The Alton E Bailey Award 2001-present

Richard F. Wilson (2001 recipient) received his PhD in 1973 from the University of Illinois. He began his career with the US Department of Agriculture on the campus of North Carolina State University in Raleigh. He was quickly promoted to Research Leader of the Soybean and Nitrogen Fixation Unit. His group made many significant findings relating to the biochemistry of soybean fatty acid synthesis, leading to oils with trait improvements including reduced linolenic acid contents and low saturates. Much of his basic research paved the way for commercialization of trait-modified oils that now furnish about 18-20% of domestic edible oil needs and has brought them from niche to commodity status. Wilson published extensively on soybean biochemistry, genetics and crop development. After having established a strong research program, Wilson left NC State in 2002 to assume the role of National Program leader for Oilseeds and Bioscience USDA, Beltsville, Maryland before his retirement in 2007. Wilson was a leader in AOCS having served on the governing board as Vice President and President in 2000. He organized and chaired numerous sessions at World Conferences and served as editor for the published proceedings. Wilson served many years as an Associate Editor for JAOCS as well as serving on to the Books and Special Publications Committee. Moreover, he has edited a number of AOCS Press books. As Chair of the Education Activities Coordinating Committee, he played a vital role in the governance of AOCS. Wilson was elected an AOCS Fellow in 2003 and was also a Fellow in the Crop Science Association. He was a driving force in the development of the United Soybean Boards better bean Initiative that laid out a long-range plan to keep soybeans competitive in both US and foreign markets. In recognition of his service to the soybean industry, he received the United Soybean Board Outstanding Achievement Award.

Pamela White (2002 recipient) received her Ph.D. from Iowa State University under the guidance of Professor Earl Hammond. She has held numerous positions in the Food Science department including University Professor and as Dean of the Food Science and Human Nutrition department, a position which she now holds. Her research on lipids and proteins has resulted in many publications in lipid and cereal journals and has been an invited speaker at national and international meetings and conferences. White has received numerous awards for teaching, research, and service to professional societies. She is an AOCS Fellow. Her IFT awards include The Chang Award for lipid/flavor science and the Food Chemistry Division Lecture Award. Her teaching accomplishments were recognized by the American Association of Cereal Chemists and she is a Fellow of the Society. She is recognized as an authority on corn and, as such, edited “Corn: Chemistry and Technology 2nd Edition”. White’s other books include “Frying oil Technology and Practices”. Her research in the area of lipids has focused on the oxidation of edible oils, the impact of fatty acid composition on stability, antioxidants for stabilizing lipids, lipid-carbohydrate interactions, and hydrocolloids in starch-lipid systems. She is a leader in AOCS and has held positions on the Governing Board, and as Secretary, Vice President, and President in 1993. White was the chair of the lipid oxidation division and a long-time member of the Books/Special Publication Committee, as well as an associate editor of JAOCS.

Michael Haas (2003 recipient) did his graduate work at the University of Wisconsin. From 1968-1972 he conducted postgraduate research at the U. of Minnesota. From 1979 he was a postdoctoral fellow in the Department of Medicine, U. of Wisconsin. Haas then moved to the USDA Eastern Regional Laboratory in 1981 as a research chemist/lead scientist and is currently employed there. His early research focused on the cloning, purification and characterization of the Rhizopus delemar lipase. Haas developed a lipase-catalyzed method for the separation of conjugated linoleic isomers, which was judged the best paper from the USDSA North Atlantic Area for the period 1997-1999. For the past decade or so, Haas changed his research focus to biofuels. Among his many accomplishments are development of processes to utilize soapstock and waste oils as feedstocks for biodiesel production. The publications have received well over 220 citations. Haas developed methods to improve the performance of biodiesel as well as a process for biodiesel production directly from oilseeds. Economic factors are vital to the development and expansion of the biodiesel industry. Haas independently developed a process model to estimate capital and production costs for biodiesel and has a highly cited article (and the most downloaded) in the journal Bioresource Technology. In addition to authoring well over 100 technical publications, Haas has been granted a number of US patents. He has received numerous awards and honors including AOCS Fellow, the AOCS A.R. Baldwin Distinguished Service Award and the United Soybean Board Award for research accomplishments on industrial oils and their utilization. He received Silver and Gold medals from the Philadelphia Federal Executive board for his biodiesel research. Haas has presented over 100 invited papers at national/international meetings and conferences and has been technical Chair for World meetings on biodiesel. He has been a leader in AOCS for many years including service on the Governing Board, as Secretary, Vice President and President in 2005. He was a co-founding member of the AOCS Biotechnology division and served two terms as Division Chair. His committee work includes the editorial board of JAOCS as Associate editor, as well as Senior Associate editor for Biotechnology.

