2022 Macy Award Winner
Dr. Purnendu C. Vasavada, Professor Emeritus
Dept. Animal and Food Science
University of Wisconsin- River Falls
The Macy Food Science & Technology Award, “Macy Award,” was established in 1981, and is given annually to recognize an outstanding example of food technology transfer or cooperation between scientists or technologists in any of the following settings: academic, government, and private industry. The purpose of the award is to advance the profession and practice of food technology and to honor Dr. Harold Macy, Dean Emeritus of the University of Minnesota and Founding Member of IFT. The award consists of a plaque, $2500 honorarium, and travel expenses. The award recipient is invited to address the Minnesota Section at the annual Macy Award meeting held in Minneapolis.
Dr. Purnendu Vasavada is a Professor Emeritus of Food Science, University of Wisconsin-River Falls and Principal and managing member of the PCV & Associates, LLC. He is recognized internationally for his teaching, applied research, and innovative training programs in food science and technology, especially microbial food safety and Rapid methods and Automation in Food Microbiology. During his academic career he has taught thousands of students in the U.S. and abroad, presented over 200 research and invited papers at scientific conferences, presented numerous workshops and short courses, and authored over 120 publications including technical abstracts, peer‐reviewed papers, book chapters, and articles in trade publications, co-edited a book, Beverage Quality and Safety.
Dr. Vasavada’s career epitomizes the mission and vision of IFT, fostering an outstanding number of technology transfer and cooperation between scientists and technologists in academia, government, and private industry. His teaching, applied research and extension involvement, his professional contributions to IFT and other professional organizations, and his accomplishments on the international front have not only helped advance the missions of IFT, but have also bolstered the food safety in perfect alignment with the purpose, criteria and the spirit of the award in Honor of Dean Macy.
About Macy Award
The Harold Macy Food Science and Technology Award was established by the MN Section of the Institute of Food Technologists in 1981. In the words of the bylaw adopted to formally establish the Award, its purpose "shall be to advance the profession and practice of food technology and to honor Dean Emeritus Harold Macy by the selection each year of an outstanding example of food technology transfer or cooperation between scientists or technologists in any two of the following settings:
- Academic
- Government
- Private industry
by the preparation of appropriate descriptive material describing the accomplishments involved, and inviting of the individual awardee or awardees to address the annual Award meeting of the Section."
Harold Macy, emeritus charter professional member of IFT and former dean of the Institute of Agriculture at the University of Minnesota, died in 1986 at the age of 91. Dean Harold Macy, "Jo" to those who knew him, had a long and illustrious career in the food industry. His first and most extensive association focused on interests in dairy science, and his professional activity in dairy husbandry, processing and bacteriology, and later in food technology, spanned over 50 years. Jo Macy was involved in formulations and writing of some of the first public health regulations for milk and other dairy products, to assure their safety and wholesomeness. Among his most notable achievements in technology transfer was the establishment in 1936 of the Dairy Quality Control Institute (DQCI). For many years, DQCI oversaw on a cooperative basis, the quality of milk marketed in the Twin Cities metropolitan area, and included an analytical laboratory that was highly respected on a national basis. He was also involved in the original founding of the American Dairy Association and the Dairy Council, which was in Macy's words "one of the dairy industry's most precious accomplishments."
Macy's academic career began in 1919 as an assistant professor of dairy bacteriology at the University of Minnesota. In the succeeding 44 years, he moved up through the ranks and completed his campus tenure as dean of what was then the Institute of Agriculture, Forestry, and Home Economics. It is thus entirely fitting that a Minnesota IFT Section award emphasizing technology transfer among academia, government, and private industry should honor the name of Harold Macy.
Past Macy Award Recipients
2020 Award Not Given
2012 - Award Not Given
2011 - Jae W. Park
2010 - Kevin M. Keener
2009 - Richard W. Hartel
2008 - Donald Kramer
2007 - John Surak
2006 - Gary List
2005 - David B. Min
2004 - Richard Linton
2003 - Robert J. Price
2002 - Stephen L. Taylor
2001 - Jozef Kokini
2000 - Keith Ito
1999 - W. James Harper
1998 - Richard Lechowich
1997 - Daniel Y.C. Fung
1996 - Elaine R. Wedral
1995 - James N. BeMiller
1994 - Kenneth R. Swartzel
1993 - George E. Inglett
1992 - Peter Barton Hutt
1991 - John J. Powers
1990 - Arnold E. Denton
1989 - Rose Marie Pangborn
1988 - Philip E. Nelson
1987 - Howard E. Bauman
1986 - Norman F. Olson
1985 - Joseph C. Olson, Jr.
1984 - Robert Pearl
1983 - Gary H. Richardson
1982 - E.M. "Mike" Foster
1981 - Harold Macy