Hebron, MD (MMD Newswire) March 30, 2009 - Dr. Thomas P. Oscar (white male) a scientist with the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), Agricultural Research Service (ARS) at the University of Maryland, Eastern Shore (UMES) has filed a lawsuit in the Federal District Court of Maryland against the USDA claiming he was denied promotion because of his association with an African American institution.

There is a shortage of African American scientists in USDA. Consequently, the USDA established a Center of Excellence Program at UMES in 1995 to reach out to African American students and interest them in advanced careers in USDA. The Center of Excellence Program was the catalyst for development of a Ph.D. program in Food Science at UMES and was featured in the USDA video "Powerful Partnerships" and in the ARS magazine article "Powerful Partnerships Fuel Research Advances."

Dr. Oscar conducts high priority research with faculty and students at UMES to improve the safety of chicken produced by the local Delmarva Poultry Industry. Dr. Oscar is internationally recognized for his research on modeling the risk of Salmonella infection from poultry products and application of computer models to improve chicken safety.

Despite the success of his partnership with UMES, Dr. Oscar was denied promotion in 1999, 2003 and 2007 and has been told on more than one occasion by USDA officials that he needs to leave UMES to progress in his career. However, Dr. Oscar strongly believes that workforce diversity is critical for the future success of USDA and that he should not have to leave UMES to progress in his career.

The success of the Center of Excellence Program at UMES is documented on the Internet at the following urls:

ARS magazine article of Jan 1999: "Software to Improve Food Safety"
http://www.ars.usda.gov/is/AR/archive/jan99/safety0199.htm

ARS video of Nov. 2004: "Powerful Partnerships"
http://www.ars.usda.gov/is/video/vnr/partnerships.htm

ARS magazine article of June 2005: "Poultry Pathogen Model for Predictive Microbiology"
http://www.ars.usda.gov/is/AR/archive/jun05/poultry0605.htm

ARS magazine article of July 2005: "Powerful Partnerships Fuel Research Advances", see subsection - "Centers of Excellence"
http://www.ars.usda.gov/is/AR/archive/jul05/research0705.htm

For additional information or a sample copy, contact:

Thomas P. Oscar, Ph.D.
7168 Rockawalkin Road
Hebron, MD 21830
Telephone Number: 410-422-2583
tptoscar@aol.com

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