By Faith Peppers
Georgia Extension
Service

Casimir Akoh, a University of Georgia food scientist, received
the 2003 D.W. Brooks Award for Excellence in Research
Oct. 6 in Athens, Ga.

Akoh has made significant and creative contributions in basic and
applied research in lipid modification. He has quickly gained
national and international recognition for his work on fat
substitutes, structured lipids, flavor and fragrances.

Akoh discovered eight fat substitutes that compete with olestra
as zero- or reduced-calorie fats. Several have been patented. His
research has resulted in more than 300 publications, including
121 refereed journal articles.

Nutraceutical research

His research and publications on Georgia blueberries, muscadine
grapes and Vidalia onion nutraceutical components are helping
position the state as a leading raw-material supplier for the
nutraceutical industry.

Akoh’s work has received more than $2.7 million in research
funding. In 2002 alone, he presented papers on structured lipids
in Spain, Turkey, Taiwan and across the United States.

He edited the first authoritative book on food lipids for
classroom use, “Food Lipids: Chemistry, Nutrition and
Biotechnology,” published in 1998. The textbook was revised,
updated and published as a second edition in April 2002. It is
now used worldwide for lipid instruction.

Other winners

Other Brooks honorees this year were Reid Torrance, county
extension programs; Mark Compton, teaching; and Don Shurley,
extension.

The D.W. Brooks award was established in 1981 to recognize
faculty members who make outstanding contributions in teaching.
In 1983, the awards were expanded to include research, extension
and county extension programs. An award for international
agriculture was added in 1988 and is given in even-numbered years.

The awards include a framed certificate and a $5,000 cash award.

D.W. Brooks Lecture

Before the awards ceremony, Denis Avery, a senior fellow of the
Hudson Institute, delivered the 2003 D.W. Brooks Lecture, “Has
American Already Lost High-Yield Agriculture?”

The lecture and awards are named for the late D.W. Brooks,
founder of Gold Kist, Inc., and Cotton States Mutual Insurance
Companies. Brooks was an advisor on agriculture and trade issues
to seven U.S. presidents.

(Faith Peppers is a news editor for the University of Georgia
College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences.)