# Mohammad Koohmaraie

> Mohammad Koohmaraie is a meat scientist and president of the Meat Division at IEH Laboratories & Consulting Group whose career connects three practical problems: why meat becomes tender, how dangerous contamination reaches beef, and how instruments can grade carcasses consistently. After immigrating from Iran in 1978, he trained at Texas A&I and Oregon State, spent 24 years with USDA, led the U.S. Meat Animal Research Center, and moved to IEH in 2008. His teams tied postmortem tenderization to the calpain system, helped develop rapid pathogen tests and steam-vacuum decontamination, identified cattle hides as a principal contamination source, and advanced instrument-based beef grading. He received the 2026 R.C. Pollock Award for lasting contributions to meat science.

- **Role:** President, Meat Division at IEH Laboratories & Consulting Group
- **Organizations:** IEH Laboratories & Consulting Group, USDA Agricultural Research Service, Roman L. Hruska U.S. Meat Animal Research Center, American Meat Science Association
- **Education:** B.S. in Animal Science, Pahlavi University, M.S. in Meat Science, Texas A&I University (now Texas A&M University-Kingsville), Ph.D. in Animal Science, focused on meat science and muscle biology, Oregon State University
- **Known for:** Helped establish the calpain system’s role in postmortem proteolysis and meat tenderness., Led or contributed to development of rapid tests for detecting pathogens on beef, pork and poultry carcasses., Demonstrated the effectiveness of steam vacuuming as an alternative to knife trimming for beef carcass decontamination and supplied evidence used for federal approval.

## Career timeline

- **Childhood** — Began helping in seventh grade with his grandparents’ vertically integrated sheep business, which supplied 12 retail outlets.
- **1978** — Immigrated from Iran to the United States to pursue graduate study at Texas A&I University.
- **1980** — Earned an M.S. in Meat Science from Texas A&I University.
- **1984** — Earned a Ph.D. in Animal Science from Oregon State University.
- **1984-1987** — Completed postdoctoral work affiliated with the U.S. Meat Animal Research Center and Michigan State University.
- **1987** — Joined the U.S. Meat Animal Research Center staff as a research physiologist.
- **1991** — Became research leader of the center’s Meats Research Unit.
- **1993** — After the E. coli O157:H7 hamburger outbreak, led an urgent USDA research response on contamination routes and controls.
- **2005** — Became director of the U.S. Meat Animal Research Center and received the National Meat Association Professional of the Year Award and AMSA Signal Service Award.
- **2008** — Left USDA after 24 years and joined IEH Laboratories & Consulting Group as chief executive officer of the Meat Division.
- **2012** — Inducted into the Meat Industry Hall of Fame.
- **2022** — Received Oregon State University’s Distinguished Alumni Legacy Award and spoke at the AMSA Reciprocal Meat Conference.
- **2024** — Received an AMSA Meat Science Mentor Recognition.
- **2026** — Selected for AMSA’s R.C. Pollock Award for lasting contributions to teaching, research, service and the meat industry.

## Achievements

- Helped establish the calpain system’s role in postmortem proteolysis and meat tenderness.
- Led or contributed to development of rapid tests for detecting pathogens on beef, pork and poultry carcasses.
- Demonstrated the effectiveness of steam vacuuming as an alternative to knife trimming for beef carcass decontamination and supplied evidence used for federal approval.
- Helped establish cattle hides as a principal source of E. coli and other pathogens entering beef processing, informing hide interventions and sanitary dressing practices.
- Helped show that lymph nodes are an important source of Salmonella contamination in ground beef.
- Developed or advanced non-invasive instrument systems for carcass yield and quality classification, along with tenderness classification methods.
- Received Agricultural Research Service Scientist of the Year awards in 1992 and 2001.
- Received the American Meat Science Association Distinguished Research Award in 1993 and Signal Service Award in 2005.
- Received the American Society of Animal Science Meat Research Award in 1994.
- Received USDA Secretary’s Awards in 1995 and 2001 and ARS Technology Transfer Awards in 2004 and 2008.
- Inducted into the Meat Industry Hall of Fame in 2012.
- Received Oregon State University’s Distinguished Alumni Legacy Award in 2022, an AMSA Mentor Recognition in 2024, and the AMSA R.C. Pollock Award in 2026.

## Latest updates

- **2026-06** — IEH and the American Meat Science Association announced Koohmaraie as the 2026 recipient of the R.C. Pollock Award.
- **2022-10** — Received Oregon State University College of Agricultural Sciences’ Distinguished Alumni Legacy Award.

## Links

- Website: https://www.iehinc.com
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mohammad-koohmaraie-7a43ba139

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Last updated: 2026-09-28