Donald J. McMahon
The 2012 elected fellows were recognized at the Awards Program of the American Dairy Science Association held on July 17, 2012, at the Hyatt Regency, Phoenix, Arizona. Election to Fellow is one
of the highest honors that the Association bestows. The Fellow Award recognizes ADSA members for their distinguished service to the dairy industry for 20 years or more. Each nominee must have made exceptional contributions to the dairy industry, to a dairy-related discipline, or to ADSA; must have had professional membership in ADSA for a minimum of 20 years; and must be in good standing with the Association.
Donald J. McMahon
Donald J. McMahon’s journey to becoming a Fellow of the American Dairy Science Association began 36 years ago when he met the late C. Anthon (Tony) Ernstrom in Australia in 1976. Unbeknown to McMahon, Ernstrom was not only the editor of the Journal of Dairy Science at that time but was also one of the pre-eminent dairy food scientists in the world and was always ready to recruit people to the study of food science. Shortly afterwards, McMahon began graduate studies at Utah State University and gave his first presentation at an ADSA annual meeting in 1982. After completing his PhD, and while working for Kraft Foods in Australia, he was an invited speaker at a symposium on casein micelles at the 1984 ADSA meeting. During the past 25 years, while he has been leading dairy foods research at Utah State University, he has been an author on over 100 presentations at ADSA annual meetings and on more than 60 papers published in the Journal of Dairy Science. Many of these have been in conjunction with the 35 MS and PhD students he has supervised.
McMahon’s dairy food research has included casein micelle structure, milk coagulation, cheese manufacture and functionality, membrane-concentrated milks, and ultra-high temperature processing of fluid milk beverages. He has had a consistent focus on understanding the chemistry of cheese that permits designing the manufacturing of cheese for specified needs. Much of this work occurred during the 15 years he has served as director of the Western Dairy Center, which is one of six national US dairy foods research centers established 25 years ago by the National Dairy Board from dairy farmer check-off funds, and is now part of the Dairy Research Institute network of dairy research centers. McMahon currently teaches dairy technology and processing to senior and graduate food science students as well as a graduate cheese science course.
Utah State University has a long history of providing training on cheesemaking since its inception in 1888; ten years ago, the program was revitalized by
McMahon to provide a strong technical foundation for the rebirth of small-scale cheese manufacture in Utah. Since then, companies that have received cheesemaking training and recipes from the Western Dairy Center have begun winning national and international awards for their artisan cheeses. In his role as the university’s professor of dairy processing, McMahon also directs the manufacture of their Famous Aggie Ice Cream, considered by alumni to be the best in the country.
McMahon has been a member of the ADSA Milk Protein and Enzymes Committee since 1989, and he served on the Journal of Dairy Science editorial board from 1985 to 1995. He received the ADSA Gist-Brocades Award for outstanding contributions to understanding cheese structure and functionality in 1999, the ADSA International Dairy Foods Association Research Award in Dairy Foods Processing in 2007, and the Journal of Dairy Science Most-Cited Paper Award (Dairy Foods section) in 2011 for his paper on casein supramolecular structure. For a career of service to the dairy industry and to ADSA in particular, we are pleased to make Donald J. McMahon a Fellow of the American Dairy Science Association.