ITHACA, N.Y. -- To commemorate its centennial, Cornell University's Department of Food Science will hold a symposium, "Building on a Century of Excellence: Food Science at Cornell University," on Oct. 13-15.

The symposium opens Oct. 13, at noon, in 204 Stocking Hall on campus with poster presentations. At 3 p.m. there will be an overview of the past century's work and achievements, discussed by David K. Bandler, Cornell emeritus professor of food science.

On Oct.14 at 9 a.m. in the David L. Call Alumni Auditorium, Kennedy Hall, the morning session focuses on "Food Science in the 21st Century: Vision for the Future," featuring commentary from Susan A. Henry, dean of Cornell's College of Agriculture and Life Sciences, and Nathan Rudgers, New York state commissioner of agriculture and markets. "Food Science and the World Food Situation" will be discussed by Per Pinstrup-Anderson, director general, International Food Policy Research Institute. "The Current State of the Art in Food Science" will be discussed by Pat Fox, professor emeritus, University College Cork, Ireland, and David M. Barbano, Cornell professor of food science.

The Oct. 14 afternoon session, beginning at 2:40 p.m., features "Improving the Quality and Safety of Food," with Elsa A. Morano, undersecretary for food safety, U.S. Department of Agriculture, and three Cornell researchers: Robert B. Gravani, professor of food science, Martin Wiedmann, assistant professor of food science, and Carl Batt, professor of food science.

On Oct. 15 at 9 a.m. in the Call Auditorium, the symposium's final session focuses on "Delivering the Benefits of the Life Science Revolution to the Consumer" and features discussions by Rui Hai Liu, Cornell assistant professor of food science; J. Bruce German, professor, University of California-Davis; John Finley, Kraft Inc.; Mary Schmidl, University of Minnesota; and Joseph Hotchkiss, chairman, Cornell Department of Food Science.

Over the past century, the food science department has had several name changes. In 1902 the Department of Dairy Industry emerged when work in animal industry was divided into animal husbandry, poultry husbandry and dairy industry, according to Bandler, the department's historian.

From 1906 to 1923, the department was housed in East Roberts Hall, one of the first units constructed with state funds on the College of Agriculture's campus. In 1923 the Department of Dairy Industry moved to its present location in the newly completed Dairy Building, renamed Stocking Hall in 1947. Bandler says that research in dairy chemistry, bacteriology and manufactured products increased during the late 1940s and early 1950s.

In 1943 the dairy-research program at Cornell's New York State Agricultural Experiment Station at Geneva, N.Y., was consolidated with the dairy activities on the Ithaca campus. The word "dairy" was dropped from the department's name in 1966 and replaced with the modern nomenclature "food science." Today the department is involved with the conversion of biomaterials into foods and concentrates on such areas as food chemistry, food microbiology, food engineering, food packaging and food safety.

For further information about the symposium, contact Janene Lucia at (607) 255-2892 or the web site: http://www.foodscience.cornell.edu/centennial%20celebration.htm .