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ARS Scientists Receive FLC Recognition for Tech Transfer
By Jim CoreMay 4, 2005
Three Agricultural Research Service (ARS) scientists are receiving federal technology transfer awards today for research to improve cotton cleaning and meat quality and to utilize a byproduct of cheesemaking.
The scientists are winners of the 2005 Federal Laboratory Consortium (FLC) Awards for Excellence in Technology Transfer. They are being awarded today during a ceremony in Orlando, Fla. FLC is a nationwide network of more than 700 federal laboratories.
W. Stanley Anthony, research leader of the ARS Cotton Ginning Research Unit, Stoneville, Miss., invented a device that cleans cotton and reduces wasted fiber by more than 2 percent per bale. Anthony's new lint cleaner is commercially marketed under the trade name LouverMax.
The invention prevents most good fiber from being ejected with the leaf particles, sticks, stems, seed coat fragments, grass and bark that must be removed. Cotton farmers using the technology can typically save $3 to $6 per bale.
Animal physiologist Mohammad Koohmaraie and food technologists Steven Shackelford and Tommy Wheeler at the ARS Roman L. Hruska U.S. Meat Animal Research Center (MARC), Clay Center, Neb., joined forces with a private company to further develop and commercialize the MARC Beef Carcass Image Analysis Yield Classification System.
The system determines the yield of saleable meat using computerized image analysis. ARS and Tyson Fresh Meats, Inc. have made the technology available to the entire industry, which could save $15 million annually by using the technology.
Charles Onwulata, food technologist at the Eastern Regional Research Center (ERRC), Wyndmoor, Pa., developed a process to use whey as a key ingredient in nutritious snack foods. Whey is a watery fluid left over after cheesemaking.
His new process produces crunchy snacks like those usually made from high-starch products such as corn flour. By using whey, Onwulata's process boosts protein in expanded foods. Several companies are interested in licensing it, and one has developed several new, low-carbohydrate snacks using the process.
In addition, John P. Cherry, ERRC's center director, is receiving one of three FLC Laboratory Director of the Year Awards for his involvement in moving technology from the center's research units to the marketplace.
ARS is the U.S. Department of Agriculture's chief scientific research agency.
