2017 PSA Awards

Walter Bottje received his PhD at the University of Illinois in 1984 with Paul Harrison, conducting research on heat stress physiology in broilers. After a one year post-doctoral position in the Department of Veterinary Biosciences (U of I), he was hired in 1985 as an assistant professor in the Department of Animal Science at the University of Arkansas. He was promoted to associate professor in 1990 and to professor in 1993. He served as Associate Director of Research for The Center of Excellence for Poultry Science (1995-2002) and Director (2002 – 2008) for the Center of Excellence for Poultry Science. Bottje has focused much of his research career in the general area of antioxidants and oxidative stress after receiving an NIH First Research and Transition Award in 1987. He has also received competitive grants from USDA, NSF, and US Poultry and Egg. Since 2002, Bottje’s research has focused on relationships of mitochondrial function and feed efficiency. This has led to two book chapters and several review papers on mitochondrial function and gene expression associated with the phenotypic expression of feed efficiency. Current research is focused on developing a proteogenomic “picture” of feed efficiency in breast muscle.

Steven C. Ricke received his BS in agriculture and MS in animal science from the University of Illinois, and a PhD in animal science and bacteriology from the University of Wisconsin. He became a USDA-ARS post-doctorate in the Microbiology Department at North Carolina State University, then joined the Poultry Science Department at Texas A&M University as an assistant professor in 1992, associate professor in 1998), and professor in 2004. His research focused on food safety in poultry with an emphasis on Salmonella. He received the PSA National Research Award in 1999 and was named a Faculty Fellow of the Texas Agricultural Experiment Station in 2002. In 2005, he became the first holder of the new Donald “Buddy” Wray Endowed Chair in Food Safety and UA Center for Food Safety Director at the University of Arkansas as well as a faculty member of the Department of Food Science and the Cellular and Molecular Graduate program. In recognition of his research efforts he received the PSA American Egg Board award in 2006, the UA Department of Food Science Outstanding Research Award in 2010, and the Division of Agriculture - UA John White Outstanding Research Award in 2012. Ricke has been involved with the Poultry Science Association since the early 1990s, and served as an associate editor and more recently as Microbiology and Food Safety section editor for the Poultry Science journal.

Yvonne Vizzier-Thaxton received both her BS in bacteriology and MS in biological sciences from Mississippi University for Women. After working for 13 years in the poultry industry, she returned to school and earned her doctorate in poultry pathology from Auburn University. She has pursued ongoing studies at a range of institutions, including the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, University of Alabama, University of Santa Clara, University of Wisconsin, and the University of Oklahoma. Thaxton began her career with MFC Services as a bench microbiologist, testing egg products for Salmonella. She subsequently joined the management team of Marshall Durbin Food Corporation, where she remained for more than 20 years. After a brief retirement from the corporate world, Thaxton joined the faculty of Mississippi State University, where she taught microbiology of food animals, poultry processing, advanced poultry processing, animal welfare, nutrition research techniques, feed manufacturing, and HACCP certification. Soon after her retirement from Mississippi State, she joined the faculty at the University of Arkansas a professor in the Department of Poultry Science and as the director of the Center for Food Animal Wellbeing. Throughout her career, Thaxton has mentored numerous undergraduate and graduate students, published extensively in both trade and scientific publications, and made numerous industry, scientific, and public presentations both domestically and internationally.

Michael J. Wineland grew up in Kenosha, Wisconsin and received his BS, MS, and PhD from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. He was drafted into the U.S. Army three months after starting his MS program, but resumed his graduate work under Bernie Wentworth upon separation from the army. His first position after leaving the University of Wisconsin was as an assistant professor and extension poultry specialist at West Virginia University. In December of 1983 he accepted a position as assistant professor and extension specialist at North Carolina State University’s Department of Poultry Science, where he remained until retiring in 2014. Wineland is the author or co-author of 58 journal articles, five book chapters, and more than 125 popular press or technical articles. He has been active within the Poultry Science Association, serving as Secretary-Treasurer from 2003 to 2006, and working his way up to President from 2009 to 2012. Wineland continues to work with students at the vet school at NC State, and is still active in the global poultry industry, working primarily with hatchery operations as a consultant.

