Rose Marie Pangborn

Education

Professor Pangborn earned a B.S. at New Mexico State University and a M.S. at Iowa State University.

Career

After joining the Department of Food Technology at the University of California, Davis in 1955, Pangborn was pioneer in the field of sensory analysis of food attributes, publishing over 180 scientific articles and supervising over 40 graduate students in this area. Her research and excellence in teaching would earn her the Institute of Food Technologists (IFT) William V. Cruess Award in 1977 and an IFT fellow in 1980.She was awarded an honoary doctorate from the University of Helsinki in 1984 and a "Pioneer" award from the American Society for Testing and Materials, Committee E-18 on Sensory Evaluation in 1989.

Legacy

Professor Pangborn also co-authored three textbooks, including the Principles of Sensory Evaluation by Amerine, Pangborn and Roessler, which served as the definitive text for an entire generation of sensory scientists. She also served on the editorial boards of eight different scientific journals, and was a co-founder of the Association for Chemoreception Sciences. At the IFT Annual Meeting, the Sensory and Consumer Sciences Division has oral graduate student competition named in Pangborn's honor.

Today, the Pangborn Sensory Science Symposium, a biennial international meeting of sensory scientists, is dedicated in her memory. Recent Pangborn Symposiums have been held in Florence, Toronto, Rio de Janeiro, and Gothenburg. The Pangborn Sensory Science Scholarship fund is a $15,000 award given each year to a Ph.D. student who intends to teach and conduct research in the area of Sensory Science at the University level.