ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1997, Roanoke Times
DATE: Saturday, February 15, 1997 TAG: 9702170015
SECTION: CURRENT PAGE: NRV-1 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
DATELINE: BLACKSBURG
TYPE: BEST OF TECH
SOURCE: ALLISON BLAKE STAFF WRITER
When you're a food microbiologist, you know which critters may be hiding in what victuals.
So those of us who find ourselves talking to these experts can't help but ask: "Is there anything you don't eat?"
"I don't eat rare hamburger," says Cameron Hackney, an easygoing but driven food safety expert who heads Virginia Tech's Food Science and Technology Department.
And that's really about it for Hackney, who says consumers need to take responsibility for their own food's safety, but that the "American food supply is among the safest in the world."
The problem with rare hamburger is the potential danger from the E. coli 0157:H7 bacteria, he explains. Steak's OK, though, because "the inside of a muscle's sterile. When you grind it up" - a la hamburger, well, that's when bacteria on the outside get in.
Hackney's one who relishes spreading his knowledge about food safety around the state, both to his students at Tech and the front-line industry folks who most need to know what he knows. To honor his own industry, the State Council of Higher Education for Virginia and Gov. George Allen on Monday presented Hackney and 10 other professors from around the state with the Virginia Outstanding Faculty Awards.
Presented annually, the awards were founded in 1986 to promote the best of the state's faculty. Recipients are selected by a panel of representatives from business, community and even previous recipients.
For Hackney, the award is the latest in a distinguished string that includes Virginia Tech's 1995 Alumni Extension Award.
Says his wife, Debbie: "He has worked very hard all of his career, and spent a lot of time ... he loves his work."
Hackney, who hails from Campbell's Creek, W.Va., outside Charleston, was the first member of his family to attend college - and he made the most of it. After earning a bachelor's degree in animal science and a master's degree in agricultural microbiology from West Virginia University, he went hunting for a job.
He sent his resume off to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, where somebody passed it over to a professor at North Carolina State University. Hackney ended up working as a food technician there, and went on to earn a doctorate in food science. Hackney, 45, has been at Virginia Tech for 12 years.
His wife is finishing up a doctorate in accounting. The couple's daughter, Lauren, is an eighth-grader at Christiansburg Middle School.
"He won this for his teaching, research and extension," said Andy Swiger, dean of Tech's College of Agriculture and Life Sciences.
Those three areas are central missions for a land-grant university.
"The unique thing about Cameron that you don't find very often, is his accomplishments in all three areas have been extraordinary. Very seldom a faculty member takes the opportunity to contribute significantly in all three missions," Swiger said.
Among those learning a lot from Hackney and his colleagues these days - Hackney stresses that his department operates as a team - are workers in the state's seafood industry. Hackney was among a group of scientists associated with the National Academy of Sciences who promoted a method of seafood inspections that the federal Food and Drug Administration has incorporated into its regulations.
But Hackney also teaches courses such as food microbiology and introduction to food sciences. Via his extension work, he has touched the fruit, dairy, poultry and seafood industries.
And that extension work makes a person a better teacher, Hackney says.
"You go out there and you learn the problems," he says.
Among his research, performed with colleagues, are probes into such questions as whether bacteria that clumps up in a film on milk can be killed with pasteurization.
"For me, the colleagues I've worked with over the years have been important," he said. "Extension people who teach are usually good teachers. We're used to getting out."
LENGTH: Medium: 79 lines ILLUSTRATION: PHOTO: Alan Kim. Cameron Hackney talks about his work. color.by CNB