PULLMAN, Wash. — Gustavo V. Barbosa-Cánovas, a professor in the Department of Biological Systems Engineering at Washington State University, will receive the Institute of Food Technologists’ 2001 International Award at the opening event of the IFT Annual Meeting and IFT Food Expo in New Orleans June 23.
This award recognizes exemplary efforts in promoting a better international understanding of food science and the practical transfer of technology to a developing nation or to an economically depressed area within a developed nation. Barbosa-Cánovas, who is also the director of the Center for Nonthermal Processing of Food at WSU, requested the IFT donate his $3,000 honorarium to the CNPF.
Barbosa-Cánovas said he is honored to be considered among the scientists who were recipients in the past. “I am thankful to WSU for allowing me to do all the international work I do,” he said. “I look forward to continue working in the international domain. This award will facilitate my work and means a lot to WSU, my career and our program.”
He has delivered short courses on alternative food processing technologies, food powders, food dehydration, and physical properties of foods in more than 20 research institutions around the world. He has also enhanced the practical transfer of food technology to several nations by developing international agreements between WSU and overseas universities.
Barbosa-Cánovas has been a visiting professor at universities in Mexico, Spain, Colombia, and Uruguay and has served as editor for the UNESCO Encyclopedia of Life Support Systems in the field of food engineering. He has written textbooks, reference books and journal articles in English and in Spanish for an international audience.
He has aided the United Nations as an international consultant for the Food and Agriculture Organization. Part of his service involved preparing a comprehensive manual on the use of novel food processing technologies as alternatives to current processing practices in developing nations.
Barbosa-Cánovas has been a member of the IFT since 1980 and is the incoming chair of its International Division. He provides service as a member of the Committee on Global Interests and as an IFT Food Science Communicator.
shmg210-01
