Hurburgh

 The Dean Lee R. Kolmer Award for Excellence in Applied Research was presented to Charles Hurburgh, a professor of agricultural and biosystems engineering who is professor-in-charge of the Iowa Grain Quality Initiative, and Joseph Sebranek, a Charles F. Curtiss Distinguished Professor in Agriculture and Life Sciences who is the Morrison Endowed Chair in Meat Science.

An authority on the measurement of the chemical and physical properties of grain and grain products, Hurburgh recently led a team that produced training materials for food safety inspectors and grain industry personnel to comply with the Food Safety Modernization Act (FSMA).

As professor-in-charge of the Grain Quality Laboratory, Hurburgh leads analyses of the chemical and physical properties of grain and grain products. His research interests include the physical and chemical properties of biological materials, chemical and electronic instrumentation, near-infrared spectroscopy analysis and sensors, chemometrics, metrology, and statistics of large databases.

Hurburgh received all his degrees from Iowa State in agricultural engineering:  a bachelor’s degree in 1973, a master’s degree in 1980 and a doctorate in 1981.

Sebranek joined Iowa State in 1975 in the Department of Animal Science. He is recognized as one of the world’s foremost scientists in meat processing technology and food safety, and his research has had a major impact on making meat safer for consumers, according to Iowa State University.

Sebranek

He received a bachelor’s degree in animal science from the University of Wisconsin-Platteville in 1970; a master’s degree in meat and animal science in 1971 and a doctorate in meat and animal science and food science in 1974, both from the University of Wisconsin-Madison.