2008 PSA Awards

Gita Cherian

Gita Cherian is currently an associate professor in the Department of Animal Sciences and holds the Walther H. Ott Endowed Professorship in Poultry Science at Oregon State University, Corvallis. She received a BVSc (DVM) from the College of Veterinary Medicine and Animal Sciences, Kerala Agricultural University, India, and an MS and PhD in nutrition from the University of Alberta, Edmonton, Alberta, Canada.

Cherian has been actively involved in egg and poultry nutrition research for several years with emphasis on lipids and omega-3 polyunsaturated fatty acids. Cherian's scientific productivity in nutrition and egg lipid quality is exemplified by over 55 peer-reviewed original publications and several conference proceedings and abstracts. Cherian has written over 8 book chapters on the functional food attributes of egg lipids and has presented over 25 invited seminars nationally and internationally. She has provided training to poultry farmers from China, India, Israel, and Germany on designer egg production and egg lipid quality and has hosted over six international visiting scientists. At Oregon State University, she teaches a graduate course in lipid and fatty acid metabolism and a senior course in monogastric nutrition.

Cherian has served on several USDA peer review grant panels and is currently serving as an associate editor of Poultry Science. With funding support from a USDA-NRICGP grant, Cherian's laboratory is using a metabolomic approach to investigate the role of omega-3 fatty acids in metabolic and inflammatory disorders, a major cause of mortality and morbidity in meat-type chickens in the United States.

Douglas Korver

Doug Korver was born and raised in Lethbridge, Alberta, Canada. He graduated from the University of Saskatchewan in 1990 with a BS in agriculture and began a master's degree program at the University of Delaware. He completed the MSc degree in 1993. Korver then began his doctoral program at the University of California, Davis. Korver completed his PhD requirements in 1996 and was conferred the degree in 1997. In 1996, Korver returned to the University of Saskatchewan to take up a postdoctoral research fellowship.

In May 1997, Korver began his appointment as assistant professor of poultry nutrition at the University of Alberta. His initial work had a strong applied research focus; relevance of his research to the poultry industry remains an important consideration in his approach to research. In recent years, two other areas of research have emerged as areas of strength in Korver's research group. Recently, he has collaborated with other researchers at the University of Alberta to develop the indicator amino acid oxidation method for the determination of amino acid requirements of poultry. His other main area of research addresses avian bone metabolism. Korver's research group has validated the use of quantitative computed tomography to measure distribution of bone mineral among various bone types in poultry.

Korver is also active in teaching and has won several individual department, faculty, and university-wide teaching awards. Korver is the author or co-author of several peer-reviewed papers, book chapters, and abstracts at scientific conferences. Korver has presented over 60 invited talks in North and South America, Europe, and Asia at scientific and poultry industry technical conferences.

AMERICAN POULTRY HISTORICAL SOCIETY AWARD

J. Paul Thaxton

James Paul Thaxton Jr. was a native Mississippian. After two years at the University of Mississippi he transferred to Mississippi State University and received his bachelor's degree with a major in entomology in 1964 and in 1966 received his MS in animal physiology. He then accepted a position as instructor of biology at Northeast Louisiana State College and taught there for one year before entering the University of Georgia. He received the PhD in poultry science in 1971.

In 1970, he joined the faculty at North Carolina State University as assistant professor. In 1973, he was promoted to associate professor, and then to professor in 1976. His research included studies on the influence of environmental factors on development and expression of immune competence in broilers, layers, Japanese quail, and turkeys. He trained over 25 graduate students and served for five years as head of the graduate physiology program.

Then, in 1985, Thaxton and H. V. Smith founded Embrex Inc. From 1985 to 1990, Thaxton served as director and later as vice president of research and development at Embrex. After completing development and commercialization of the first system to deliver vaccines and biologics to embryonating eggs he returned to academia, accepting a position as professor of poultry science at Mississippi State University in 1990 where he continued to teach, conduct research, and train graduate students until his death in October, 2007.

Thaxton authored over 300 publications and 11 patents and trained 32 graduate students. His honors include the Poultry Science Association Research Award in 1974, the Research Award from the NCSU Chapter of Sigma Xi in 1976, Award for Entrepreneurial Excellence from the Governor of North Carolina in 1987, and the Faculty Research Award from the Mississippi State University Alumni Association in 2001.

 

 

Sandra G. Velleman

Sandra G. Velleman is the 2008 recipient of the Embrex Fundamental Science Award. Velleman obtained her training in a biology and medical background but has done almost all of her research with poultry with a primary interest in muscle development. She obtained her BA degree with distinction in biology from Boston University and her PhD from the University of Connecticut. Upon obtaining her PhD degree, she spent a total of over 9 years at the Connective Tissue Research Institute, University of Pennsylvania Medical School, Worcester Foundation for Experimental Biology, and University of Connecticut. At Connecticut, Velleman conducted research on several mutations affecting muscle and limb development in chickens.

