Some say he’s the nicest guy in food safety. Some say he’s great to sit beside at meetings because of his witty asides. Some call him Dr. – Dr. Gary Acuff.

Texas A&M University announced last month that Acuff was going to become director for the Center for Food Safety, and will lead expanded food safety efforts. This apparently involves a rock-star style tour of food safety hot spots so he can figure out what not to repeat and what to do, so Acuff is going to be talking with folks at Kansas State University on Tuesday Nov. 9, 2010, at 10:30 a.m. in Call Hall 205.

Acuff’s seminar is entitled, The end game: what is really achievable in pathogen reduction, but he told me he may talk about something else.

Prior to his appointment as Director of the Center for Food Safety, Acuff served as interim head and then head of the department of animal science from 2004 to 2010. And before that, he taught undergraduate and graduate level courses and laboratories in food microbiology for 20 years and conducted research on the microbiological quality and safety of foods through his appointment with Texas AgriLife Research.

A past-president of the International Association of Food Protection, Acuff currently is chairman of a 10-member committee for the National Research Council, which evaluates food safety requirements for the Federal Purchase Ground Beef Program.