Diarmuid J.J. Sheehan of the Teagasc Food Research programme, has been announced as the winner of the International Dairy Foods Association Research Award for Dairy Foods Processing.

Awarded by the American Dairy Science Association (ADSA), the award will be presented on Tuesday, June 21, during an awards ceremony at the ADSA annual meeting in Kansas, Missouri.

Sheehan holds BSc, MSc and PhD degrees from University College Cork and a diploma in leadership from the Irish Management Institute. He currently works in the Teagasc Food Research Centre in Moorepark as a senior scientist, and also holds key leadership positions across a number of international and national initiatives.

Diarmuid Sheehan

Within his role at Teagasc, he is the research area lead and principal investigator for a number of national programmes, and also chairs the International Dairy Federation Standing Committee for dairy science and technology.

Sheehan’s research at the centre focuses on dairy food structure-function and health; physicochemical influences on bacterial metabolic activity; reducing the carbon footprint of cheese production; and small solute diffusivity within dairy matrices.

The award

The International Dairy Foods Association Research Award in Dairy Foods Processing was created to recognise individuals whose research findings have allowed dairy foods processors to develop new products and to make a significant improvement in the quality, safety, or processing efficiency of dairy foods.

To receive it, winners must have conducted research whereby the findings have clearly and significantly benefitted the dairy foods processing industry in its capacity to manufacture high quality and safer products.

Furthermore, the adoption of the research’s findings must be relevant to a significant portion of the dairy foods manufactured, with particular attention being paid to the long-term impact of the the research application. They also must be a member of ADSA for at least five years.