William W. Christie (2004 recipient) is internationally known as a world-class authority on the analytical chemistry of lipids. Christie received his PhD under the guidance of Professor Frank Gunstone at St Andrews University and later received a D.Sc. Christie held positions at the Hannah Research Institute and was Head of the Chemistry Department at the Scottish Crop Institute in Dundee. On retirement he became a consultant to the Mylnefield Lipid Analysis Unit, the commercial arm of the institute. Christie has authored about 360 publications of which 185 are peer-reviewed and 38 major reviews. In addition to his research accomplishments, Christie has written a number of books on the analysis of lipids. The first “Lipid Analysis” appeared in1973 and has undergone four revisions. The first three sold over 7000 copies. In 1987 and 1989 books on the HPLC and GLC of lipids, the latter from the Oily Press, founded by Christie. "GC and Lipids" is accessible from the Lipid Library Website also founded by Christie, who donated his material to AOCS. Christie remains as technical editor. Christie has received numerous prestigious awards from AOCS including the Analytical Division Award (first given in 1993 to Dutton) for his achievements in analytical chemistry. The Analytical Division renamed it the Dutton award, and the next logical recipient was Christie in 1995. He is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh, and was recognized nationally by the award of an MBE. In 2010, Christie received the AOCS Supelco-Nicholas Pelick Research Award, and a year later was elected an AOCS Fellow.

Frank Gunstone (2005 recipient) is a giant in the field of lipid science. In 1945 he received his PhD under Professor T.P. Hilditch (1965 Bailey Award) at the University of Liverpool. With the exception of a teaching appointment at the U. of Glasgow (1945-1954), Gunstone spent the majority of his career at St. Andrews University, where he became Professor in 1971 and, upon retirement in 1989, was appointed Professor Emeritus. “Retirement” does not apply to him because, since 1989, Gunstone has published nearly 100 papers, book chapters and books. In addition, he has presented 60 lectures and has continued to teach courses on lipid chemistry as well as serving as editor of Lipid Technology for over two decades. Gunstone has authored over 300 publications in virtually every area of lipid chemistry including autoxidation, hydrogenation, triglyceride structure, fatty acid synthesis, analysis and reaction chemistry, biochemistry/biotechnology and crop science. His contributions to lipids extend well beyond the technical realm. His books are a rich source of reference material. The Lipid Handbook (first published in 1986) has undergone several revisions and contains a wealth of information. A number of his books serve as textbooks for both graduate and undergraduate courses in lipid chemistry and food science. Gunstone has received nearly every national/international award in lipid chemistry including AOCS Fellow, AOCS Award in Lipid Chemistry, the Chevreul Medal (French Oil Chemists’ Society), The Normann Medal (German Fat Society), the Hilditch and Lewkowitsch Lectures (Society of the Chemical Industry), Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh, the Bek-Neilsen Lecture Award and Fellow of the Royal Society of Chemistry. Gunstone has the unique distinction of having two of his students receive the AOCS Bailey, Dutton and Supelco-Nicholas Pelick Research Awards (Christie 2004, Marcel Ken Jie 2012).

David Kritchevsky (2006 recipient) will be remembered for his many contributions to lipid nutrition. Trained as a biochemist, he contributed many firsts including the radioactive labeling of cholesterol with tritium and production of ¹⁴C-labeled cholesterol by feeding labeled acetate to chickens and isolating it from eggs. He conducted seminal work on the metabolic fate of cholesterol in humans, developed methods for the separation and detection of steroids by reversed-phase paper chromatography. He was the first to show that unsaturated fat is less atherogenic than saturated fat. Kritchevsky published the first books on cholesterol and beta sitosterol. He was the first to provide evidence that specific fatty acids and triglyceride structures play roles in modulating serum cholesterol levels, that dietary fiber reduced cholesterol. He was a recipient of the AOCS Supelco Research Award. For further details on Kritchevsky’s remarkable career, see Giants of the Past, David Kritchevsky (1920-2006) by David Klurfeld on this website.

David Min (2007 recipient) received his Ph.D. at Rutgers University under Stephen Chang. He spent his entire career at Ohio State University as Professor of Food Science. Min’s research focused on the flavor problems of soybean oil and his award address reviewed the 70-year history of research in the area. One of Min’s interests was photo-oxidation and he made numerous discoveries on the mechanism and prevention of this phenomenon. He was involved with both AOCS and IFT and was a Fellow of both societies. His contributions to lipids and flavor science were recognized by IFT in 1995 when he received its Chang Award. Min was elected a Fellow of the International Academy of Food Science and Technology, one of the few US scientists so honored. Min served on the editorial boards of several Journals including the editor of the Journal of Food Science, until his untimely death in 2011. Min was the author of over 200 publications and the editor of seven books. ”Food Lipids” (Akoh and Min) is widely used as a textbook in lipid and food science courses.