In 1995, Velleman accepted an assistant professor position at The Ohio Agricultural Research and Development Center (OARDC) and in 2005 was promoted to professor. Her research at the OARDC has focused on the molecular and cellular mechanisms regulating muscle growth in chickens and turkeys with an emphasis on extracellular matrix gene expression.

Velleman was the first to establish that muscle cells from a line (F) of turkeys selected long-term for increased 16-week body weight have increased proliferation and differentiation rates compared with muscle cells from a randombred control (RBC2), which served as the base population for the F line and is not intentionally selected for any trait.

Velleman is a very productive scientist (86 full-length peer-reviewed scientific publications), who is the leader in the study of the extracellular matrix in poultry and in muscle development. She received the Poultry Science Association Inc. Research Award in 1998 and the National Turkey Federation Research Award in 2006. Velleman is a well-deserving recipient of the 2008 Embrex Fundamental Research Award.

Jason C. H. Shih

Jason C.H. Shih was born in China in 1939, grew up and was educated in Taiwan, and earned his doctoral degree and developed his career in the United States and worldwide. He received BS in botany and MS in biochemistry from National Taiwan University. In the United States he earned his PhD in biochemistry/nutrition from Cornell University (1973) and postdoctorate in biochemistry at the University of Illinois. Starting in 1976, he worked his way in from assistant professor to full professor at North Carolina State University (NCSU), complemented by sabbatical research at University of Wales, Cardiff, UK (1983), Bowman Gray College of Medicine, Wake Forest University, NC (1991), and Academia Sinica, Taiwan (1997).

During early part of his career at NCSU, Shih developed a genetic model for the study of atherosclerosis using Japanese quail. He made the discovery of a linkage of the disease with latent infection of a herpesvirus. He pioneered the study of thermophilic anaerobic digestion (TAnD) of poultry waste. He established a holistic farming system to harvest biogas energy and nutrient resources from animal waste. In 1993, the first full-scale TAnD system was constructed in China, where it is still in operation.

During Shih's career at NCSU, he has been honored with many national and international awards, including Visiting Fellowship in Wales (1983), National Pew Fellowship for Faculty Scholar (1991), American Heart Association Fellowship (1992), Sigma Iota Rho Rigney Award for International Services (1994), USDA International Visiting Fellowship in the Netherlands and Denmark (1994, 1995), NSC Visiting Fellowship in Taiwan (1997), NTU Presidential Award (2000) and PSA Evonik Degussa Award (2008). Shih has been the NCSU Coordinator of Chinese Affairs for many years. Currently, he holds an adjunct professorship at China Agricultural University in Beijing and Distinguished Visiting Fellowship at Academia Sinica in Taiwan.

David J. Caldwell

David Caldwell has been a faculty member in the Departments of Poultry Science and Veterinary Pathobiology at Texas A&M University since January 1997, holding teaching and research appointments in both departments. Caldwell is a native of Taylor, Texas, a rural farming community near Austin. He received a BS in poultry science from Texas A&M University in 1991. Immediately after graduation, he entered graduate school under the direction of Billy Hargis in the College of Veterinary Medicine at Texas A&M, where he received MS and PhD degrees in veterinary microbiology in 1994 and 1997, respectively. His research emphasis during his doctoral training was on B-cell immunophysiology in chickens. Presently, Caldwell teaches two undergraduate and one graduate course at Texas A&M. These courses include a junior level career-oriented seminar course that he co-developed and organized in 2002. He also teaches an undergraduate, junior-level course for poultry science majors in avian anatomy and physiology. On the graduate level, Caldwell teaches a course in general avian and mammalian immunology, which is cross-listed with the Department of Veterinary Pathobiology. Both undergraduate and graduate courses are taught on campus, and each is offered through a distance education format for students of other universities and employees in the commercial poultry industry. With regard to other undergraduate programs within the department, Caldwell developed and implemented an undergraduate leadership and recruiting organization for poultry science undergraduate students in the department, which has been named the Aggie Leadership Council. This group is comprised of approximately 12 students at sophomore, junior, and senior levels. The efforts of this very important group of undergraduates are vital for departmental recruiting to maintain a strong undergraduate student base. Caldwell also chairs the department curriculum committee, which oversees the curriculum for the department at both graduate and undergraduate levels. Caldwell presently serves as co-director of the Poultry Health Research Laboratory at Texas A&M University, where his primary areas of research interest include enteric microbiology, development of immunity to enteric pathogens, and identifying methods of reducing the presence of foodborne pathogens on processed poultry and poultry products. He has been a member of the Poultry Science Association since 1991 and has served since 2002 as an associate editor for the Immunology, Health, and Disease section of Poultry Science.

