Richard Hartel

The coordinator of the two-week “Candy School”  was honored last night at the American Association of Candy Technologists’ (AACT) Technical Seminar, in Lincolnshire, Ill.

Richard Hartel, professor of food engineering at the University of Wisconsin – Madison, was presented with the Stroud Jordan award, the association’s highest honor.

Robert Boutin, principal and president of Knechtel Laboratories, presented Richardson with a framed certificate and medallion featuring the image of Stroud Jordan, a renowned confectionery scientist and co-founder of the AACT.

Since 1951, the AACT presents the annual award to someone in the industry who’s contributed significantly in the area of education, organization or research.

Hartel has been with the Department of Food Science at the University of Wisconsin-Madison since 1986.

After receiving a Ph.D. degree in agricultural and chemical engineering at Colorado State University, he spent four years as a research chemical engineer at Eastman Kodak, Co.

Besides teaching several food processing classes at the University of Wisconsin, Hartel also teaches an undergraduate elective course on candy science and technology and has served as coordinator for the two-week “Candy School.” 

Hartel’s research, in general, relates to understanding and controlling phase transitions in foods, including confections. Specific projects include (but are not limited to) understanding and controlling bloom formation in chocolate and compound coating, developing a science-based approach to controlling sugar crystallization in confections and studying moisture uptake of sugar glasses.

He has published several books and articles and was twice awarded the Marie Kelso Memorial Award by the PMCA for technical papers presented at the organization’s technical conference.