DreOsti Memorial Lectures 2024

SAIRAC national committee

Dr Andy Pearson will be doing the same lecture at each of the dates and venues below.

At the inaugural meeting of the South African Institute of Refrigeration held at Hotel Bordeaux in Cape Town on 17 July 1951, Dr Dreosti was elected the Founding President. The initial membership was 41 with Dr Dreosti being allotted membership number 1. He was president for the first five years and again in 1957/58 and 1962/63.

In 1962 the Institute widened its scope to include air conditioning and became the South African Institute of Refrigeration and Air Conditioning (SAIRAC). Since 1951 until May 2024 exactly 4 863 persons have joined SAIRAC.

Dr Dreosti was a true scientist and had a wide range of interests pertaining to the food industry, particularly fish and fruit and its preservation by means of refrigeration. His qualifications had an engineering flavour to them and culminated with a doctorate in engineering physics from the University of Utrecht in Holland in 1930.

• Milestones in his career include:
• Research into the pre-cooling of fruit for the South African export industry from 1930 – 1940
• Director of the Fishing Research Institute, Cape Town
• Technical adviser to the PPECB (Perishable Products Export Control Board)
• Research Professor at University of Cape Town

Dr Dreosti published over 300 papers on subjects in the fields of refrigeration, dehydration and canning. He made a lasting and valuable impact on mankind and left the world a better place.

SAIRAC launched the Dreosti Lecture in 1998 in memory of and to honour the outstanding achievements and leadership of its founder. The Dreosti lectures exemplify the objective of SAIRAC to promote the unrestricted dissemination of knowledge and information.