Food Innovation Center member professor Herbert W Ockerman of Animal Sciences and Food Science and Technology was awarded his third university honorary degree by the University of Kentucky. He will receive an Honorary Doctor of Science. An honorary degree pays tribute to those whose lives and work exemplify professional, intellectual, or artistic achievement and who have made significant contributions to society, the state, and the University of Kentucky.
Dr. Ockerman has previously been awarded honorary degrees from Poland and the Philippines.
A world-renowned professor of animal science and researcher in the areas of food chemistry and meat science, Ockerman has served his entire faculty career at The Ohio State University where he continues to work full time. He was the first to produce germ-free muscle tissue in a natural state, which led to canning food without a heat treatment. In addition to his contributions to food science, Ockerman has made an impact on the many students he has taught and mentored over the years including students who went on to become national secretaries of agriculture, deans of colleges of agriculture, university presidents, owners of food companies and directors of food research institutes.
His teaching and research is rivaled only by his philanthropy. Long ago, he established the tradition of collecting books and donating them to school and university libraries around the world. That tradition became the Frances J. Ockerman International Book Endowment, named for his late wife. He also created a separate endowment at UK in memory of Frances.