Sundaram Gunasekaran, professor of food and bioprocess engineering at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, has received the 2003 International Dairy Foods Association Research Award. Gunasekaran received the award, sponsored by the International Dairy Foods Research Association, during the awards ceremony at the annual meeting of the American Dairy Science Association in Phoenix.

Gunasekaran developed the UW Meltmeter and the UW MeltProfiler and their related data analysis software. The UW Meltmeter was the first significant objective cheese meltability measurement and test procedure developed in the past 25 years. Working closely with the cheese industry and in response to industry feedback, Gunasekaran later developed the UW MeltProfiler. Measurements of cheese melting properties with these approaches has enabled the cheese industry to modify cheese manufacturing processes to produce cheese that meets the functionality targets of the food service pizza industry.

Gunasekaran has written 55 refereed publications on dairy foods processing topics, edited a book on nondestructive food evaluation techniques, and co-authored a book, “Cheese Rheology and Texture.” In addition, he has written numerous book chapters, conference proceedings papers, and research abstracts. Gunasekaran has trained 27 graduate students in MS and Ph.D. programs.

Gunasekaran received his B.E. degree from Tamil Nadu Agricultural University in India, and his Ph.D. in agricultural engineering from the University of Illinois. He joined the faculty of the Department of Biological Systems Engineering at the University of Wisconsin-Madison in 1988, and holds a joint appointment in the Department of Food Science.