Congratulations to Dr. Shahidi
Congratulations to Dr. Fereidoon Shahidi on being the 2017 recipient of the MilliporeSigma /Nicholas Pelick-AOCS Research Award which recognizes outstanding original research in fats, oils, lipid chemistry, or biochemistry. The award is sponsored by MilliporeSigma, and Nicholas Pelick, a past president of AOCS. The award consists of a plaque, an honorarium, and travel funds for the recipient to attend the AOCS Annual Meeting, where they present an award lecture.
Dr. Shahidi presented his lecture and received this prestigious award at the 2017 AOCS Annual Meeting held in Orlando, Florida from April 30-May 3, 2017. Below is the announcement from AOCS of Dr. Shahidi’s award.
Fereidoon Shahidi, University Research Professor in Biochemistry, Memorial University of Newfoundland, Canada, is an internationally recognized scientist in the area of nutraceuticals and functional foods, particularly in food lipids and natural antioxidants. His research has concerned both basic and applied areas of lipid science and technology. Further, he has been listed among the most highly cited scientists in the areas of food, nutrition, and agricultural sciences.
Shahidi’s first contribution to the understanding of fats and oils was in formulating nitrite-free meat-curing systems. He found that the pigment responsible for the color of cured meats was mononitrosyl ferrohemochrome rather than a dinitrosyl compound as was originally thought. He further confirmed that this pigment had its own antioxidant potential and was able, together with other cure adjuncts, to render similar stability to treated meats as those observed for nitrite-cured products.
For almost 30 years, he has concentrated on the role of omega-3 fatty acids and marine oils in combatting degenerative diseases. His recent findings have revealed that chemically binding highly unsaturated fatty acids found in marine and algal oils with epigallocatechin gallate (the main catechin in green tea) can fully arrest colon cancer in a mouse model and to reverse tumor growth in human lung cancer.
Shahidi has published more than 750 research articles in peer-reviewed journals, as well as book chapters, and has edited or written 64 books, including serving as editor-in-chief of all six volumes of the 6th edition of Bailey’s Industrial Oil and Fat Products (2005) and is now preparing the 7th Edition of this set in 7 volumes. He is an active member of a number of professional societies, including AOCS, the American Chemical Society, the Institute of Food Technologies, the Royal Society of Chemistry, the International Union of Food Science and Technology, and the International Society for Nutraceuticals and Functional Foods – which he founded.
His involvement in AOCS is lengthy and wide-ranging. Named as an AOCS Fellow in 2008, Shahidi has also served as chair of both the Lipid Oxidation and Quality and Protein and Co-products Divisions. He received the AOCS Stephen S. Chang and Alton E. Bailey Awards in 2014 and has been an AOCS member for 25 years.