CHICAGO – Martin Wiedmann, DVM, Ph.D., professor in the department of food science at Cornell Univ., received the American Meat Institute Foundation (AMIF) Scientific Achievement Award April 14 during the AMI Meat, Poultry & Seafood Convention and Exposition in Chicago, Ill. His work centers around the ecology, evolution and transmission of key foodborne pathogens, with a focus onListeriaandSalmonella.

Wiedmann’s work has enhanced understanding of the transmission of foodborne pathogens from farm animals and from foods to humans, said AMI Chairman Dennis Vignieri, president of Kenosha Beef International, in presenting the award. He has also been instrumental in helping expand knowledge about how to detect and subtype
Listeriamonocytogenes in the plant environment.

Wiedmann also has made valuable contributions to better understandListeriamonocytogenes risk in various products and locations in the cold chain, Vignieri added, and he is currently one of the principal investigators in a study ofListeriamonocytogenes control at the retail deli.

Wiedmann joined the Cornell faculty in 1999 and is a member of the Graduate Fields of Food Science, Microbiology and Comparative Biomedical Sciences. He also currently serves as director of the graduate field of Food Science and Technology at Cornell and participates in the Infection and Pathobiology Program. He is the director of the Cornell Laboratory of Molecular Typing. Wiedmann currently serves on the editorial board of theJournal of Food Protection and on the editorial board ofApplied and Environmental Microbiology. He also and is a member of the National Academy of Science Standing Committee on the Use of Public Health Data in FSIS Food Safety Programs.

“His research has contributed to the declines in pathogenic bacteria on meat and poultry — particularly the sharp declines we have seen in Lm on ready-to-eat meat and poultry products — and has had a significant impact on federal regulatory policy,” Vignieri said.