The 2005 Signal Service Awards were sponsored by Keystone Foods and Elanco Animal Health.

Mohammad Koohmaraie Click here to view the presentation (Flash Viewer Required) The AMSA Signal Service Award was established in 1956 and is given to members in recognition of devoted service and lasting contributions to the meat industry and to the association. The first winner of the AMSA Signal Service Award is Dr. Mohammad Koohmaraie.

Throughout his career, Mohammad has focused his world-renowned research program in two major areas: the biological mechanisms regulating beef tenderness and secondly, on meat quality measurement, including the development of non-invasive instrumentation for carcass yield and quality classification.

Mohammad is the research leader of the meats research unit at the US Meat Animal Research Center in Clay Center, Nebraska. At MARC Mohammad has the responsibility for post-harvest food safety research. He works closely with members of the meat industry to design projects to address food safety issues relevant to industry needs. The focal point of these projects is the development of methodologies to assess the prevalence of key foodborne pathogens and intervention strategies to reduce or eliminate these from the meat supply. Mohammad and his research team also are “on call” to respond to research needs as directed by the USDA’s food safety and inspection service.

His research has provided the industry with answers to long-standing challenges. For example, in the early 1990s, results from Mohammad’s lab helped to establish that the calpain system is responsible for postmortem proteolysis and meat tenderness.

In the late ‘90s, Mohammad and his research team demonstrated the efficacy of the use of steam-vacuum as an alternative to knife trimming for beef carcass decontamination. He provided the data that FSIS needed to approve its use. Steam vacuuming is now a common practice in beef processing plants, and it has helped to increase meat safety in a cost-effective manner.

His work has been recognized by many. AMSA presented Mohammad with its distinguished research award in 1993, and the American Society of Animal Science awarded its meat research award to him in 1994. In 1997, the Agricultural Research Service presented Mohammad with its outstanding senior scientist of the year award and outstanding performance award in 2000 and 2002.

Dr. Koohmaraie received his BS degree in animal science from Pahlavi University in Iran. He received his MS degree from Texas A&M at Kingsville in 1980 and his PhD in animal science from Oregon State University in 1984. From 1984 to 1987, he was a postdoctoral fellow at Clay Center and Michigan State University. Mohammad joined the staff at MARC as a research physiologist in 1987 and was named the research leader in 1991.

Mohammad and his wife Susie have a daughter Sara and twin boys BJ and Nema. The twins were born just before Mohammad gave his first of many invited talks at RMC, this one at the University of Wyoming in 1988.

For his long, distinguished career in the meat science research, Dr. Mohammad Koohmaraie is a most-deserving winner of the AMSA Signal Service Award.

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