Young Min Kwon

Young Min Kwon joined the University of Arkansas as an assistant professor in the Department of Poultry Science in the summer of 2002 and was later appointed as adjunct professor in the Cell and Molecular Biology program in 2003. He has research experience in the field of poultry microbiology and bacterial pathogenesis. Currently, his research is focused on the genetic and genomic analyses of bacterial pathogens important in poultry to understand the mechanisms of persistence and virulence. He has developed a functional genomic approach to screen a bacterial genome for virulence genes during host infection. He is applying these approaches to dissect the pathogenic mechanisms of foodborne pathogen Salmonella spp. His laboratory recently developed an efficient genetic method for precise manipulation of the Salmonella chromosome, which has proven to be particularly useful for the development of efficient Salmonella-vectored vaccines that display foreign immunogenic epitopes on the cell surface. Using this tool, he has also been engaged in the development of Salmonella-vectored vaccines to control various infectious diseases in poultry, including avian influenza, coccidiosis, and necrotic enteritis. In collaboration with Billy Hargis in the same department, he continues to develop and optimize these Salmonella-vectored vaccines, with very promising progress.

Kwon received his BS and MS degrees in animal science from Seoul National University in South Korea and completed his PhD in poultry science in 2000 from Texas A&M University. He completed postdoctoral research at the US Department of Agriculture (USDA) Agricultural Research Service (ARS) in College Station, Texas, before joining the University of Arkansas in July 2002. His research projects have been supported by grants from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and USDA.

 

Todd Applegate

Todd Applegate was born and raised on a small family farm in Iowa. He graduated from Iowa State University in 1992 with a BS in animal science. He stayed at Iowa State University to work toward an MSc degree in poultry nutrition, which he completed in 1995. Applegate then began his doctoral program at The Ohio State University and completed his degree in 1999. Afterward, Applegate worked as a postdoctoral research associate at the University of Maryland, College Park.

In 2000, Applegate began his appointment as assistant professor and poultry extension specialist at Purdue University. His translational research program and effective communication with all segments of the poultry industry have provided the poultry industry with critical information and the tools needed to minimize environmental effects by reducing nutrient excretions and air pollutant emissions and to sustain the competitiveness of the poultry industry in the United States and abroad through economic nutrient utilization. Specific focuses of his research include evaluation and refinement of phosphorus and amino acid requirements for poultry, quantification of the synergy between different feed additives on phosphorus utilization, determination of phosphorus form and eutrophication potential of manure after different feeding strategies, quantification of nitrogenous emissions and dietary approaches for their reduction, and development and implementation of dietary formulation utilizing the amino acid digestibility of ingredients. Concurrently, his recent research has examined the nutrient cost and physiological response of the intestine to subclinical stress. His extension and research program has been complemented through collaborative projects with scientists in multiple states and countries.

To help convey this timely information, Applegate has been a prolific writer (56 journal articles, 3 book chapters, 50 conference proceedings, and 90 published abstracts). Despite only having been a faculty member at Purdue University for 9 years, Applegate has been asked to give numerous invited talks within the state (23) and country (36), as well as abroad (26).

Don Dalton

Donald Dalton is past president of the US Poultry & Egg Association, having retired as of November 30, 2007. As president, he was responsible for the administration of all Association programs and activities. The organization represents the poultry and egg industry on both a national and an international level with a focus on research, education, and information. It also sponsors the annual signature event, the International Poultry Expo.

During Dalton's tenure as president, he was instrumental in creating the US Poultry & Egg Foundation, later re-named for Harold Ford, his predecessor. The Foundation's specific mission is to foster and fund poultry science, research and education.

Prior to joining US Poultry, Dalton spent five years in the commercial egg business and 15 years employed by Valmac Industries, now a part of Tyson Foods. He progressively served as ingredient buyer, director of purchasing, director of planning, director of poultry processing, operations manager, complex manager, vice president and general manager of the foods division, and senior vice president of planning on the corporate staff.

Dalton has had an extensive military career, serving on active duty and with the reserve. He retired in 1999 with the rank of brigadier general.

Dalton earned a BS in marketing from the University of Arkansas. He is also a graduate of Harvard University's Program for Management Development. Dalton now resides in Mayflower, Arkansas.

Martin J. Zuidhof

Martin Zuidhof graduated in 1991 from the University of Alberta with a BSc in biological and physical sciences and in 1993 with an MSc in Animal Production. He began his work with Alberta Agriculture, Food and Rural Development in 1993, where his focus changed to extension and research. He returned to the University of Alberta in 2000, and in 2004 he completed a PhD in animal science while working full-time. He is currently a poultry research scientist with Alberta Agriculture and Rural Development.

Zuidhof's integrative approach to modeling systems led him to develop a broiler chicken supply chain model, which is used to evaluate the economic impact of management decisions anywhere along the broiler supply chain on the supply chain as a whole. This software tool has been used to support industry decisions, leading to greater efficiencies. The efforts of his program have been magnified by a communication plan with broiler producers, hatching egg producers, hatcheries, and primary breeding companies.

Zuidhof has applied creative experimental designs, innovative statistics, and nonlinear mathematical models to chicken growth and development. Zuidhof has helped gain an understanding of how dose-responses (to nutrients or enriching agents) in mathematical terms affect biological processes (e.g., growth and development) with increased statistical efficiency.

Zuidhof has authored 4 software programs and has been an author in 35 peer-reviewed publications, 11 book chapters, 32 conference proceedings, 16 research reports, and 75 abstracts. He has developed a highly regarded supply chain model. He has received 5 team teaching and research awards.

