CDRF investigators receive honors & awards of distinction

Lifetime achievement award for Bruhn family

John C. Bruhn, a dairy food processing specialist emeritus in the UC Davis Department of Food Science and Technology, was honored for his life’s work improving the quality and taste of milk, cheese and other dairy products.

Bruhn became a UC Cooperative Extension specialist soon after earning his doctoral degree from UC Davis in 1968. In the 1970s, he led a national effort to identify the source of iodine contamination on dairy farms and at food processors. He also helped to establish the Dairy Research and Information Center at UC Davis in 1995 and served as its founding director until 2002.

The California Cheese and Butter Association recently presented John and his wife, Christine Bruhn, a consumer foods specialist at UC Davis, a shared lifetime achievement award.

“Joe O’Donnell and CDRF played important roles in my career and helped with so many projects that contributed to this award of distinction, said John Bruhn. “This was particularly true during the last five years when Cooperative Extension’s budget was cut so severely. CDRF and the Dairy Institute of California picked up the drop in funding equally, thus allowing my outreach education efforts to continue.”

LoCascio named Postdoctoral Fellow by Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation

Riccardo LoCascio, a Ph.D. candidate in microbiology and business development fellow at UC Davis, was one of 13 leading scientific postdoctoral researchers selected by the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation of Kansas City, MO, to become the first class of Kauffman Postdoctoral Fellows. The yearlong program uses entrepreneurship education and mentorship to equip the fellows to commercialize their scientific discoveries.

The Fellows were selected from a pool of 115 applicants by a blue-ribbon advisory panel, made up of successful scientist-founders and Kauffman Foundation fellows with expertise in the realms of scientific innovation and entrepreneurship.

LoCascio is currently working on CDRF-managed milk bioactive projects under the leadership of Dr. Bruce German.

UC honors Mitloehner for air quality research

UC Davis Cooperative Extension air quality specialist Frank Mitloehner was honored by the University of California Division of Agriculture and Natural Resources for his air quality research. Mitloehner is one of five UCCE academics to be awarded the 2009 Distinguished Service Award. The awards recognize and reward outstanding accomplishments by UC Cooperative Extension academics in five areas -- new professional, extension, research, leadership, and teamwork. Mitloehner aims to improve livestock production systems and describe the nature of their environmental impact. Some of his research studies concern air quality in the San Joaquin Valley, which ranks as the worst in the country. Mitloehner’s research is vital to California’s $4.6 billion, 1.8 million-cow dairy industry because producers must comply with strict new pollution regulations.

Affectionately called “Dr. Dairy Air” by his students, Mitloehner has become an internationally respected expert for his work determining the amount of gas emitted by cattle. He has developed new ways to measure airborne pollutants and methods to measure the impact of cattle on air pollution. One of his most visible studies is his work conducted in ‘bovine bubbles,’ which contain cattle and allow precise measurements of their gas emissions. At the invitation of the Office of the Chief Economist in the White House and the USDA, he serves on a federal advisory committee on climate change.

Bennie Osburn receives prestigious AAVMC award

The Association of American Veterinary Medical Colleges (AAVMC) awarded the “AAVMC Senator John Melcher, DVM, Leadership in Public Policy Award” to UC Davis School of Veterinary Medicine Dean Bennie Osburn, DVM, PhD, DACVP.

“Dr. Osburn exemplifies outstanding and visionary leadership – he looks for opportunities, sometimes creates opportunities, and then is resourceful and deliberate in efforts to bring those prospects to reality. He is an enthusiastic promoter of, and tireless advocate for, veterinary medicine, and the AAVMC and the profession have benefited directly from these activities,” said John Pascoe, executive associate dean at the University of California, Davis School of Veterinary Medicine.

At UC Davis, Osburn increased the number of DVM students and residents and developed K-12 outreach activities to encourage the next generation of veterinarians. His newest initiative is the development of a multi-campus school of global public health. Under his leadership, the school’s annual research budget rose 100 percent to $96 million.

Osburn also has guided the school in establishing centers of excellence in comparative medicine, vectorborne disease, zoonotic and food animal disease, wildlife health, equine analytical chemistry and other disciplines. Dr. Osburn was instrumental in establishing the UC Veterinary Medical Center–San Diego in 1998 and the Western Institute for Food Safety and Security in 2002.

Osburn’s experience in the school includes 20 years as associate dean for research and graduate education programs, acting director of the Veterinary Medicine Teaching and Research Center in Tulare, and six years heading infectious disease and immunology programs at the California National Primate Research Center.