Contact: Phil Hearn
STARKVILLE, Miss.--A Mississippi State professor is receiving a national award that recognizes outstanding achievement in meat science extension and service to the industry.
William Benjy Mikel received the American Meat Science Association's Distinguished Extension-Industry Service Award during the organization's recent 2006 conference at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.
Mikel has served for the past year as head of the department of food science, nutrition and health promotion and, concurrently, as director of the university's Food Science Institute.
He organized the newly formed department and started the first formal extension program in the area of food science at MSU after arriving on campus in July 2005. He developed and implemented state and regional industry programs at the University of Kentucky prior to his move to MSU.
"Benjy has achieved an outstanding international, national, regional, and state record of accomplishments in the area of meat science extension and industry service," the AMSA said in announcing Mikel's selection for the high honor.
A member of the AMSA board of directors, Mikel has been heavily involved in intercollegiate meat-judging activities for many years. He has trained more than 900 meat and poultry processors from nearly two dozen states during more than 30 workshops conducted across the country.
The AMSA professional society, formally incorporated in 1964, plays a unique role in providing a forum for commercial, academic, governmental, and consumer interests associated with the processing and marketing segments of the meat industry.
NEWS EDITORS/DIRECTORS: For more information, contact Dr. Mikel at 662-325-5508 or wmikel@fsnhp.msstate.edu.