Sally Noll

Sally Noll received her MS and PhD degrees in animal science from the University of Minnesota, with an emphasis on poultry nutrition. Noll has been a professor and extension animal scientist in the Department of Animal Science at the University of Minnesota in St. Paul since 1985.

At the University of Minnesota, Noll develops extension programs directed toward the turkey industry in the state and conducts applied research in turkey management and nutrition. Her applied research program in nutrition has focused on improving turkey meat yield through nutrition and specifically examining the protein nutrition of alternative feed ingredients. Recently, her research emphasis has been on the utilization of distillers dried grains with solubles (DDGS) in market turkey diets. This has required examination of energetics, amino acid quantity and quality, quality measurements, and processing effects, often in collaboration with industry and other researchers. She has made numerous presentations at scientific meetings and industry conferences on the subject of feeding DDGS to turkeys.

She is a past recipient of the Minnesota Turkey Growers Association (MTGA) Ranelius Award, which recognizes service to Minnesota's turkey industry. She is also a past recipient of the Pfizer Extension Award and the American Feed Industry Association (AFIA) Poultry Nutrition Award. She has served on committees for several associations: the MTGA, the Midwest Poultry Federation Education Program, and PSA. She is a participant in the NE1022 regional research project on "Poultry Production Systems: Optimization of Production and Welfare Using Physiological, Behavioral, and Physical Assessments." Her service to PSA has included being an associate editor for Poultry Science and membership on different PSA committees.

 

Casey W. Ritz

Casey Ritz in an associate professor and extension poultry scientist in the Department of Poultry Science at The University of Georgia. Ritz is a native of Oregon. He received his BS in zoology and MS in animal science from Brigham Young University, and his PhD in poultry science from Virginia Tech. He has been an extension poultry specialist for the past 15 years: 7 years at West Virginia University and 8 years at The University of Georgia. His primary focus has been the development of educational and research programs, with emphasis on poultry production management and environmental issues involving waste management and nutrient management planning. Working collaboratively with others in the Department of Poultry Science and the Department of Biological and Agricultural Engineering, he has been instrumental in training more than 5,000 poultry producers, county agents, and poultry company personnel on nutrient management planning programs. Ammonia and dust control have also been focal areas for the past several years, with Ritz and the poultry air quality research team at The University of Georgia identifying ways to enhance traditional ammonia control measures and implement new technologies to aid the poultry industry in emission reduction efforts. Ritz has been a member of the Cooperative State Research, Education, and Extension Service (CSREES) National Poultry Waste Management Symposium planning team since 1990 and is currently chair for the 2008 symposium.

To date, Ritz has authored or co-authored 33 peer-reviewed publications and is a frequent speaker at professional meetings throughout the industry. His participation in nutrient management planning efforts in Georgia has also included assisting in the development of Comprehensive Nutrient Management Planning (CNMP) software for county extension agents, a Poultry Litter Matching Service Web site, and the development of regulatory permit compliance templates for erosion and sediment control at poultry facility construction sites.

 

 

Kenneth S. Macklin

Ken Macklin graduated from Northern Illinois University with a BS degree in zoology in 1992. He completed his MS degree in 1995 under the advisement of W. Elwood Briles. His thesis was titled "GVH Responses Between B and Y Systems of the Chicken MHC." After working briefly at DeKalb Genetics in the quality assurance laboratory, he moved to Auburn University to work with Robert Norton as a research associate. He completed his PhD under Norton in 2003. His dissertation was titled "Influence of the Chicken Major Histocompatibility Complex on the Development of Escherichia coli-Derived Cellulitis." During his time at Auburn University, he helped develop several models involving cellulitis and gangrenous dermatitis. His findings were instrumental in developing on-farm management techniques to deter these conditions.

In 2005, Ken joined the faculty of the Department of Poultry Sciences at Auburn University and immediately established his extension program in the area of poultry health. His efforts have included educating the general public about H5N1 avian influenza and on the importance of good on-farm biosecurity as a method to curtail disease. A major portion of his current research and extension program involvement has centered around methods to prolong the use of poultry litter and methods to minimize on-farm pathogens.

 

 

 

 

Victoria R. Sikur

Victoria Sikur graduated from the University of Alberta with a BSc in animal science in 2000, and with an MSc, also from University of Alberta, in 2003 under the tutelage of Frank Robinson. Her graduate work was in the area of turkey physiology and reproduction, specifically in fast- and slow-feathering turkey breeder hens. Sikur relocated to Ottawa, Ontario, in 2003 to join the Canadian Hatching Egg Producers (CHEP), the national organization representing broiler hatching egg producers. As food safety officer, she oversaw the development of an on-farm food safety program for producers. This program was judged technically sound by the Canadian Food Inspection Agency, the federal government body responsible for food safety in Canada. Sikur continues to be responsible for the management of the on-farm food safety system for broiler breeder producers nationally. She can be found in the office as CHEP's main source of technical knowledge on research, production, breeder health and welfare, traceability, risk management, and regulatory initiatives, as well as on farm, training producers, staff, auditors, and other stakeholders about on-farm food safety. Sikur serves on the Canadian branch of the World's Poultry Science Association as an industry representative and is also a designated professional agrologist.

