NC State’s Kenneth Swartzel was elected to be a part of the National Academy of Engineers, the highest distinction that an engineer can be awarded, for his work as a food-bioprocessing engineer.
“I feel deeply honored,” Swartzel said. “As I’ve said to many people, it is an enormously humbling experience.”
He has been a researcher, a teacher at the graduate level and a department head throughout his career. His main research triumph includes developing a new method of heat-based food processing.
Swartzel said he feels deeply honored for receiving the award, as being elected into the academy is something he would have never expected.
“It’s seen as something that is unattainable because there are so few people who get in,” Swartzel said.
Much of Swartzel’s research deals with continuous flow systems and food safety. Swartzel and his team have pioneered thermal flow technology that keeps food fresh for much longer. This heat treatment is used to sterilize food during packaging.
When using continuous flow though, heat is applied faster and in a more uniform way. He said continuous flow was used for completely liquid substances, but this was harder to use on foods with particles. Swartzel and his team started this project in the mid ‘80s and were the first ones to fix the issue of particles in continuous flow, which is now commercialized.
Swartzel’s research in continuous flow food processing has garnered 24 United States and 32 foreign patents. Eight start-up companies have been founded at the university thanks to his research, and his patents from products created in the NC State lab have brought in more than $20 million for the university.
Swartzel said that he is very proud to say that all of the technologies they developed have helped many North Carolina companies and start-ups. He gave the example of YamCo.
Before the company was started, 30 percent of sweet potato crops went to waste in the fields because there was no market for them until his team found a way to sterilize sweet potato puree through continuous flow, according to Swartzel.
When the team showed the farmers this technology, the farmers decided to start a processing plant. That plant is now YamCo, which processes those excess sweet potatoes.
In addition to his life as a researcher and administrator, Swartzel has also spent time traveling the state teaching people at other universities about the importance of research and technology.
From 2002-03, he directed the activities of the North Carolina Technology Development Initiative Program. This team of four people traveled the state, going to different universities and giving workshops about technology in society. They had met with 1,000 faculty members during that year, all while he was still a department head.
“That was one of the toughest years I had because I never stopped,” Swartzel said. “We did forums with deans at the different universities in the system, we did the workshops, but at the same time it was very gratifying to walk on UNC-Charlotte’s campus and see some of the technologies they developed there.”
Swartzel did not always want to be a food science engineer, however. He wanted to be an astronaut.
In his Personal Research Journey, he described how he used to love tearing things apart and building new things. He also was very interested in the space program. He was planning on getting a degree in aerospace engineering so he could become a pilot in the Air Force.
Swartzel said that he always had some problems with his eyes, and halfway through his undergraduate degree, he decided to get an operation to get his eyes checked. The doctor said that he had very poor depth perception, which was an issue for landing planes.
“He said, ‘There is no way you’ll ever fly a jet,’” Swartzel said. “That was pretty traumatic. That was a life-changing moment.”
After that, he went through several fields, including geology, material engineering and other random electives until he found one that stuck.
“I found my way over at the last part to this weird area called food engineering, and it was all because of this one faculty member, and his name was Vic Jones. I owe what I am and a great deal of what I’ve become to Vic Jones,” Swartzel said. “He got me interested in how I could use the technologies of aerospace engineering in the food industry. Most people would never ever put that together.”
He said that he was terrified of Jones, but he is grateful to him. He said that this professor changed his life.
After his undergraduate degree, Swartzel took a job in Wisconsin as a project manager for a food equipment manager. He had four offers, but he wanted the job that would teach him the most in the shortest amount of time. Swartzel said that this job is what started his passion for food processing.
“The passion comes from when you finally do push the button and the darn thing works, and you see product coming out and you know that you’re doing good for somebody, a lot of somebodies,” Swartzel said. “And maybe you’re doing something that’s been done before, but maybe you’re doing something that’s never been done before.”
Throughout his career, Swartzel has earned countless national awards, including the Institute of Food Technologists’ Nicholas Appert Award for preeminence in and contributions to the field of food science and technology. He is also a fellow of both the IFT and the American Society for Agricultural and Biological Engineers. He has published more than 120 scientific papers.
He described how the idea of doing things the way it has always been done was a very pervasive attitude within the industry, and he saw it all the time. He said that he couldn’t stand it, which is when he decided to go get his masters. Swartzel said that even after he got his master’s degree, he was seeing a lot of problems that weren’t being fixed because people were reluctant to change.
“Why I’m so passionate is that I have seen how little you have to do to make a huge difference,” Swartzel said.
Kenneth Swartzel, William Neal Reynolds distinguished professor emeritus in the Department of Food, Bioprocessing and Nutrition Sciences, poses for a photo after being elected to the National Academy of Engineering, one of the loftiest distinctions accorded to an engineer.
