The American Meat Science Association (AMSA) announces that Dr. Michael Dikeman is the recipient of the 2014 AMSA Intercollegiate Meat Judging Meritorious Service Award.  The award was established in 1993 to recognize outstanding contributions or service to the Intercollegiate Meat Judging Program and is sponsored by Food Safety Net Services and Agri-West International.Dr. Dikeman will be honored at a special reception and awards presentation at the AMSA 67^th Reciprocal Meat Conference on Tuesday, June 17, 2014 in Madison, WI. 

Dr. Michael E. Dikeman has been involved in meat judging since 1964, when he competed as an undergraduate student at Kansas State University. He then went on to be the assistant coach of the Michigan State University team in 1967 that won the American Royal and Southeastern contests out of the only three contests in which the team competed.  He coached the K-State Meat Judging Team from 1980 to 1987 that won the International in 1986.  He also was co-coach of the AK-SAR-BEN Meat Animal Evaluation Team for six years. Michael has been a ‘champion’ of Meat Judging for 4-H and FFA, as well as intercollegiate contests. 

Dr. Dikeman served on the faculty at K-State for 42 years before retiring in 2013.  During this time he received numerous K-State, regional, and national awards for teaching, research, and advising.  He received the Distinguished Teaching Award from the American Meat Science Association in addition to the “Faculty of the Semester or Year” award for the College of Agriculture seven times at K-State. He was inducted into the Meat Industry Hall of Fame in 2013 and received an American Society of Animal Science Fellow Award.

Dr. Dikeman and his 37 graduate students published more than 425 journal articles, technical reports, abstracts, and conference proceedings papers, and he co-edited the first Meat Science Encyclopedia.  He has made invited presentations at six international conferences.  He served as Chairman of the 1979 RMC, President of the American Meat Science Association, President of the Federation of American Societies and Food Animal Sciences, and Secretary of the American Society of Animal Science.

Dr. Dikeman was nominated by Dr. Terry Houser, Kansas State University, who stated that, “Dr. Dikeman has made a tremendous impact on the lives of the students that he has coached and mentored during his career, making him a worthy recipient of the AMSA 2014 Intercollegiate Meat Judging Service Award.”

Source: AMSA