Srinivasan Damodaran, professor of food science, has been appointed to the Owen R. Fennema Professorship in Food Chemistry and was honored at a reception on Friday, Oct. 14. The professorship, which honors Fennema’s commitment and contribution to food science, is for a five-year term and gives an outstanding professor resources to pursue research, attend professional meetings, travel, support undergraduate research and hire graduate research assistants.

Damodaran is the first recipient of the professorship. His research interests include protein-water interactions, phase transitions in foods (melting, freezing, etc.), biodegradable polymers, whey processing and industrial separation of proteins. He is a fellow of the American Chemical Society and a member of the Institute of Food Technologists.

Fennema, who passed away in 2012, was a professor of food science at UW-Madison from 1960 until his retirement in 1996. He served on numerous committees, including the American Chemical Society, the Council for Agriculture Science and Technology and the Institute of Food Technologists. He was widely recognized for his seminal book for food science scholars, “Fennema’s Food Chemistry.”