 

 

 

 

Hsiao-Ching Liu

Hsiao-Ching Liu is currently an assistant professor in the Department of Animal Science at North Carolina State University. She received her PhD degree in genetics from Michigan State University and her MS in animal science from Iowa State University. Liu's research interests have focused on characterizing the role of both viral and host factors in Marek's disease virus (MDV) pathogenesis. Marek's disease virus is an avian herpesvirus that causes a lymphoproliferative disorder in susceptible chickens. With funding support from the US Department of Agriculture (USDA) National Research Initiative Competitive Grants program, Liu and her team are identifying host proteins induced by MDV infection. Liu and colleagues have also shown that a novel MDV-encoded antisense transcript to the MDV-encoded Meq oncogene is expressed in lytically infected cells. This finding indicates a new and novel mechanism that may regulate the expression of a gene that governs tumorigenesis in virally infected cells. These discoveries not only benefit the field of virology, but are also of importance in biomedical research. More recently, Liu and her team have been directing their efforts toward poultry genomics, especially in discovering and characterizing micro-RNA. Liu and colleagues wish to understand how micro-RNA participates in regulating the expression of genes in the chicken immune system. So far, they have profiled and identified novel micro-RNA expression in the developing chick spleen and bursa. The micro-RNA database that Liu and her team have generated is useful for comparative analyses of micro-RNA profiles and will provide insight into how different species have evolved specific variations for regulating gene expression to suit their particular needs.

Liu is also a member of the American Society of Animal Science (ASAS) and the International Society for Animal Genetics (ISAG), and she serves as associate editor on the editorial board of Poultry Science.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Alejandro Corzo

Alex Corzo is a native of Colombia. He obtained a bachelor's degree in animal science at University of La Salle in Colombia in 1997. After a short stay with the Colombian poultry industry, he enrolled in a master's program at Oklahoma State University, where he obtained his degree in 2000. He then enrolled in a PhD program at Auburn University and obtained his doctorate degree in 2003. Upon graduation, he joined the Department of Poultry Science at Mississippi State University as a post-doc and eventually as faculty. During his graduate training, Alex was the teaching assistant for two undergraduate courses, and after joining Mississippi State, he has been actively involved in the teaching of the department. He has guest lectured for a number of different courses and is currently the instructor for "Poultry Nutrition," "Feed Manufacturing," and a seminar destined to familiarize senior students with technical terminology for poultry in Spanish. He is also the instructor for a graduate course entitled "Avian Nutrition." Additionally he currently advises one PhD student and one master's student and co-advises four master's students.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

A. Bruce Webster

Bruce Webster earned BS and MS degrees in animal behavior, respectively, from McGill University in 1976 and from the University of Guelph in 1979. He completed a PhD in applied ethology at the University of Guelph in 1990. Thereafter, Webster served as scientist and research coordinator for the Atlantic Poultry Research Institute, stationed at the Nova Scotia Agricultural College in Truro, NS, Canada. He joined the Poultry Science Department of the University of Georgia in 1994 and was promoted to professor in 2006.

Webster's research has addressed aspects of poultry welfare, encompassing the genetic variation of fear-related behavior in egg-type chickens, behavior of caged laying hens, enrichment of cages for laying hens, humane on-farm killing of flocks of spent laying hens, welfare aspects of controlled atmosphere stunning and electrical stunning of chickens, behavioral responses of laying hens to feed withdrawal and induced molting, automation of the live hang of broilers at processing plants, factors affecting thermal stress and mortality of broilers during live haul, effect of dietary sodium fluoride on bone strength of laying hens, assessment of walking ability of broiler chickens, and effects of lighting programs on broiler behavior. From this work, he has published numerous refereed and non-refereed publications and has been invited to give over 110 presentations.

Webster participated in the Expert Committee on Farm Animal Welfare and Behavior (Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada). He has served on the PSA Animal Care Committee and on the Animal Care, Use, and Standards Committee of the Federation of Animal Science Societies. Webster is on the planning committee for the US Poultry and Egg Association's Poultry Care and Handling Workshop and the Cobb-Vantress Animal Welfare Advisory Group. He also serves as expert advisor to the animal welfare committees of Wendy's International and Kentucky Fried Chicken.

