hotchkiss, chair of Cornell's Department of Food Science.
Over the past century, Cornell's food science department has had several name changes. In 1902 the Department of Dairy Industry was created when work in animal industry was divided into animal husbandry, poultry husbandry and dairy industry, according to Bandler, the department's historian.
From 1906 to 1923, the department was housed on campus in East Roberts Hall, one of the first units constructed with state funds at the university's College of Agriculture. In 1923, the Department of Dairy Industry moved to its present location in the then-newly completed Dairy Building, renamed Stocking Hall in 1947.
In 1943 the dairy-research program at Cornell's New York State Agricultural Experiment Station at Geneva, N.Y., was consolidated with the dairy activities on the Ithaca campus. The word "dairy" was dropped from the department's name in 1966 and replaced with the modern nomenclature "food science." Today the department is involved with the conversion of biomaterials into foods and concentrates on such areas as food chemistry, food microbiology, food engineering, food packaging and food safety.
For further information about the symposium, contact Janene Lucia at 255-2892 or visit the following web site: http://www.foodscience.cornell.edu/centennial%20celebration.htm.
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