By Brooke Hatfield


University of Georgia

For Daryl Lund, the path to a food science career wasn’t a
straight one. But he’s convinced others can learn from that. Food
science isn’t always an obvious choice for a student. But it’s a
good one.

Lund said his delivering the University of Georgia’s annual
Woodroof Lecture March 27 in Athens, Ga., was “an opportunity to
let undergraduates know what a math major is doing in food
science.”

Tried to become a mathematician

A senior at the University of Wisconsin-Madison almost 40
years
ago, Lund had a background in chemistry. But after falling in
love and getting engaged, he changed his major to math because he
thought it would be less time-consuming.

He ended up working in a food science lab doing statistical
analysis. And after one summer, he was convinced he’d found his
career choice.

“The real advantage in attending a college or university is
the
opportunity to explore,” said Lund, now executive director of the
North Central Regional Association of State Agricultural
Experiment Station Directors. “Take advantage of it.”

Academic blinders might prevent some students from developing
an
interest in food science, he said. And students who limit
themselves to classes inside their major might miss out on other
things as well.

Take classes outside your field

“I think every student should be required to take courses
outside
his or her college,” Lund said. “Taking an introductory food
science course should be great fun. And you’ll learn something
about food and you.”

Lund said food science outside traditional classrooms is
vital,
too. As chair of the International Union of Food Science and
Technology’s Distance Education Task Force, he’s seen distance
education help not only professionals in the field, but villagers
in sub-Saharan Africa.

“It’s estimated that 15 to 50 percent of all harvested food
spoils,” Lund said. “We have an obligation to share knowledge of
food science throughout the world so that people are served and
hunger is reduced.”

Lund urges university faculties to take a hand in getting
students into food science. “We absolutely must mount more
diligent efforts to recruit undergraduates,” he said.

Professional diversity on a science faculty is important, too,
Lund said, to a food science program’s overall strength.

“Most departments are hiring chemists, biochemists, chemical
engineers, microbiologists, nutritionists and physicists,” he
said. “I think that’s very good for the future of food science,
because it constantly reminds us that food science is an applied
discipline that relies on fundamental sciences.”

The Woodroof Lecture series is named for J.G. Woodroof, a
former
professor and creator of the food science department at the UGA
Georgia Experiment Station in Griffin, Ga. Each year, a leader in
food science is invited to present the lecture.