Kiyotaka Sato (2008 recipient) is a professor in the Faculty of Applied Bio-Science of Hiroshima University in Japan is an internationally known researcher on fat crystallization and polymorphism. He is interested in finding optimal ways of designing materials with tailored functionalities of fats, based on the principles underlying the formation processes of lipid structures, including molecular structures, primary particles, flocs, and network formation, together with the influence of thermodynamic and kinetic factors. Sato has published extensively in the area and has contributed to a number books on fat crystallization processes in lipid systems. He has received the AOCS Chang Award, the Kaufmann Memorial Lecture award and, most recently, the Euro Fed Lipid Technology Award, Antayla, Turkey (2013).

Albert Dijkstra (2009 Recipient) was trained as a physical chemist and received his PhD from the University of Leyden. He began his career in fats and oils in 1978 as head of Research and Development at the Vandemoortele group in Izegem, Belgium. He started by developing a linear program to make fat blends in the most economical way. Other projects included development of a directed interesterification process to produce diet margarines having a low saturated acid content for which a patent was issued in 1980. Dijkstra went on to improve the dry fractionation process for tropical fats. He also developed improved degumming methods for edible oils and conceived of a mathematical model for stripping steam usage in counter current deodorization. Dijkstra has reinterpreted many of the processes used by the edible oil industry including hydrogenation, interesterification and degumming. He proposed a new mechanism for the rearrangement of triglycerides that was subsequently supported by independent experimental data.

Dijkstra has written and/or contributed to a number of books including a 3^rd revision of the popular "Lipid Handbook", a monograph on trans fatty acids and most recently “Edible Oil Processing from a Patent Perspective”. Since Dijkstra is not only an expert on fats and oils but also a great linguist, he translated and annotated Michel Chevreul’s classic work on fats and oils into English. The book was published originally in 1823 in old style French with a very long and complex construction, so the translator needed a contemporary knowledge of 1823 chemistry! Dijkstra has been recognized by numerous societies. He is an AOCS Fellow and recipient of the Mounts and Stephen S. Chang Awards. In 2002, Dijkstra was the first recipient of the Euro Fed Lipid Technology Award. The French oil chemists’ section of Euro Fed Lipid awarded him the prestigious Chevreul Medal in 2009. Dijkstra serves as a reviewer for many journals and is an Associate Editor for JAOCS and the Lipid Library.

Lawrence Johnson (2010 recipient) received his PhD in food science from Kansas State University in 1978. He began his career in fats and oils at Durkee Famous Foods before joining the faculty of Iowa State University in Ames, where he is now Professor and Director of the Crops Utilization Facility, specializing in pilot plant processing of oilseeds and grains. Johnson has published 140 papers and holds 13 US Patents on oilseed processing and proteins. He has been a leader in AOCS for many years including serving on the Governing Board and as Vice President and President (2005). He has been an associate and senior associate editor of JAOCS and was Interim editor of INFORM. Among his many committee assignments is to serve on the Books and Special Publications committee. Johnson has contributed to numerous monographs on oilseeds including ”Soybeans: Chemistry, Technologies and Applications” (AOCS Press) and co-editor of "Corn: Chemistry and Technology" (AACC Press). His service to AOCS was recognized by election as Fellow and receiving the A.R. Baldwin Distinguished Service Award. He was elected a foreign member of the Royal Swedish Academy of Agriculture and Forestry (conferred by the King of Sweden). Other honors and awards include an Honorary Doctorate (University of Ghent) and election as Fellow of American Association of Cereal Chemists (AACC). In 2010, Johnson received the Andersons Cereal and Oilseeds award of excellence from AACC. He was also a contributor to the 6^th revision of Bailey’s book.

James Daun (2011 recipient) received his Ph.D. from the University of Manitoba in 1975. Daun spent his entire career at the Canadian Grain Commission in Winnipeg, where he retired as director. Much of the spectacular growth of the canola industry can be attributed to the research led and conducted by Daun. He published 200 papers on fats, oils and canola oil. Daun served the AOCS as a Governing Board member, Secretary, Vice President and President (1997). He was also very active in the Canadian Section of AOCS. Daun has authored a number of reviews, book chapters and edited a monograph on canola. He was elected an AOCS Fellow and was the recipient of the Dutton award for lifetime achievements in analytical chemistry. He also received the Archer Daniels Midland award for the best paper on proteins. His native country made him an honorary member of the Canola Council of Canada as well as awarding him the Queen’s Jubilee Medal.