 

Felicity Dennis

Felicity (Filly) Dennis was born and educated in Bombay, India. She came with her family to Canada in 1966, where they settled in Montreal. In the following few years Dennis married Glen Dennis, and a family of three children, Jeff, Brad, and Pam, was born. In 1979, the family moved to Edmonton, where Dennis enrolled in an early childhood development and management course at Grant MacEwan College. She put her education to good use, spending the next 9 years as a daycare director. In 1989, Dennis accepted a part-time position as a research technician with Frank Robinson at Poultry Research Centre of the University of Alberta. This position became full time, and she has spent the past 19 years fully immersed in poultry research, teaching, and extension. Over the span of her university career, she has assisted over 40 graduate students in many poultry programs. She has excelled at turning the most complex of experimental designs into adoption of standard operating procedures in a practical and precise manner. Felicity has been an extremely popular member of the research and teaching team, because she is highly organized, sensitive to the welfare of poultry, and willing to seek improved techniques and data-handling systems. In particular, she worked to develop whole-body carcass composition methodologies, and she standardized broiler breeder artificial insemination, as well as egg incubation and subsequent breakout protocols. Students who worked alongside Dennis fondly related that she was a key component of their graduate program experience for her technical and personal skills. The research and management team acknowledge the role that Dennis has played in bringing out the best in people for the benefit of the research center. Her "others-first" philosophy has resulted in several very successful teams and individuals.

Elizabeth R. Gilbert

Elizabeth R. Gilbert, originally from Ruckersville, Virginia, received her BS in wildlife biology from Virginia Tech in 2003 and an MS in animal nutrition in 2005 under the direction of Kenneth E. Webb Jr. Her research involved the evaluation of intestinal nutrient transporter gene expression in the black bear. She is currently in the final stage of completing a PhD in poultry nutrition at Virginia Tech under the advisement of Eric A. Wong. Her research investigates the dietary protein and developmental regulation of nutrient transporter expression in the small intestine of two genetically selected lines of broilers. Gilbert's graduate research and academic career were made possible through a fellowship in animal nutrition awarded to her by the John Lee Pratt Foundation at Virginia Tech. Gilbert has received several honors in the field of poultry science, including a Certificate of Research Excellence at the PSA meetings in 2006 and 2007, and the Eastern Shore Hatchery Association Emerson Morgan Graduate Award in 2007. Her long-term goal is to obtain a faculty position in the area of molecular nutrition and pursue her passions in teaching and research.

 

 

Heather K. Burley

Heather K. Burley, Pennsylvania State University, University Park, is the recipient of the 2008 Maurice Stein Fellowship. Burley was born in Norwalk, Connecticut, where she also graduated from Brien McMahon High School. In 2007, she received her BS degree in animal bioscience with a minor in poultry and avian science from Pennsylvania State University. As an undergraduate student, she was involved in both poultry nutrition- and endocrinology-related research projects as a research assistant in the Pennsylvania State Poultry Science Department. She is currently working on completing her MS in animal science with a minor in nutrition. Her thesis research involves the reduction of crude protein in the diets of a large-scale commercial laying hen flock, with supplementation of limiting amino acids, in order to determine if this dietary strategy has the potential to both reduce feed costs and reduce ammonia emissions from manure while maintaining optimal hen performance. She has also been actively working on a second research project involving the use of vegetative buffers to potentially reduce the transmission of avian respiratory viruses, dust, and ammonia from commercial poultry operations.

 

 

 

Donald Palmquist

Donald Palmquist's career-long pursuit of understanding lipid metabolism in dairy cows is both pioneering and innovative. He decided very early to focus his research efforts on understanding lipid metabolism of cows so that practical and profitable strategies could be developed to incorporate supplemental fat into dairy cow diets. Palmquist's early research provided fundamental information on the metabolism of fat and fatty acids by dairy cows. The use of radioisotopes to quantify the transfer of dietary fat to milk fat was particularly innovative and led him to conclude that supplemental fat could improve efficiency of milk fat synthesis. He conducted applied studies to determine the effects of supplemental fat on milk production and composition. The highlight of this research was the development of calcium salts of fatty acids. This product greatly expanded the use of fats by the dairy industry because it could be stored, transported, and incorporated into diets much more easily than other fats available at the time. Recently, Don Palmquist's research program has concentrated on specific milk fatty acids. He was involved in some of the early research showing that specific trans-octadecenoic acids were related to milk fat depression. He showed that the predominant trans fatty acid in milk, vaccenic acid, is converted to trans-11 conjugated linoleic acid (CLA) in mice. Subsequent work confirmed that the synthesis of CLA from vaccenic acid occurs in humans.

 

 

 

 

Anthony (Tony) Pescatore

Anthony (Tony) Pescatore is an extension professor in the Department of Animal and Food Sciences at the University of Kentucky. He received his undergraduate and master's degrees from Michigan State University, his PhD from Texas A&M University, and his MBA degree from Wilmington College.

During Pescatore's tenure at the University of Kentucky, the Kentucky poultry industry increased from a $25 million to an $800 million industry. Extension programming developed to deal with this new state enterprise included a series of videotapes on broiler production, which received the American Society of Agricultural Engineers (ASAE) Blue Ribbon Award for Education Materials. Pescatore has co-authored 250 refereed journal articles, extension publications, conference proceedings, and abstracts and has appeared on nearly 400 television and radio programs. He has served on review panels for the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and US Food and Drug Association (FDA). The Kentucky Poultry Federation has named Pescatore to the Kentucky Poultry Hall of Fame. In addition, the Association of Kentucky Extension Specialists named Pescatore the Outstanding New Specialist in 1990. A series of six extension publications on avian influenza were recognized as the Kentucky Association of Extension Professionals Outstanding Project.

