UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. -- Philip Keeney, professor emeritus of food science and a researcher so identified with ice cream that he is known nationwide as "The Emperor of Ice Cream," has been named a 1998 Penn State Distinguished Alumnus, the University's highest alumni award.
"Philip Keeney has devoted more than 40 years of service to the food processing industry," says Robert Steele, dean of the College of Agricultural Sciences. "His work with ice cream and confectionery products over that time proved to be of major significance to the food industry and to agriculture as a whole."
Keeney, a native of Cedar Grove, N.J., is renowned within the ice cream industry for his breakthrough research on how fat emulsions affect the structure of ice cream during freezing. He also made significant contributions to research on the textural properties of corn syrups and developed microcrystalline cellulose as a texture and structural agent in ice cream.
After serving as a U.S. Army Air Corps B-24 bombardier from 1943-1945 in the Pacific Theater of Operations during World War II, Keeney entered the University of Nebraska, earning a B.S. in dairy technology in 1949. He worked as an assistant manager of a milk-drying plant in Winthrop, Minn., from 1949 to 1951. He earned an M.S. in dairy technology from Ohio State University in 1953 and earned his doctorate in dairy science from Penn State in 1955.
Keeney joined the Penn State faculty in 1955 as an assistant professor of dairy science. He was promoted to associate professor in 1962 and became a full professor in 1966. He became a member of the food science department when Penn State designated the dairy manufacturing major as part of the food science program in 1975. He served as food science department head from 1980 to 1985.
Keeney was director of the Penn State Ice Cream Short Course from 1955 until his retirement in 1985. The short course, which expanded during Keeney's tenure, attracts ice cream professionals from every state and many foreign countries. Keeney continues to help teach the course every year.
Keeney also directed Penn State's research on the chemistry of the cocoa bean and other chocolate-related projects from 1962 until his retirement. His research -- which took him to such countries as Honduras, Brazil and Malaysia -- centered on how post-harvest processing of cocoa beans affects chocolate flavor. In 1985, the cocoa research program was perpetuated with the establishment of a $1.5 million endowment from the chocolate industry to study the molecular biology of cocoa.
Keeney developed and taught introductory undergraduate food science courses and developed graduate courses on product development and ingredient technology. He has been profiled as Penn State's emperor of ice cream in such media outlets as People, the "Today" show and the New York Times. He also presented an educational program on ice cream for the Smithsonian Institution's "On The Mall" series.
Keeney is a life member of the Penn State Alumni Association and is serving his third, three-year term on the board of directors of the association's Centre County chapter. He serves on the board of directors of the Dairy Recognition and Education Foundation and on the board of scientific and policy advisers of the American Council on Science and Health. He also is technical director of the New York Food Group and the Bon Sante unit of Health Management Resources.
Since his retirement, Keeney has helped form the Ice Cream Consortium, a forum that brings together independent ice cream companies from around the world to exchange information.
Keeney is a member of many other organizations including the American Dairy Science Association and the Institute of Food Technologists, and he is a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. He also belongs to the fraternal organizations Sigma Xi, Gamma Sigma Delta, Phi Tau Sigma and Phi Kappa Phi.
Keeney lives in State College with his wife, Elsie. Their son, Philip II, graduated from Penn State's food science program in 1985 and is plant manager of the Hershey Creamery Co. in Harrisburg.
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