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Analytical science leaders honored at the 2021 AOAC INTERNATIONAL Annual Meeting

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At the 2021 AOAC Annual Meeting in Boston, MA, an awards ceremony honored hundreds of scientists for their contributions to AOAC and scientific excellence.

This year’s award winners represent the analytical excellence that makes AOAC the highly respected organization we strive for.”
— Erin Crowley, AOAC President

ROCKVILLE, MD, USA, September 16, 2021 /EINPresswire.com/ -- At the 2021 AOAC INTERNATIONAL Annual Meeting in Boston, MA, an awards ceremony honored hundreds of analytical science leaders for their contributions to AOAC and scientific excellence. Twenty-one awards recognized scientific excellence across the spectrum of AOAC activities, including method development, expert review panels, editorial contributions to the Journal of AOAC INTERNATIONAL, and technical service.

“This year’s award winners represent the analytical excellence that makes AOAC the highly respected organization we strive for,” said AOAC President Erin Crowley. “From Dr. DeVries and his 40 years of dedication to our student winners just beginning their journeys, we are grateful for their passion and contributions to food safety and public health.”

The Harvey W. Wiley Award, AOAC’s most prestigious scientific award presented for outstanding contributions to analytical method development in an area of interest to AOAC, was awarded to Katerina Mastovska. Dr. Mastovska is a Chief Scientific Officer at Eurofins US Food Division and a Technical & Industrial Director for Pesticides within the Operational Best Practices Program at Eurofins Scientific. An AOAC member since 2004, she has chaired or contributed to more than 20 AOAC expert review panels (ERPs), working groups, and stakeholder panels and has collaborated on or authored five AOAC Official Methods of Analysis℠.

As part of the Harvey W. Wiley Award program, the winner can nominate a student to receive the Harvey Wiley Award Scholarship. This year’s winner was Katerina Sebelova of the University of Chemistry and Technology, Prague. Her PhD work focuses on plant alkaloids in natural products and foodstuffs, as well as metabolomic and lipidomic of edible insects using advanced techniques.

The William Horwitz Award, the highest volunteer award bestowed by AOAC, went to Jonathan W. DeVries, Sr., who has served the Association for over four decades in both scientific and leadership roles. A consultant in foods, nutrition, and chemistry at DeVries and Associates, he brings more than 50 years of experience in quality-related analytical work, with more than 40 years in nutrition and food safety analysis and research. DeVries is only the third recipient of this prestigious award in AOAC’s history.

The Fellow of AOAC INTERNATIONAL Award, which recognizes the dedication of the volunteers who serve the Association, was awarded to seven highly dedicated members of the food safety community: Sean Austin of Nestle Research; Yi Chen of the FDA and CFSAN; Thierry Delatour of Nestec Ltd; Cheng-Zhu Liang of Qingdao Customs; Alfredo Montes-Nino of Microbiotics; Franz Ulberth of the European Commission; and Sudhakar Yadlapalli of First Source Laboratory.

Three student awards, two new and one in its second year, were awarded.

The first AOAC INTERNATIONAL/Herbalife Nutrition Scholarship, supported by contributions from Herbalife Nutrition and designed to encourage student researchers who are advancing analytical or molecular (DNA) testing in herbal or dietary supplements, was awarded to Brittany McIntyre of the University of Guelph and Jakub Tomasko of the University of Chemistry and Technology, Prague.

The first AOAC INTERNATIONAL/SCIEX Rising Star Award, supported by contributions from SCIEX and designed to encourage the integration of graduate students into AOAC who offer demonstrable potential to become thought leaders and scientific influencers in their respective fields, was awarded to Klara Navratilova of the University of Chemistry and Technology, Prague.

The second annual AOAC INTERNATIONAL/Eurofins Foundation “Testing for Life” Student Award, supported by contributions from the Eurofins Foundation, is designed to encourage student researchers who are advancing basic or applied science in analytical or molecular testing for food safety, security, defense, or authenticity, or health and environmental protection. This year’s award went to five students: Maryam Abdur-Rahman of the University of Maryland, Baltimore County; Tengfei Li of the University of Nebraska-Lincoln; Xingchen Liu of the University of Maryland; Raviraj Shinde of Shivaji University; and Leos Uttl of the University of Chemistry and Technology, Prague.

The Paper of the Year, recognizing the most outstanding original and creative journal article published in the peer-reviewed Journal of AOAC INTERNATIONAL, went to Yuecheng Zhang of Malmö University for his article, “A Green, Economic “Switch-On” Sensor for Cefixime Analysis Based on Black Soya Bean Carbon Quantum Dots”.

The Section of the Year Award recognized the AOAC India Section for its collaboration with the Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI), efforts to engage with potential new partners to increase membership in the region and promote recognition of AOAC, and involvement of its young scientists and a new online platform.

The AOAC Official Methods Board (OMB) presented four awards this year, recognizing significant contributions and meritorious volunteer service to the AOAC analytical scientific community.

The Technical Service Award went to Dustin Starkey of Abbott Nutrition and Robert LaBudde of Least Cost Formulations, Ltd for their dedication to AOAC analytical and technical communities in their areas of expertise. Starkey has contributed extensively to AOAC’s Stakeholder Program on Infant Formula and Adult Nutritionals and Food Authenticity Methods Program, and LaBudde is a longtime volunteer and member of the AOAC Committee on Statistics.

The Award in Recognition of Technical and Scientific Excellence was presented to AOAC’s COVID-19 Emergency Response Validation Program Advisory Group for their efforts to evaluate test kits for detection of the SARS-CoV-2 virus on stainless steel surfaces during the height of the global COVID-19 pandemic.

The Expert Review Panel (ERP) of the Year went to the Cannabis Analytical Science Program (CASP) ERP for Cannabinoids, chaired by Melissa Phillips of the National Institute of Standards and Technology, who reviewed methods for cannabinoids in cannabis to ensure they met AOAC CASP standards in support of requirements in the USDA Final Rule for testing hemp.

The final OMB award, the Method of the Year, went to “Quantitation of Cannabinoids in Cannabis Dried Plant Materials, Concentrates, and Oils Using Liquid Chromatography–Diode Array Detection Technique with Optional Mass Spectrometric Detection: Single-Laboratory Validation Study, First Action 2018.11.” Nine authors contributed to this method.

In addition, 234 AOAC members were recognized for their continuous years of service: two 50-year members, two 45-year members, nine 40-year members, seven 35-year members, twelve 30-year members, eleven 25-year members, 58 ten-year members, and 133 five-year members.

Katie Bergmann
AOAC INTERNATIONAL
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