The Alton E Bailey Award 1959-1980

The first Bailey award (1959) went to Virgil Mehlenbacher, chief chemist at Swift and Co. Mehlenbacher had been AOCS president in 1949 and had made numerous contributions to analytical chemistry including editing the updating and revision of the official and tentative AOCS methods. Bailey’s widow and two young sons attended the award ceremony. Mehlenbacher’s award address was published in the AOCS journal and summarizes many of his contributions to analytical chemistry. He also authored a book on the analysis of fats and oils. More information on Mehlenbacher can be found in the series Giants of the Past (Lipid Library history section).

The 1960 award went to Ralph Potts, who many consider to be the father of the oleochemical industry. Potts had developed methods to distil fatty acids, prepare amines and nitriles and held numerous patents relating to these accomplishments. Further information on Potts can also be found in Giants of the Past (Lipid Library).

The 1961 award went to John Cowanwho had directed fats and oils research at the Peoria (USDA) laboratory. His address was entitled ‘20 years of oil research at the Northern Laboratory’. Dr Cowan was a supervisor of the author from 1963 -1973 and served as AOCS president in 1968. He received a number of other awards for his research including the Chevreul medal in 1975 and was author of over 300 publications and US patents.

The Bailey award was not given in 1962. The 1963 recipient was Dr. A R. (Dick) Baldwinwhose leadership in AOCS over the past 65 years has had a most profound impact. Through his energy and vision AOCS developed into an international society. Dr Baldwin served as AOCS president in 1963 and as editor of the Journal of the American Oil Chemists' Society for many years. He received both the Normann and Chevreul medals from the German and French Oil Chemist Societies, respectively. The 91 year old Baldwin attended the 100th AOCS meeting in Orlando, Florida; he had met Felix Paquin, the first AOCS president (1909), some years before.

No award was given in 1964. However, in 1965, the Bailey Award went to Professor T.P. Hilditch(University of Liverpool, UK). In 1927 Hilditch and his students began a systematic study of the glyceride structure of numerous fats and oils. By 1940 the work was summarized in the book “The Chemical Constitution of Natural Fats”, which by 1964 had undergone numerous revisions. Hilditch authored other books including a “Concise History of Chemistry” and “The Chemistry of Fats, Oils and Waxes. Hilditch, proposed the even theory of glyceride structure, which suggests that fatty acids tend to be distributed as widely as possible across the glycerol backbone. Under this theory, simple triglycerides are not permitted and a fatty acid comprising less than 33% of the total cannot occur more than once in a molecule and must exceed 66% in order to appear twice. Although the theory worked well for highly saturated fats and the fractional crystallization techniques employed for their analysis, the work of H.J. Dutton (1968 Bailey Award) showed that the even theory did not account for the glyceride structures of highly unsaturated fats, which more closely match a restricted random pattern. Originally, the 1965 award was to be given to Hilditch at a symposium at the annual AOCS meeting in Houston, Texas. However, because of failing health, he was unable to attend and the award was accepted by Dr. Frank Gunstone (2005 Bailey Award) on his behalf.

The 1966 award went to Daniel Swernwho began his career at the Eastern USDA laboratory and then took up a position at Temple University. One of his students, Tom Foglia, would become a later Bailey award winner (1996). Swern is best known for his work on the epoxidation of fatty acids and organic peroxides. He also was the editor of the 3rd and 4th editions of “Baileys Industrial Oil and Fat Products”, the latter of which was expanded from one to two volumes under his editorship with a third added in 1985 after his death. Swern was also the recipient of the AOCS award in Lipid Chemistry.

Walter Lundbergwas the 1967 recipient and spent most of his career at the Hormel Institute (Austin, Minnesota), where he was Resident Director from its foundation in 1944 to 1949, before he became executive Director until his retirement in 1974. Amongst his other honours were the Chevreul and Normann Medals from the French and German Oil Chemists, respectively. Lundberg (who served as AOCS president in 1963) is well known for his work on the autoxidation of fats and oils. He was the recipient of the AOCS award in Lipid Chemistry, and amongst his other honours were the Chevreul and Normann Medals from the French and German Oil Chemists’ Societies, respectively. Lundberg was the editor of the two volume set ‘Autoxidation and Antioxidants” (John Wiley and Sons, 1962.)