Pescatore directed the Kentucky Poultry Improvement Program for 20 years. He serves as the assistant superintendent of the National 4-H Poultry and Egg Conference and is a member of the National FFA Poultry Career Development Events (CDE) Committee. Pescatore has served twice on the PSA board of directors, once as a director and then as first and second vice president, president, and past president. He represented PSA on the founding board of directors of the Federation of Animal Science Societies (FASS). He serves on the editorial/review board of the Journal of Applied Poultry Research and has served as an associate editor for Poultry Science.

 

 

 

Frank Robinson

Frank Robinson was born and raised in rural Saskatchewan, Canada, with sustained exposure to poultry. He received a BS in agriculture from the University of Saskatchewan in 1979, an MS from Virginia Tech in 1983, and a PhD from the University of Guelph in 1986. He joined the University of Alberta as an assistant professor in 1986, and was later appointed as an associate professor (1991) and a full professor (1995). He has served the Department of Agricultural, Food, and Nutritional Science as associate chair (academic), and is currently the associate dean (academic) of the Faculty of Agricultural, Life, and Environmental Sciences.

For 18 years, Robinson taught a senior poultry production course based on undergraduate student research projects. He has led 26 cohorts of students in the Introduction to Animal Agriculture class. He has encouraged learning through inquiry and has supervised 26 graduate students. Robinson has focused his research on reproductive efficiency in meat-type poultry. His broiler breeder research program has led to more than 300 industry or lay presentations. He has been author or co-author of 96 publications in peer-reviewed scientific journals, 165 abstracts, two books, and 54 conference proceedings. Robinson led the Alberta Poultry Research Center (APRC) from its inception in 1986 until 2005, and it became the largest Canadian poultry research team.

Robinson has received the Canadian Society of Animal Science Young Scientist Award (1993) and more than 25 individual teaching awards, including the Purina Mills Teaching Award (1995) and the Canadian Agriculture and Agri-food Award of Excellence for Education and Awareness (2005). In 2007, Robinson was named a Canadian 3M National Teaching Fellow. Along with the poultry group, he received the 2004 World's Poultry Science Association (WPSA) Education Award. He was named to the Alberta Agriculture Hall of Fame in 2006.

 

William W. Saylor

William W. Saylor was born and raised in Butler County, Pennsylvania. He received his BS degree in dairy science in 1970 and his MS degree in animal nutrition in 1973 at the Pennsylvania State University. Upon completing his PhD in animal nutrition at Penn State in 1978, he joined the then Department of Animal Science and Agricultural Biochemistry at the University of Delaware as assistant professor. He has served as assistant chair of the department, and for 7 years served as associate dean for research in the College of Agriculture and Natural Resources and as associate director of the Delaware Agricultural Experiment Station.

For nearly three decades, Saylor has taught animal nutrition at the undergraduate graduate levels. Saylor is a fellow of the University of Delaware Institute for Transforming Undergraduate Education and is the recipient of numerous excellence in teaching awards.

Saylor has directed broiler nutrition research focused on mineral metabolism. For the past 10 years, his research has focused on exploring nutritional strategies for reducing nutrient emissions, especially phosphorus, to the environment through improved nutrient utilization. Saylor and his collaborators have been recognized for the impact that this "feed to field" approach to nutrient management has had on the environmental footprint of the poultry industry on the Delmarva Peninsula. Saylor was a 2008 recipient of the Delmarva Poultry Industry Inc. Medal of Achievement in recognition of his research and service to the poultry industry.

Saylor has been an active member of the PSA since 1978. He has been on the editorial boards of both Poultry Science and the Journal of Applied Poultry Research. He is currently the PSA representative to the Coalition on Funding Agricultural Research Missions (CoFARM) and is a member of the PSA Foundation board of trustees.

 

Brian W. Sheldon

Brian W. Sheldon received a BS degree in biology from the University of Dubuque, a MS degree in microbiology from New Mexico Highlands University, and a PhD in food science and technology from Virginia Polytechnic Institute. He was employed as senior food technologist with General Foods Corporation and then as an assistant professor, associate professor, and full professor in the Departments of Food Science and Poultry Science at North Carolina State University (NCSU). After retiring, he was promoted to professor emeritus.

Sheldon has served the poultry science community as director on the PSA Executive Board; as a member or chair of the FASS Scientific Advisory Committee on Food Safety, Animal Drugs, and Animal Health, PSA Environmental Quality Committee, PSA Annual Meeting Program, Host and Graduate Student Certificate of Excellence, and Research Manuscript Award Review Committees; PSA section and WPSA symposium program chair; section editor and associate editor for Poultry Science and Journal of Applied Poultry Research; and member and chair of the Merck Award for Achievement in Poultry Science and American Egg Board Research Award Committees.

Sheldon mentored 16 PhD and 13 MS students and 3 postdoctorates and hosted 2 visiting scientists. Sheldon has authored or co-authored 78 publications in multiple peer-reviewed scientific journals, 3 book chapters, 2 patents, 107 research abstracts, 51 manuscripts in published conference proceedings, 92 popular press articles, and 4 extension publications.

