Table of Contents

WHO, WHAT,
WHEN, WHERE

• Notables
• Grants
• Articles Published
• New Publications
• Coming Events

HEADLINES

Secretary of Agriculture tours Poultry Center

Dan Felton, Jr. Building dedicated at LMCRS

Agriculture Hall of Fame inducts five

Gamma Sigma Delta presents faculty, student awards

Food Science faculty nationally ranked

Kellie Knight named Bumpers College director of development

Carmen Alessi joins dean's staff

Alumni Society honors seniors

CSES Club named Volunteer Group of the Year

CSES honors friends and outstanding alumnus

Science Day attracts North Arkansas students

Horse Festival raises funds for equine program

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Vision Archive Index

All About Advising
• Monthly newsletter index

UA LInks
• Division of Agriculture
• University of Arkansas
• Dale Bumpers College of
xxxAgricultural, Food and
xxxLife Sciences
• Arkansas Agricultural
xxxExperiment Station
• Cooperative Extension
xxxService
• Alumni and Development
• Future Students
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Vision Credits
Vision is published six times a year by the Arkansas Agricultural Experiment Station in the U of A System's Division of Agriculture and by the Dale Bumpers College of Agricultural, Food and Life Sciences. It is produced by the Communication Services unit of the Department of Agricultural and Extension Education, 110 Agriculture Building, U of A, Fayetteville, AR 72701. 479-575-5647.

• Editor: Howell Medders, (hmedders@uark.edu).
• Web manager: David Edmark (dedmark@uark.edu).
• Writers and photographers: Fred Miller and Karen Eskew
• Editorial Assistant: Amalie Holland
• Broadcast e-mail support: Arkansas Alumni Association

E-mail items for publication in Vision to ahollan@uark.edu

Food Science ranked No. 4 in U.S. for 'scholarly productivity'

The UA Department of Food Science is housed in a 52,000-sq.-ft. complex of laboratories, classrooms, a pilot processing plant and offices built in stages from 1958 to 2006 at the Arkansas Agricultural Research and Extension Center, 1.5 miles north of campus on the east side of Garland Ave.

The Department of Food Science was recently ranked No. 4 nationally for "faculty scholarly productivity" by Academic Analytics, which ranks 7,294 doctoral programs at 354 universities and colleges.

The index, partly financed by the State University of New York at Stony Brook, rates scholarly output based on the number of book and journal articles published by faculty members, journal citations, awards, honors, and grants received. Rankings were published online at www.academicanalytics.com.

The only universities ranked ahead of Arkansas in the food science category were at Cornell, Illinois and Massachusetts. Others on the top 10 list, after Arkansas, were Louisiana State, Florida, Wisconsin, Colorado State, Pennsylvania State and Michigan State.

Twelve faculty members direct Division of Agriculture research and extension programs and teach courses for B.S., M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in food science awarded by UA,Fayetteville, through Bumpers College.

Department Head Ron Buescher said there are 48 undergraduate food science majors this spring and 40 students working on M.S. or Ph.D. degrees.

"Exciting and rewarding careers for our graduates are plentiful in Arkansas and the global food industry," Buescher said. "Our graduates are hired to design and test new products and processing technologies, assure food quality and safety, and improve human nutrition and health.

"The high regard for our faculty in the food industry and research community helps open doors for our graduates for good jobs and career advancement," Buescher added.

Buescher said Arkansas is nationally known for research in functionality and health benefits of foods; food microbiology and safety; food processing and packaging; rheology and sensory analysis; food carbohydrate, lipid (fat and oil) and protein chemistry; and developing value-added products using cereal, oil seed, fruit, vegetable and meat commodities important to Arkansas.

Areas of faculty expertise include the following:

Terry Siebenmorgen directs a rice processing program supported by the Arkansas rice industry and processing companies to increase processing efficiency and the quality of rice products.

Justin Morris directs the enology and viticulture program, which includes a patented system for mechanized vineyard management being tested in commercial wine vineyards in California.

Jean-Francois Meullenet's rheology and sensory analysis program develops new ways to evaluate food quality and consumer preferences. It includes a professional sensory panel that conducts tests for food industry clients.

Functional foods research by Luke Howard is identifying bioactive components in foods and developing ways to improve their retention. The research identifies and characterizes health beneficial phytochemicals.

Michael Johnson, Steve Ricke and Phil Crandall focus research on food- borne pathogens and prevention of foodborne illnesses. Ricke holds the Donald "Buddy" Wray Chair in Food Safety and is director of the Division of Agriculture's Center for Food Safety. They and others conduct interdisciplinary research funded by the USDA Food Safety Consortium.

Ruben Morawicki focuses on food processing issues such as byproduct utilization, waste management, energy efficiency and packaging.

Research programs by Ya-Jane Wang, Navam Hetiarachchy and Andy Proctor focus on the chemistry and functionality of three primary food components of carbohydrates, protein and lipids, respectively. They address issues that impact food quality and functionality. They also develop new products such as edible protein film coatings for fresh food, soy oil with enhanced conjugated linoleic acid content, health-promoting oligosaccharides and probiotics (beneficial bacteria).

Each program area includes a staff of supporting scientists and graduate students who contribute to the nationally ranked scholarly productivity of the faculty, Buescher said.

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