Deana R. Jones
USDA-ARS 

Deana Jones is a research food technologist in the Egg Safety and Quality Research Unit of the USDA, Agricultural Research Service in Athens, Georgia. She has served in this role for over 16 years, examining the impacts of egg production practices, shell egg and egg products’ processing methods, and rules and regulations on egg safety and quality. She completed her academic training at North Carolina State University, earning degrees in poultry science, food science, and physiology. Her doctoral research program examined the impact of dietary sulfur-containing amino acids and vaccination-induced physiological stress on egg production, quality, and functionality. During her tenure with the Agricultural Research Service, Jones has investigated the impacts of processing plant sanitation practices on egg safety and quality. She has also led efforts to examine the impact of commercial cool water washing of shell eggs on egg safety. Additionally, she reported the impact of extended cold storage on egg safety and quality. Jones currently coordinates efforts to examine the role of hen housing systems on egg safety and quality. Throughout her career, she has forged extensive research collaborations throughout the US and incidentally perfected the art of shipping eggs across the country. She is the author of over 60 peer-reviewed publications and more than 90 proceedings papers. Jones sits on the board of directors for the National Egg Quality School, where she has served on the faculty for 20 years.

Markus Rodehutscord
University of Hohenheim 

Markus Rodehutscord is a professor of animal nutrition at the University of Hohenheim, Germany, with duties in teaching, research, and administration. He grew up on a dairy farm and earned his diploma in agricultural sciences from the University of Bonn, Germany, in 1989. He was awarded the doctoral degree from the same university in 1992. Until 1999, Rodehutscord was a lecturer at the Institute of Animal Nutrition at Bonn University and in between was a guest researcher at the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation in Perth, Western Australia. From 1999 to 2008, he was a professor of animal nutrition at the University of Halle-Wittenberg, Germany. Rodehutscord’s main research interests are the metabolism of amino acids and phosphorus in farm animals and related aspects of feed evaluation. In the past ten years, 86 of his original publications have appeared in peer-reviewed scientific journals, 20 of these in Poultry Science. From 2010 to 2016, Rodehutscord served as the Metabolism and Nutrition section editor for Poultry Science. He is a member of the Nutrition Working Group of the European Federation’s Branch of World’s Poultry Science Association, and chairs the Group’s Committee on Phosphorus Availability in Poultry which has proposed a standard protocol for the determination of digestible phosphorus. Rodehutscord also chairs the Standing Committee on Nutrient Requirements of the Society of Animal Nutrition and Physiology in Germany.

Kumar Venkitanarayanan
University of Connecticut 

Kumar Venkitanarayanan received his MSc in veterinary science and DSc in veterinary medicine from the Kerala Agricultural University and Tamil Nadu Agricultural University, India, respectively, after which he practiced as a veterinarian for a year. In the US, he obtained his MS in food science and technology in 1992 from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, and PhD in animal science in 1996 from the University of Connecticut. From 1996-1999, he worked as a postdoctoral research associate at the Center for Food Safety, University of Georgia. In 1999, he joined the Department of Animal Science, University of Connecticut as an assistant professor. He currently serves as the associate dean for research and graduate studies at the College of Agriculture, Health and Natural Resources, University of Connecticut. He has published 112 peer-reviewed journal manuscripts, 19 book chapters, 102 abstracts, and characterized five new bacterial genes. Having success in garnering over $6 million as funding for his research, Venkitanarayanan has mentored 12 PhD students, six MS students, three post-docs, and 40 undergraduate students in research. Currently, he is supervising four PhD and three MS students. He has served as a panel manager and member on several USDA review panels and reviewed research grants for national and international funding agencies. He also serves on the editorial boards of multiple journals.

Keying Zhang
Sichuan Agricultural University 

Keying Zhang is a professor of the Animal Nutrition Institute at Sichuan Agricultural University, Wenjiang District, Chengdu, Sichuan Province, China. Her academic career began in 1986 at the institute upon finishing her graduate study in animal nutrition and feed science at Sichuan Agricultural University, and she has been with the Institute for 31 years. She also served as the associate dean of the institute from 2012 to 2015. Her research interests include nutrient requirements, evaluation of feed ingredients and additives, and feed and product safety in poultry and swine. Over the past decade, she focused her research on poultry, and has built a team of eight faculty dedicated to poultry nutrition research. Zhang is the major professor for 19 PhD students and 63 MS students, among whom 11 focused their research on duck nutrition. She is the author of 130 peer-reviewed journal papers (more than 20 on ducks in the past decade) and has seven patents (two on ducks). She also coauthored seven national textbooks on animal nutrition, and has made many scientific presentations and lectures both nationally and internationally. Zhang has provided extensive training for industries and duck producers both in Sichuan—one of the largest duck producers in China—and on the national scale.