Sheldon's multi-faceted research program has addressed numerous problems including the assessment of liquid and shell egg pasteurization treatments; the development of antimicrobial packaging systems, temperature biosensors, and on-farm pathogen intervention strategies; the assessment of the ecology, genetic diversity, and growth and death behavior of Salmonella isolates; assessment of foodborne pathogens on food contact surfaces and efficacy of sanitation strategies; and the assessment of the Russian and US official methods of analysis of poultry products for Salmonella.

 

 

Robert F. Wideman Jr.

Robert F. Wideman Jr. received a BA in biology from the University of Delaware in 1971, spent two years as an officer in the US Army, and then received the MS and PhD degrees in regulatory biology (physiology) at the University of Connecticut. He was a postdoctoral research associate in the Department of Physiology at the University of Arizona College of Medicine in Tucson before accepting a position as assistant professor of poultry science at The Pennsylvania State University in 1981. Wideman attained the rank of professor of poultry science at Penn State University, where he advised undergraduate students in the animal biosciences and poultry technology and management programs, taught graduate and undergraduate courses in physiology, and conducted basic and applied research. In 1993 he moved to the University of Arkansas where he continues to teach undergraduate and graduate courses in animal physiology.

Wideman received the Research Award from the Poultry Science Association in 1988, the National Chicken Council Broiler Research Award in 1999, and the University of Arkansas John W. White Research Award in 2002. He served on the board of directors of PSA and the Federation of Animal Science Societies (FASS), and was the president of FASS during 2001. In 2003 he was appointed by the US Secretary of Agriculture to the USDA Research, Economics and Education Task Force, with the mandate to evaluate the merits of establishing a National Institute for Agricultural Science. In 2004 he was appointed as the associate director of the Center of Excellence for Poultry Science at the University of Arkansas. He served as section editor for Poultry Science. He has published 11 review articles and book chapters, 150 refereed journal articles, 100 technical or poultry industry articles, and he has three US patents.

 

 

 

 

Fred Adams Jr.

Fred Adams Jr. was born in Macon, Mississippi, November 26, 1931. He went to grade school and high school in Noxubee County, graduating in 1949. He attended East Mississippi Junior College in 1949. He graduated in 1953 after spending 21 months in the Army. He was part of the National Guard unit that was activated in August 1950. From East Mississippi Junior College, he went to the University of Southern Mississippi, graduating in 1954.

After graduation, Fred worked for the Ralston Purina Company for three years in feed sales in Louisiana and Mississippi. In 1957, he started his own poultry and egg business in Jackson, Mississippi. In 1969, Fred merged his business, Adams Foods Incorporated, with an egg company in California and an egg company in Maine. That was the beginning of Cal-Maine Foods Incorporated. Fred also served as director on the New Orleans branch of the Federal Reserve System from October 27, 1971 to December 31, 1975.

In 1996, Cal-Maine Foods, Incorporated became a public company with an initial public offering of its stock. The company is now the number one company in the production and marketing of fresh shell eggs in the United States. Cal-Maine has approximately 16% market share in the United States. Its customers are national and regional retail chain stores and institutional distributors.

Fred married Dorothy Proctor from Clarksdale, Mississippi in 1954. They had four daughters. Dorothy died in 1993. Fred married Jean Morris in 1994. Together they have nine children and 21 grandchildren. They are members of Christ United Methodist Church in Jackson.

 

 

 

 

 

Donald McQueen Shaver

Donald McQueen Shaver was born and has lived his entire life in Cambridge, Ontario, Canada. He began breeding chickens in his parents' backyard when he was 12 years old. Three years later, his breeding stock was winning awards at the Canadian National Egg Laying Test in Ottawa. Shaver went on to become the founder of Shaver Poultry Breeding Farms Ltd. After spending 1941 to 1945 overseas with the Royal Canadian Armoured Corps, he restarted his breeding operation, which ultimately played a major role in licensing laying hens (egg-type chickens) and broilers (meat chickens) for distribution in more than 90 countries. Shaver is recognized throughout the world as a pioneer in the globalization of the poultry industry. Internationally, as selection criteria moved from egg production and growth rate to include feed efficiency, disease resistance, and carcass conformation, Shaver's stocks contributed to a substantial component of the world market. In particular, the Shaver Starcross 288 genotype became the world champion for egg production. The breeding company also included beef cattle beginning in 1959. In the 1960s, with the wave of imports of "exotic" cattle from Europe, Don Shaver became president of the Canadian Lincoln Red and Maine-Anjou breed associations. He developed the Shaver Beefblend, which is a stable population that was shipped to four continents as semen, and embryos of live cattle. Shaver was one of the first individuals to react to concerns that genetic diversity in farm animals is decreasing. In his retirement, he has served as an advocate for the preservation of farm animal genetics, leading to the formation of the Canadian Farm Animal Genetic Resource Foundation. Canada is now a global leader in genetic preservation.