Karl J. Siebert, Cornell University professor of food science, will receive the American Society of Brewing Chemists (ASBC) Award of Distinction at the society's annual meeting in Phoenix on June 23.

This is only the fifth time that the award, the society's highest, has been given since its establishment in 1981. It acknowledges exceptional lifetime achievement in the science of brewing.

In nearly 30 years as a food chemist, Siebert has published more than 50 papers on brewing science, with particular attention to beer fermentation, flavor, haze and foam. His research involves biochemistry, biophysics, microbiology and chemometrics in developing a better understanding of brewing raw materials, processing, and packaged product quality and stability. His work has included the development of analytical procedures and the application of online analyzers.

Siebert spent 18 years with the Stroh Brewery Co., becoming director of research. In 1990 he joined the Food Science and Technology Department at Cornell's New York State Agricultural Experiment Station, Geneva, as a professor and department chairman.

Siebert has twice received the Presidential Award from the Master Brewers Association of the Americas. In 1996 he was made an honorary professor of the Moscow State Academy of Food Processing, Russia. Last year, Siebert and Penny Lynn, a technician in the food science department in Geneva were awarded the ASBC's 1998 Eric Kneen Memorial Award.

Siebert earned his bachelor's, master's and doctoral degrees, all in biochemistry, from Pennsylvania State University.