Charles Bamforth, an authority in brewing science, has been appointed the new chair of the Department of Food Science and Technology at the University of California, Davis.

Bamforth, who holds the Anheuser-Busch Endowed Professorship of Malting and Brewing Science, has been a member of the UC Davis faculty since 1999. He steps into the position held for the past ten years by Charles Shoemaker, who is returning to teaching and research.

"I feel honored to have been given the opportunity to head up the ongoing mission of a department housing so many outstanding faculty and staff," said Bamforth, who holds doctoral degrees in biochemistry and applied biology. "These are exciting times for us, as we head towards our new academic building and to the Anheuser-Busch Brewing and Food Laboratory."

While at UC Davis, Bamforth has taught courses on malting and brewing science and conducted research on beer quality, including the stability of beer flavor and foam. He is an original faculty member of UC Davis' Robert Mondavi Institute for Wine and Food Science, whose founding departments are Food Science and Technology and Viticulture and Enology.

In 2004, Bamforth's book "Beer: Health and Nutrition" was published by Blackwell Science Ltd. In it, Bamforth set forth a "warts and all" discussion of the beverage, its history and its role in the diet through the ages. He also examined the science of malting and brewing, the nutritional content of beer, and the potential health benefits of compounds found in beer.

He also is the author of "Beer -- Tap into the Art and Science of Brewing," published in two editions by the Oxford University Press, and of "Standards of Brewing: Formulas for Consistency and Excellence," published in 2002 by Brewers Publications.

Scheduled for publication by Blackwell in September 2005 is "Food, Fermentation and Micro-organisms," in which Bamforth provides comprehensive coverage of all known food applications of fermentation including diverse alcoholic beverages, bread, cheese and other dairy products, meats and vegetables.

Before coming to UC Davis, Bamforth was prominent in the brewing industry in England. He worked for the Brewing Research Foundation and for Bass Brewers, as Research Manager and Quality Assurance Manager. He is a Fellow of the Institute of Brewing and Distilling and a Fellow of the Institute of Biology.

The Department of Food Science and Technology at UC Davis is one of the leading food science programs in the nation and the only such program in the 10-campus University of California system. It also offers the only food science doctoral program in the state. Current research in the department is focused on improving the fundamental understanding of the nature of foods, the way that nutrients affect body chemistry, how we taste and smell food, and the physiology and method of attack of food-borne microorganisms.