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Published on 04/01/04

U.S. Secretary for Food Safety lectures April 22

Morgan Roan
University of Georgia

Dr. Elsa A. Murano, secretary of Food Safety and Inspection Service for the United States Department of Agriculture, will deliver this year’s Woodroof Lecture at the University of Georgia in Athens.

Set for Thursday, April 22, at 2 p.m., the lecture will be held in Masters Hall at the Georgia Center for Continuing Education. A reception will follow at 3 p.m.

Murano will speak on "Legislating Logic: Infusing Science into Food Safety Regulations." Sworn into her position by Agriculture Secretary Ann M. Veneman on October 2, 2001, Murano oversees the policies and programs of the nation’s Food Safety and Inspection Service.

Before joining USDA, from 2001 until her appointment, Murano served as a member of the USDA National Advisory Committee for Meat and Poultry Inspection. Since 1998 she also served on the National Alliance for Food Safety Operations Committee, which she chaired in 2000.

She has extensive public and private experience in the field of food safety and has held several positions with Texas A&M University at College Station, Texas. Most recently, she served as the director of the university's Center for Food Safety within the Institute of Food Science and Engineering.

While at Texas A&M, she also served on the university's Department of Animal Science Research Advisory Committee, the Food Safety Response Team of the Texas Agriculture Extension Service, and chaired the Food Safety State Initiative Committee of the Texas Agriculture Experiment Station.

Prior to her Texas appointment, Murano served as a professor-in- charge of research programs at the Linear Accelerator Facility at Iowa State University in Ames, Iowa.

She was a member of several professional organizations, which included the American Society for Microbiology, the Association of Meat Science, the Institute of Food Technologists, the Poultry Science Association, and the International Association of Food Protection.

A native of Havana, Cuba, Murano holds a B.S. degree in biological sciences from Florida International University in Miami, a M.S. degree in anaerobic microbiology and a Ph.D. in food science and technology, both from Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University in Blacksburg, Va.

The Woodroof Lecture is presented annually in honor and memory of Dr. J.G. Woodroof, a pioneer in food science research and UGA Alumni Distinguished Professor Emeritus. The lecture is sponsored by the UGA Department of Food Science and Technology and the UGA Food Science and Technology Club.

The Woodroof Lecture is free and open to the public. For more information, contact the UGA Department of Food Science and Technology at (706) 542-2286.

Morgan Roan is a student writer with the University of Georgia College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences.

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