Rafael Jiménez-Flores, the J. T. “Stubby” Parker Endowed Chair in Dairy Foods at The Ohio State University, assumed the role of president of the American Dairy Science Association® (ADSA®) during the 2019 ADSA Annual Meeting held June 23 to 26 in Cincinnati, Ohio. He will serve as president of the association for one year. Dr. Jiménez-Flores served as vice president of the organization for the past year. He has been active in many roles with ADSA, serving as chair of the Milk Protein and Enzyme Committee (15 years), chair of the Milk Protein and Enzyme Symposium at the annual meeting (8 symposia), director on the ADSA Board (5 years), editor (6 years) and senior editor (3 years) of the dairy foods section of the Journal of Dairy Science, and member (2 years) and past chair of the Lactation Biology Committee.
Originally from Mexico City, Jiménez-Flores received his undergraduate education at La Salle University in Mexico City with a major in pharmaceutical chemistry and food science. His MS degree is from Cornell, where he worked with Frank Kosikowski. He first became a member of ADSA in 1982. He earned his PhD in food science and agricultural chemistry at University of California-Davis, where he continued his education in dairy foods science with Tom Richardson. Among his projects, he was involved in cloning milk proteins for their structure–function studies and successful production of milk proteins in yeast. Further work involved the cloning, engineering, and mammary gland directed expression of transgenic animals. He continued his work on dairy technology by focusing on milk fat, the milk fat globule membrane, and a process for removing cholesterol from butter oil.
His first academic position was as assistant professor at the University of Illinois in the Department of Food Science and Nutrition, where he was in charge of the dairy chemistry and technology program. He coached the dairy products evaluation team at the University of Illinois and established good relationships with the dairy industry in the production and processing areas. Dean Foods sponsored many of his undergraduate students to be active in dairy chemistry. After five years at the University of Illinois, he moved to California Polytechnic State University, where he was part of the Dairy Products Technology Center. His areas of research focused on novel methods for dairy processing, characterization of the milk fat globule membrane, surface interactions of milk components and lactic acid bacteria, spore incidence in dairy processing plants, and biological activity of milk components. He was part of the outreach effort at Cal Poly for 23 years, where he, together with Phil Tong, taught more than 4,000 people in short courses, including Dairy 101, Cheese Short Course, Artisanal Cheese Making, Cleaning and Sanitation in Dairy Plants, Ice Cream, and Milk Powder and Rehydration. As a professor in the dairy science department, he taught Dairy Processing, Introduction to Research for MS students, Sensory Evaluation of Dairy Foods, and Dairy Microbiology. He was the director of the Cal Poly Center for Applications in Biotechnology from 2013 to 2016. He currently serves as the J. T. “Stubby” Parker Endowed Chair in Dairy Foods at The Ohio State University. Jimenez-Flores holds 6 patents and has published numerous book chapters and more than 150 peer-reviewed articles covering several aspects of dairy science and technology.
ABOUT THE AMERICAN DAIRY SCIENCE ASSOCIATION® (ADSA)®
The American Dairy Science Association (ADSA) is an international organization of educators, scientists, and industry representatives who are committed to advancing the dairy industry and keenly aware of the vital role the dairy sciences play in fulfilling the economic, nutritive, and health requirements of the world's population. It provides leadership in scientific and technical support to sustain and grow the global dairy industry through generation, dissemination, and exchange of information and services. Together, ADSA members have discovered new methods and technologies that have revolutionized the dairy industry. www.adsa.org
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