Marcel Lie Ken Jie (2012 recipient) received his Ph.D. in 1968 under Frank Gunstone at St Andrews University. He began his career at the University of Hong Kong as a lecturer in 1969, progressed to full professor in 1995 and by 1998 was Chair Professor until his retirement in 2005. Presently he holds an Honorary Professorship at the University of Hong Kong and teaches at a community college in Hong Kong. Lie Ken Jie has published 180 papers reviews and book chapters. His research interests include synthesis of novel fatty acids, fullerenoid fatty acids and glycerides, N-cyclic fatty acids, and applications of modern analytical methods to characterize novel fatty acids and their derivatives. He was a pioneer in ultrasound assisted synthesis. His international stature has brought him numerous honors and awards. He is an AOCS Fellow and the recipient of the Dutton award for contributions to the analysis of lipids. He has also received the Kaufmann Medal. In 2005, Lie Ken Jie was the recipient of the AOCS Supelco-Nicholas Pelick Research Award.

Michael Eskin (2013 recipient) was awarded his Ph.D. from the University of Birmingham (UK). Presently he is the Associate Dean of Research at the University of Manitoba. Eskin has published about 120 refereed papers, 35 book chapters, 84 proceedings and has edited 13 books. His research interests include canola oil and protein, frying oils, lipid oxidation, and analytical method development. He has been active on the editorial boards of four international journals including Lipid Technology. His AOCS recognition includes Fellow and the T.L. Mounts awards. He is the 2012 recipient of the IFT Chang award for lipid/flavor science. He is a Fellow of the Canadian Institute of Food Science and Technology and recipient of The William J. Eva award from this Institute. Eskin contributed to the 5^th and 6^th revisions of Bailey’s textbook.

Fereidoon Shahidi (2014 recipient) is a University Research Professor in the Department of Biochemistry at Memorial University of Newfoundland. He did his undergraduate work in his native land of Iran graduating with a B.Sc. in 1973 and received the Ph.D. from McGill University in 1977. His research interests have covered numerous areas of food and lipid chemistry including lipid oxidation, nutraceuticals and functional foods, marine lipids, aquaculture, muscle foods, and isolation and characterization of natural antioxidants. He has published extensively with nearly 500 peer reviewed journal articles as well as numerous (60) books and many book chapters. He has been consistently a highly cited researcher in agricultural and food chemistry for a number of years. His publications have been cited over 28,000 times with an h index of 78. He has supervised some 60 graduate students and 50 visiting scientists and post doctoral fellows. He serves on the editorial boards of numerous national and international journals as well as editor in chief of several, including Journal of Functional Foods. He is the recipient of many prestigious awards from AOCS, ACS, and IFT including Fellow in each society, and he has received both the IFT and AOCS Chang awards in recognition of his research on lipids. Dr. Shahidi was the editor in Chief of the 6 volume edition of “Baileys Industrial Oil and Fat Products” (6th Revision,2005).

Robert Moreau is the 2015 recipient. He presently is a research chemist at the Eastern Regional Research center, ARS, USDA, located in Wyndmoor, Pennsylvania. He received the Ph.D. degree from the University of South Carolina and, following a post-doctoral appointment in Paul Stumpf’s laboratory, he joined the USDA. Bob describes himself as a happy lipid chemist.  His research bears this out. He has published extensively (over 200) in numerous lipid areas in high-quality peer-reviewed journals and has received numerous invitations to present papers at national/international conferences as well authoring a number of book chapters and a book on healthy and gourmet oils.

Bob discovered and identified several unique enzymes and a novel lipid in potato fungal pathogens. A new sphingolipid was discovered having potential uses in treating inflammation and cancer. A US patent resulted. He discovered a new type of signal transduction in plant cells as well as the discovery of a group of pentacyclic triterpenes occurring in certain bacteria and algae.

