SAVANNAH, GA. — Richard D. (Don) Sullins, Ph.D., received the William F. Geddes Memorial Award from AACC International for 2016. This honor, kept secret from the recipient until publicly announced at the annual meeting, honors the zeal and unselfish industry of an individual AACCI member and emphasizes the importance of his or her contribution to the work of the society. It is the group’s highest and most prestigious honor.
In a similar surprise announcement, AACCI’s Milling and Baking Division tapped Barbara Bufe Heidolph, a longtime division member and officer, to receive its Myron D. (Mike) Baustien Award for outstanding services enthusiastically rendered with personal dedication.
Dr. Sullins, who retired as vice-president of technical services for ADM Milling, Shawnee Mission, Kas., is now principal of Sullins Consulting, Colleyville, Texas. He is a 45-year member of AACCI and served as chairman of its Publications Committee, Kansas City Local Section, Scholarship Committee, The AACCI Foundation, as treasurer of the Protein Division and was on the board of the Milling and Baking Division. He also participated on AACCI’s Professional Development Panel and Nominating Committee. He currently chairs the group’s Industry Executive Forum.
Before joining the industry, Dr. Sullins received his bachelor’s, master’s and doctorate degrees at Texas A&M University where he later taught for several years. His career took him to positions at Ralston Purina, Frito-Lay and ADM Milling. In 2015, Dr. Sullins received an honorary membership from the North American Millers' Association, where he served on and chaired the group’s Technical Committee.
Over many years, Ms. Heidolph has been the Milling and Baking Division’s chairman, board member and adviser. She received AACCI’s Geddes award in 2010 when the group previously met at Savannah, and was named an AACCI Fellow in 2012. Ms. Heidolph also has served as a member of various AACCI committees. She is director, commercial applications and product development for Innophos, Cranbury, N.J. She holds a number of patents involving leavening.
As with previous awards, the audience starts guessing who the Geddes and Baustien award winners might be while the presenter reads their qualifications, carefully hedged to conceal identities until the last minute. For both Dr. Sullins and Ms. Heidolph, any uncertainty faded quickly because of their long participation in AACCI.
AACCI also made awards to several other members.
Charles R. Hurburgh Jr., Ph.D., professor of agricultural engineering at Iowa State University, was named an AACCI Fellow. He specializes in quality management systems involving traceability, rapid measurement and sensor technologies. His university extension group was asked by the Food and Drug Administration (F.D.A.) to create training materials for food safety inspections of bulk grain and grain processing facilities under the Food Safety Modernization Act, and he is a lead trainer for the F.D.A. Preventive Controls Qualified Individual certification program.
Yong-Chen Shi, Ph.D., professor at Kansas State University’s Department of Grain Science and Industry, received the Phil Williams Applied Research Award. His work involves cereal carbohydrates, and he holds 15 patents. Dr. Shi gave the award’s lecture, “Developing Starch Products for Nutritional, Food and Industrial Applications,” at the 2016 annual meeting.
Wayne R. Moore, Ph.D., former director of research and laboratory services for ConAgra and director of quality for Miller Milling, was given the Edith A. Christensen Award for Outstanding Contributions in Analytical Methods. He is now principal of Wayne Moore Consulting, Tampa, Fla. Dr. Moore’s award lecture, “Laboratory Data (Mis)-Management,” took place during the 2016 annual meeting.
Joseph M. Awika, Ph.D., associate professor at Texas A&M University, was given the AACCI’s Excellence in Teaching Award. Dr. Awika teaches cereal processing and carbohydrate chemistry at undergraduate and graduate levels. His research focuses on the health benefits of grains, and he has graduated six Ph.D. and nine master’s students and advised another 10 Ph.D. and 31 master’s graduates.
Mario Jelke, Ph.D. (Dr.-Ing.), head of the Research Group Cereal Process Engineering at the Technical University of Munich, Germany, was honored with AACCI’s Young Scientist Research Award. He gave his award lecture, “Departure from Current Processes: Novel Structure Design Approaches for Cereal-Based Foods,” at the 2016 annual meeting. Dr. Jelke takes an interdisciplinary approach to study the structure of grain-based foods.
The 2019 Texture Technologies Quality Research Award went to four scientists who wrote the paper “Dough Strain Hardening Properties as Indicators of Baking Performance” published in the May/June 2015 issue of Cereal Chemistry. They were Julie Y. Kindelspire, Ph.D., cereal chemist, Post Cereal, Jonesboro, Ark., and three scientists from South Dakota State University: Melanie Caffé-Treml, Ph.D., an oat breeder; Karl D. Glover, Ph.D., a spring wheat breeder; and Padmanaban G. (Padu) Krishnan, Ph.D., a cereal chemist. Their paper discussed the importance of bread loaf volume as an economic criterion and identified extensibility parameters that contribute to strain-hardening, an important rheological property.
AACCI next meets in San Diego on Oct. 8-11, 2017, at the Town and Country Resort and Convention Center.