Herbert J. Duttonreceived the 1968 award. He led research on the flavor stability of soybean oil and conducted studies on the glyceride structure of vegetable oils by countercurrent distribution. Dutton also contributed much to our knowledge of hydrogenation. His approach to research involved the use of new techniques to study old problems. For example, he recognized that computers would be useful in the study of hydrogenation kinetics and that tandem analytical techniques such as mass spectrometry and gas chromatography would be useful in lipid research. Dutton received numerous other awards for his research including the AOCS Award in Lipid Chemistry (1969), the Hilditch and Lewkowitsch lectures (Society of the Chemical Industry, UK), and he was the initial recipient of the AOCS analytical award (1993), which was renamed in his honor. He often remarked that his most significant accomplishment was supervising three AOCS Presidents including Tim Mounts (1988 Bailey Award, 1988 AOCS president), Edward Emken (1994 Bailey Award, 1999 AOCS President) and Karl Zilch (1982 AOCS President, Distinguished Fellow 1998), who all worked in Dutton’s laboratory. His career is described in greater detail here..

The 1969 Award went to Harold Olcottbest remembered for his work on lipid oxidation and the stabilization of fats and oils with antioxidants. Olcott published a paper in the late 1950s entitled “A weighing method to determine the stability of oils“, which is still quite useful today, particularly when small samples are involved.

Herbert Carter, the 1970 recipient, was honored for his research on the biochemistry of lipids. In particular, he was an early pioneer in the fields of sphingolipids and glycolipids. For example, he determined the structure of sphingosine from which he coined the term “sphingolipide” to encompass the family of lipids that includes cerebrosides, sphingomyelins and gangliosides. Further research led to the structures of dihydrosphingosine and cerebrosides and the plant analogue phytosphingosine. He was the first identify the galactosylglycerides as a new class of plant glycolipids. In 1943 he received the Eli Lilly award for the structure and synthesis of sphingosine. Carter is also known for his isolation and structural determination of a number of antibiotics. Another contribution came from the field of stereochemistry in which he had a lifelong interest. Carter published a paper in which he described the “meso” carbon atom and the concept of prochirality. Although controversial at the time, others verified his conclusions. He received numerous honors and awards including election to The National Academy of Sciences and the AOCS Award In Lipid Chemistry. Further information on Carter’s career may be found in an article ‘Introduction to the series on sphingolipids in honor of Professor Carter (J. Lipid Res. 49 (2008) 907-908).

James Mead(the 1971 recipient) spent most of his career at the UCLA School of Medicine. He is best remembered for his work on the essential fatty acids and their transformation in the brain. Mead characterized the unusual trienoic fatty acid that accumulated in essential fatty acid deficiency as cis-5,8,11-eicosatrienoic acid or 20:3(n-9). This acid is often given the trivial name “Mead Acid” after its discoverer. Of the many awards he received, he was most proud of the Research Center Award of the NIH and the AOCS Award in Lipid Chemistry.

Ralph Holman(the 1972 recipient) had a long and distinguished career during which he made many significant discoveries in lipid chemistry and nutrition. Holman published extensively with a total of about 425 publications. He began his career under the supervision of George Burr who, in 1929, first discovered that linoleic acid is essential for nutrition. In the early 1960s Holman carried out a series of seminal experiments on the relationships between the families of n-6 and n-3 polyunsaturated fatty acids. He further demonstrated the competitive nature of the metabolism of these acids and coined the term omega-3 acids. He received many honours throughout his career, including the AOCS Award in Lipid Chemistry.

Chester Gooding (the 1973 recipient) was an accomplished chemist who made numerous contributions in the areas of oil processing and edible oil product formulation. Gooding spent most of his career at Corn Products International and, as such, most of his contributions are found in the patent literature. These include confectionary fats, interesterified margarine oils , utilization of cottonseed stearines in foods, partial hydrogenation and winterization of soybean oil for salad oil, and methods for production of high stability oils

Stephen S. Chang (the 1974 recipient) had a long career in industry and academia. After conducting fats and oil research at Swift and A.E. Staley, Chang took a position at Rutgers University where he eventually became Chair of the Food Science department. Chang had a long-standing interest in flavor chemistry, oxidation and was one of the first to isolate flavor components and identify them by gas chromatography. Chang published extensively on frying fats and natural antioxidants. He served as AOCS president in 1970 and received numerous honors and awards from both the AOCS and IFT. These include the highest awards given by AOCS and the Institute of Food Technologists (IFT) (AOCS Lipid Chemistry Award, IFT Nicholas Appert award). A detailed account of his career can be found on the Lipid Library website (Giants of the Past ).

Walter M. Cochran (1975 recipient), spent his entire career in industry and retired as technical director of Durkee Famous Foods. Prior to that he was manager of edible oils research at Swift and Bunge Foods. Cochran served as a naval intelligence officer in the Aleutian Islands during the Second World War. Cochran made numerous practical contributions to fats and oils including development of emulsifiers, shortenings for bakery, confections, imitation dairy products and prepared mixes. Cochran held a number of US patents in these areas.

