Tributes to Owen Fennema and a Lot More

Abstract

I am sure all of you recognize Owen Fennema's name. For many, his landmark volume, Food Chemistry, is the reason for that recognition. Most, however, don't know that the Journal of Food Science Education owes its very existence to Owen's intervention. Succinctly, when the discussion of the IFT Executive Board over the “business model” for the proposed JFSE seemed to be torpedoing the effort to establish JFSE, Owen stood up and said, “As a professional society this is something we should do no matter what it costs.” The debate ended and JFSE was established. Be sure to read former Editor-in-Chief Daryl Lund's tribute to Owen to learn a lot more that you didn't know about this “giant” in Food Science education. We have 3 research articles in this issue. Harrison and Mayer article deals with using online focus groups to design a food safety intervention. Morrison's article provides details of doing a needs assessment to determine whether or not a Food Science program should be established at the Univ. of Guyana. Bolscheid and Davis's article reports on a survey of student preferences related to instructional methods. They looked at different majors as well as gender and differences within and between these groups. This might be of particular interest to those teaching or contemplating teaching lecture courses as a recruiting vehicle. Finally, Jim Bird has once again outdone himself in pointing us to education literature that we have likely missed.