Among his many accomplishments, his research on corn fiber oil stands out. Corn fiber oil was shown to contain high amounts of phytosterols having cholesterol-lowering properties. He holds US patents on corn fiber oil and is the author of a highly cited review article on phytosterols and their benefits to human health. Bob has been very active in analytical methods developments for lipid analysis. He pioneered the use of light scattering and flame ionization detectors for HPLC analysis of lipids. His research includes the use of enzymes for the recovery of value-added products from rice, barley distillers dry grains and corn and its fractions. Bob has been very active in AOCS including the Governing Board, Books and Special publications and the Analytical division. Bob is the recipient of The H.J. Dutton award for lifetime achievements in analytical chemistry. He became an AOCS Fellow in 2011. Recently his expertise in lipids was recognized by appointment to the Codex Alimentarius committee on fats and oils whose duty involves the drafting of standards for international trade. As chair of the publications committee, Bob was responsible for transfer publication of JAOCS to Springer which has been very profitable for the Society.

Moghis Ahmad is the 2016 recipient. Moghis received his Ph.D in 1978 from AMU in India. He did a postdoctoral study at Texas A and M and held positions as a research associate (Corvallis OR.) Chemist Sigma Aldrich (St.Louis, Mo., and Associate Director Lipid Chemistry Division, Director, Vice President, (NeoPharm IL). From 2006 to present he is vice president chemical technology and manufacturing, Jina Phamaceuticals, Libertyville, IL. Moghis has published extensively in the open literature and holds 35 US Patents. Much of his research has been proprietary and not been published. Nonetheless his research in lipids has covered synthesis of lipids, characterization of unusual fatty acids from seed oils fatty, acid derivatives, reaction chemistry of fatty acids, and phospholipids. Moghis has been very active in AOCS activities. He has edited a number of AOCS press Books all of which have been best sellers for the Society. He was a leader in the AOCS Phospholipid Division having serves as Secretary/treasurer, Vice chair and chair. Moghis has also been a leader in the international Lecithin and Phospholipid Society as secretary and Vice President 2007-present. He has served on 8 AOCS award committees. He has been active in AOCS continuing education programs as a lecturer and has organized and chaired technical sessions at AOCS meeting for the past 10 years. Moghis was elected an AOCS Fellow in 2014 and is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Chemistry. He is listed in Who’s Who in America and Who’s Who in the world.

Alejandro Marangoni is the 2017 recipient. Marangoni is a tier 1 Canada Research Chair Food and Health and aging at the University of Guelph Ontario where he was awarded the PhD in 1989. His work concentrates on the physical properties of foods particularly fat crystallization and structure. He has published over 350 research papers and is a highly cited author (over 15,000 citations h index 65, i index of 298). Among his publications are 80 book chapters and 40 patents. He is the recipient of many awards from AOCS (Fellow, T.L. Mounts Award, Young Scientist Award, the Chang Award and Supelco Award. He is one of only a few to have received the IFT Chang Award for lipid/flavor science. He received two Canada Research chairs and two distinguished researcher awards from the Ontario Innovation Trust. He also received an EWR Stacie Memorial Fellowship given to the top Canadian scientists from multi-disciplines. He serves on the editorial board on several journals and was editor in chief of Food Research International for15years and raised its impact factor from 0.69 to 3.5. Marangoni has co-founded several high technology companies and is the co-recipient of the 2008 Guelph Partners Innovation “Innovator of the year” award. He developed platform technology for manufacture structured oil in water emulsions to replace hi saturate high trans shortenings. More recently, he discovered edible oleogels structured by a cellulose derivative. He has trained over 100 scientists many of which occupy prominent positions in academia and industry including 9 professors at major North American Universities. In 2012 he was honored as one of the most influential Hispanic Canadians by the Hispanic Business Alliance. Marangoni was elected a fellow of the Royal Society of Canada in 2018.

Dharma Kodali is the 2018 recipient. Kodali received his training in his native country of India where he received the PhD in synthetic medicinal chemistry. After a year of post-doctoral studies at Polytechnic Institute of New York, he joined Boston University as a staff scientist and assistant professor of biophysics. Here he studied lipid synthesis molecular packing physical properties and their effects on lipid metabolism. These studies were carried out in Donald Smalls laboratory (1998 Bailey Award.) He then took a position as a principal scientist and Rand D manager at Cargill in Minneapolis. Here he developed numerous value-added products from vegetable oils many of which were patented and commercialized. He then took a position at General Mills where he developed trans fat alternatives. Currently, he is a research professor in the Department of Bioproducts and systems engineering at the University of Minnesota. He is the author of 75 publications and book chapters as well as more than 25 patents. He is the co-editor of Trans Fat Alternatives (AOCS Press, 2005)and the Editor of Trans fat Replacement Solutions,(AOCS Press 2014). His awards include AOCS Fellow, AOCS Mounts Award FAIC. He received the ACS Industrial Innovation award. He has been a longtime member of the AOCS books and special publication committee and has been very active in the Industrial Oil Products Division