The American Meat Science Association (AMSA) announces that Dr. Bucky Gwartney has been named an AMSA Fellow and is a recipient of the 2018 AMSA Signal Service Award. 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 Signal Service Award is sponsored by Cargill, Elanco Animal Health and Johnsonville, LLC. Dr. Bucky Gwartney will be honored at a special awards banquet at the AMSA 71st Reciprocal Meat Conference on Tuesday, June 26, 2018 in Kansas City, Missouri.

Dr. Bucky Gwartney is a native of Pryor, Oklahoma. He received his B.S. from Oklahoma State University where he graduated with distinction and received the Outstanding Senior Leadership Award. He then continued his education at University of Nebraska – Lincoln where he received his M.S and Ph.D. with emphasis in carcass composition and muscle quality.

Following his Ph.D., Dr. Gwartney completed Post-Doctoral Research at the University of Missouri before continuing on to work for PIC as a meat scientist. While at PIC, he developed the first statistical and quality control processes for pork carcass evaluation using the Fat-O-Meat’er. Dr. Gwartney also spent a short time at Webb Technical Group becoming a certified HACCP “Train the Trainer” instructor. At the National Cattlemen’s Beef Association, he served as Executive Director of Research and Knowledge Management.  Dr. Gwartney was part of a team that worked on beef safety interventions and product quality research.  He also led the team that developed and performed the Muscle Profiling study and won the International Meat Secretariat Prize for Meat Science and Technology.

Subsequently, Dr. Gwartney worked with the USDA, Agricultural Marketing Service in Washington D.C. as the International Marketing Specialist for the Standardization Division. He served as the Vice-Chair for the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe and its Working Party on Agricultural Quality Standards. He also served as the Deputy Director and Science Advisor for the U.S. Trade Representative in Agricultural Affairs. Dr. Gwartney has recently joined the Global Research Team at Diamond V as Director of Protein Food Safety Research.

Dr. Gwartney is a long-time member of AMSA and has served on the Board of Directors and is a past-president. He credits the AMSA meat judging program as one of the biggest influences on his career.

Source: American Meat Science Association (AMSA)