The American Meat Science Association has named a University of Kentucky College of Agriculture associate professor as one of three recipients of the Distinguished Achievement Award. The award was established in 1992 and is designed to recognize and foster the development of young AMSA members who have demonstrated significant scientific skills in muscle foods research and technology that contribute to the animal products industry and the AMSA. The award is sponsored by Burke Corporation.

Surendranath Suman is faculty member in the Department of Animal and Food Sciences. He holds associate faculty appointments at the UK Center for Muscle Biology and the Graduate Center for Nutritional Sciences in the College of Medicine. Suman’s research program focuses on the fundamental basis and applied aspects of meat color and is continuously supported by the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Agriculture and Food Research Initiative Competitive Grants Program.

His is one of only a handful of people across the world utilizing proteomic tools to interpret and solve protein-based concerns in meats. Proteomics is the study of proteins. He has published 35 peer-reviewed journal articles and has delivered presentations at conferences and institutions in the United States, China, India, Argentina, Brazil, Norway and Germany. Suman received the American Society of Animal Science Southern Section’s Outstanding Young Animal Scientist Award – Research (2012), the International Meat Secretariat’s Prize for Meat Science and Technology (2009), and the American Oil Chemists’ Society’s Outstanding Paper Award (2006).

Suman came to the United States from India in 2002 and earned a doctorate from the University of Connecticut. In addition to teaching and research duties, he advises the Food Science Club.

With Suman’s AMSA recognition, every faculty member in the UK meat science area has now received the distinction.