It is with great sadness that we inform you of the death of SCI Trustee David Reid. David passed away peacefully at his home in the United States on 15 August 2016.
An SCI member since 1998, David was passionate about SCI and our publishing activities, serving on the Publications Advisory Committee (PAC) since its inception in 2000. He was most recently Chair of PAC, being elected at the 2015 SCI AGM. David was also Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of the Science of Food and Agriculture (JSFA) since 1999.
Fellow PAC member Dr Peter Hambleton worked closely with David for many years and reflected: 'David will be much missed. He and I worked closely as colleagues on PAC, sharing the same beliefs that our publication portfolio is one of the society's greatest assets generating revenues whilst presenting the essence of SCI as a key scientific networking organisation. Despite his many years working in the USA David retained his essential scottishness, not just the accent but his down to earth views and forthright approach.
'During my time as Chair of PAC he was unstinting in his support and provided much valuable guidance based on his considerable knowledge of science publishing issues in US academia and as Editor in Chief of JSFA. David was passionate in his support of SCI's publications and did much to build the strong relationship with our publishing partners Wiley and to establish the reputation of JSFA as a leading journal in Agri-science. As Chair of PAC, David had a vision to strengthen the bonds between the journals and SCI and sadly he will not be here to see his ideas come to fruition. It is now up to us, his colleagues and friends, to deliver his vision.'
David held BSc and PhD degrees in Chemistry from the University of Glasgow, with his specialization being in Physical Chemistry. After a 1 year post-doctoral stint at The State University of New York’s Buffalo campus, he returned to the UK spending 13 years as a research scientist with Unilever Research. His focus was the physical chemistry of water in food systems, with a particular focus on freezing. David joined the faculty of the Department of Food Science and Technology at the University of California, Davis, in 1981 to continue his research on freezing, clarifying factors influencing both frozen food storage stability and at the effect of water removal in the concentration process.
David was a Fellow of the Institute of Food Technologists and IAFoST (International Academy of Food Science and Technology). He was an active participant in the International Symposium on the Properties of Water (ISOPOW) and served for many years on scientific advisory committees for AFFI (American Frozen Food Institute) and GCCA (Global Cold Chain Alliance). In 2007, AFFI presented him with a career leadership award. David retired in 2008, but remained very active in the food science profession. In 2012 he received the Frozen Food Foundation Freezing Research Award.
We will miss David’s deep experience in scientific publishing and his dedication to SCI. Our thoughts are with David’s family at this sad time.
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