Raymond Reiser (1976 recipient) with the exception of army service in World War Two, spent most of his career at Texas A & M University as a biochemist from 1940 to 1976. Prior to his arrival at A & M, his focus was on applied research. Reiser began to obtain grants for basic research which, in turn, attracted like-minded professors. Soon his research brought international recognition. Reiser was well known for his work on cholesterol and was frequently consulted on dietary matters involving oils, eggs and meat. Reiser took the position that genetics and not diet was the determining factor in cholesterol levels and coronary heart disease. In the 1980s, Reiser pointed out that cholesterol accumulation is a disease much like diabetes. He remained at Texas A & M as an emeritus professor after retirement in 1976 and continued research as late as 1987. His last publication appeared in 1990.

Leo Goldblatt (1977 recipient) spent his entire career as a research chemist with the federal government. From 1940 to 1952, He conducted research at the Bureau of Agricultural and Industrial Chemistry, Naval Stores division. Here his work focused on turpentine, pinenes, retene, turpentine derivatives, high-pressure lubricants, fatty acids, resins and insecticides. In 1952, Goldblatt began his main research on lipids at the Southern Regional Laboratory in New Orleans. Since cottonseed is a major southern crop his research focused on this. Goldblatt was a pioneer in development of analytical methods for aflatoxins in grains and directed a diverse program on cottonseed oil, cocoa butter substitutes as well as the reaction chemistry of fatty acids and proteins .

Orville Privett spent the majority of his career at the University of Minnesota and the Hormel Institute. The early part of his career focused on the kinetics and mechanism of hydroperoxide decomposition, polymerization of fatty acids, rancidity and preservation of lipid-based foods. As his career developed, he expanded into the biochemistry of fatty acids and their dietary effects. Like many lipid chemists of his era, development of analytical methods and their applications to lipid problems attracted his attention. Thin layer and liquid chromatography and mass spectrometry were employed with great success and Privett published a seminal paper on the composition of soybean lecithin. He may have been the first to observe that many heated oils are toxic and this led to the elegant work done by Earl Crampton and colleagues. By the time he received the Bailey Award, Privett had authored 140 publications; Ralph Holman (who introduced him at the ceremony) said ” Dr. Privett has fantastic technique; it’s a joy to watch him in the lab”.

Karl Mattil also received the Award in 1978 but posthumously. He made outstanding contributions to the area and was instrumental in founding the North Central AOCS Section. His research on edible oils at Swift included rearrangement of lard for the production of improved shortenings. He held a dozen patents on the technology and he along with Frank Norris (1980 Bailey Award) brought ‘Swiftning’ to the marketplace. Mattil contributed a number of chapters (6) to the 3^rd edition of Baileys Industrial Oil and Fat products (1964). He spent the remainder of his career at Texas A & M University where he conducted research on proteins and oilseed extraction.

Rueben Feuge (1979 recipient) spent his entire career at the Southern Regional laboratory and was a colleague of Alton Bailey from 1941-1944. He pointed out that Bailey was a co-author on a number of his publications. Feuge was one of the few Bailey awardees without a Ph.D. Nonetheless, he published extensively in the areas of fat modification via glycerolysis and interesterification and held a number of US Patents pertaining to oilseed processing.

Frank Norris (1980 recipient) began his career at General Mills in 1941, and 3 years later joined Swift and Company. At the time meat-based shortenings were receiving increased competition from vegetable oil products. While lard performed well in some baking applications, its poor cake volume was a decided disadvantage. Thus the industry turned to interesterification in the hope of improving the shortening properties of lard. At least 3 meat packers began research including Armour, Proctor and Gamble, and Swift and Co. By the early 1950s improved lard shortenings were introduced into the market place. Among these was ”Swiftning” for which Frank Norris and Karl Mattil did the basic research leading to its development. Their findings are documented in a number of technical publications and US Patents. In 1946, Norris published a classic paper where he showed that, upon esterification, vegetable oils possess higher melting points while animal fats remain unchanged. He reasoned that, if melting points could not be improved by rearrangement, perhaps the crystal habit could be altered by changing a beta crystal form into the preferred beta prime form. The rearranged products showed marked improvement in cake baking applications. In addition to his many contributions in lipid science, Norris was an accomplished author. ”Bailey’s Industrial Oil and Fat Products“ had been revised by Bailey in 1951. By the early 1960s enough progress had been made to warrant a 3^rd revision. Daniel Swern (1966 Bailey Award) was selected to edit the 3rd revision. The book appeared in 1964 and consists of 23 chapters the bulk of which were contributed by Swern (9), Mattil (7) and Norris (3), as well as A.J. Stirton, (Eastern Regional Laboratory) (4).