Spectrum - Volume 19 Issue 20 February 13, 1997 - Hackney earns top state faculty reognition

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Hackney earns top state faculty reognition

By Stewart MacInnis

Spectrum Volume 19 Issue 20 - February 13, 1997

Cameron Hackney, head of the Department of Food Science and Technology, was one of 11 professors across the state to receive the Virginia Outstanding Faculty Award in a special ceremony Monday.

Hackney was cited for having distinguished himself in the three areas that are central to Virginia Tech's mission: outreach, teaching, and research. Now in his twelfth year at Virginia Tech, Hackney has received recognition in all three areas. His honors include Virginia Tech's 1995 Alumni Extension Award and Gamma Sigma Delta's 1996 Extension Award of Merit; induction into the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences Academy of Teaching Excellence; and Gamma Sigma Delta's 1995 Teaching Award of Merit.

He has been the principal or co-principal investigator on grants totaling more than $2.8 million, and has authored nearly 100 book chapters, papers in refereed journals, government report chapters, book reviews, and Extension publications. He also has delivered more than four dozen invited research presentations.

A member of many national and state food-science advisory boards and committees, Hackney earned his bachelor's degree in animal science, his master's degree in agricultural microbiology at West Virginia University, and his Ph.D. in food science at North Carolina State University.

Hackney and each of the other winners received a $5,000 cash prize, made possible by the governor and General Assembly, and a commemorative crystal sculpture. They were also honored at an awards banquet in Richmond. Governor George Allen, Secretary of Education Beverly H. Sgro, legislators, council members, and college and university presidents were among the dignitaries attending.

The winners were selected by a 21-member panel consisting of council members, business and community leaders, members of the boards of visitors or trustees, past award recipients, and other distinguished faculty members from Virginia's public and private colleges and universities.

They were selected from a pool of 89 nominations from 37 institutions state-wide. There are some 15,000 faculty members in Virginia who are eligible for the awards. In all, 129 faculty members have received this award since the program's founding in 1986.