Career
Tanner joined at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign in 1923, where he was chair of the Bacteriology Department (now Department of Microbiology) until 1948. His work focused on food safety issues, specifically pasteurization and meat curing. Tanner remained as professor until his retirement in 1956.
Tanner"s research in food science and technology would also lead to the establishment of the food technology department at Illinois in 1947.
Tanner was a presenter at a 1937 conference with Samuel Cate Prescott of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (Massachusetts Institute of Technology) held at Massachusetts Institute of Technology on "Microorganisms in Relation to Food Processing." A year earlier, Tanner founded the scientific journal Food Research, now JFS., where he would remain as Editor-In-Chief until 1951. Tanner died in 1957.
The Institute of Food Technologists Chicago Section would establish the Fred West. Tanner Lectureship in 1960 that is held every May. This lectureship is given by leaders in the food industry.
Tanner was also posthumously awarded the Pastuer Award and honorary medallion in 1959.
