SDT celebrates 70 years
The end of 2012 saw a period of change for the Society. Dr Ken Burgess has taken on the role of president, with Dr Sean Tuohy becoming senior vice president. Outgoing president Dr Liz Whitley took over the role of executive director from Maurice Walton.
Commenting on the changes, Dr Ken Burgess, former group technical director of Dairy Crest and technical director of Yoplait UK, says, “The new team is really looking forward to building upon the work of the last 70 years. The most important aspect of any society is that its officers are able to commit their time, energy and experience to a shared goal. Maurice Walton has been at the centre of the Society for the last eight years, and has done a great job in building relationships and re-establishing our conference programme. It’s been a pleasure to work with him, and I look forward to taking forward that work with Sean and Liz.”
Dr Liz Whitley, the Society’s new executive director, adds, “I’m excited to be able to continue to play a part in the work of the Society. It’s been an honour to serve my time as president, and I’m looking forward to taking on the role of executive director. We’ve set a clear direction for our work in the coming year, with training and productivity at the core.”
Constancy of mission
One of the Society’s key strengths is the on-going relevance of its mission. The Society’s core objectives remain the same since its creation in 1943.
In addition to the Society’s programme of conferences, workshops and study tours, a key part of its work is the dissemination of information through its publications. In conjunction with Wiley-Blackwell Publishing, the SDT publishes the International Journal of Dairy Technology and the SDT’s Technical Series of internationally recognised textbooks on a range of dairy science and technology topics.
Recently, the Society has published its own Handbook of Dairy Technology which is available to members on the Society’s website (www.sdt.org) and which will also shortly be available in hard copy.
Dr Burgess says, “We are committed to ensuring the UK and Republic of Ireland dairy industries remain competitive in the global marketplace by reducing manufacturing costs, maximising the value of every constituent of milk and advancing dairy education. Every couple of years we take a look at our core mission and see how we can focus on which particular parts of it are most relevant for our industry in the environment and times in which it finds itself.”
He adds, “In this respect the Society is totally in tune with the Dairy 2020 project that was recently undertaken in the industry, led by one of our past presidents James Neville.”
Dairy 2020 identified ‘Productivity’ and ‘Building Skills’ as two of the key outcome areas where the Society could make a real difference, “and that is where we want to put our focus over the next two years,” Dr Burgess says. “We have already included the area of lean manufacturing in our late 2010 conference and in the highly successful recent conference in Cork, and we hope to develop this knowledge into a supplement to our Dairy Technology Handbook later this year. We have also now set in motion the arrangements for a conference on Whey Processing Technology to be held at Reaseheath in June 2013.”
The Society has a strong tradition of making a very real difference to the status of dairy science and technology in the industry for the past 70 years. It is immensely proud of the reputation it has developed over that time, and is particularly grateful to all those members over the years who have contributed to its development.
