Puhan, Zdenko

Biography

From 1971 to 2001 Zdenko Puhan was Full Professor of Dairy Science at the Institute of Food Science at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Zurich. He retired in April 2001. He was born on December 6, 1935 in Novi Sad, Yugoslavia, and is a citizen of Zurich and Bottmingen BL. After graduating in agriculture from the University of Belgrade in 1959 as dipl. ing. agr. he worked for 2 years in animal production on large state farms. With a federal scholarship he studied dairy science at the ETH Zurich for 1 year and subsequently became assistant at the Institute of Dairy Technology where in 1966 he obtained his Dr. sc. techn. ETH. Until the end of 1997 Professor Puhan continued working as research assistant at the same institute. From 1968 to 1971 he held jobs in the food industry in Canada and Switzerland. In 1971 he was elected professor of dairy science and head of the Institute of Dairy Technology at the ETH.From 1989 to 1995 he was head of the Department of Agriculture and Food Science at the ETH Zurich. In 1973 Professor Puhan was named a member of the board of the Swiss Dairy Commission, presiding over it for 12 years. Moreover, he was member of several groups of experts of the International Dairy Federation and was elected its vice-president in 1996. In 1990 Professor Puhan received the award Premio al Merito Scientifico Lattiero-Caserio from the Regione del Veneto in Italy.

Research Interest

His main research areas were dairy technology, including chemistry and microbiology of milk and dairy products.