Jason T. Lee
Texas A&M University 

Jason T. Lee attended Texas A&M University and received his BS in poultry science in 2001. He then transitioned into graduate school and received his MS in nutrition under the supervision of Lee Cartwright and Christopher Bailey in 2001, moving on to complete his PhD in poultry science under the supervision of David Caldwell in 2006. Following his graduation, he was hired onto the faculty in the Poultry Science Department at Texas A&M University in 2007 as an assistant professor. He was tenured and promoted to associate professor in 2013. His research program focuses on increasing nutrient utilization, maximize growth and yield, and reducing diet cost in poultry meat production with the use of feed additives to include exogenous enzymes, direct fed microbials, and organic mineral sources. His current responsibilities include coaching the Texas A&M University Collegiate Poultry Judging team and instructing POSC 319, “Breeder and Hatchery Management.” His lab currently consists of seven PhD students, three MS students, and nine undergraduate research assistants. In the past five years, his laboratory has conducted more than 100 sponsored research projects with poultry integrators and product suppliers.

Daniel Clark
Ohio State University

Daniel L. Clark is an assistant research professor in the department of animal sciences at the Ohio State University. Clark received his BS, MS and PhD in the department of animal sciences at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign with guidance from his advisors Drs. Tom Carr and Anna Dilger. At the University of Illinois, Clark primarily focused on the effects of a swine polymorphism in the Insulin-like Growth Factor 2 gene and the downstream effects on other gene pathways which regulate muscle growth and meat quality. In 2014, Clark moved to the Ohio State University to join Dr. Sandy Velleman's laboratory as a postdoctoral researcher. Clark's postdoctorate research predominately centered on further characterizing the histopathological and molecular features of the Wooden Breast myopathy and identifying the effects of temperature on satellite cell function. In 2016, Clark joined OSU faculty in the department of animal science and is building a collaborative research program with an aim to understand the cellular signaling networks governing skeletal muscle growth and meat quality of livestock and poultry species. Among his research interests in other livestock species, Clark also continues to work with his mentor Sandy Velleman to address meat quality challenges that are present in the poultry industry and identify management, nutrition, or genetic strategies to improve muscle structure without sacrificing yield.

F. Dustan Clark
University of Arkansas 

Fred Dustan Clark is the Extension Poultry Health Veterinarian and Associate Center Director for Poultry Extension in the Center of Excellence for Poultry Science at the University of Arkansas in Fayetteville, Arkansas. He is a native of Texas and a member of the Choctaw tribe of Oklahoma. After earning his DVM from Texas A&M University in 1980 he worked in a mixed practice in East Texas. In 1981 he left practice to begin his career with poultry as an Avian Medicine resident at the University of California at Davis. Clark returned to Texas A&M University in 1982 to serve as a Clinical Associate and earn his MS and PhD degrees in the Veterinary Microbiology and Parasitology department. From 1988-1994 he was the director of the Utah State University Provo Branch Veterinary Diagnostic laboratory in Utah. In 1994, he joined the Center of Excellence for Poultry Science at the University of Arkansas as the Extension Poultry Health Veterinarian. Clark served as the section editor for Health and Diseases for The Journal of Applied Poultry Research from 2010-2016. His research interests include avian enteric pathogens, avian influenza, disease pathogenesis, and avian diagnostics. He has authored and co-authored scientific articles, proceedings, and extension publications. For the past two years, he has served as a co-faculty leader in the University of Arkansas Community Development in Mozambique Study Abroad Program in Nampula, Mozambique.

Karen D. Christensen
University of Arkansas 

Karen Christensen received her BS and MS in animal science from Washington State University and spent many years working in the broiler industry in many capacities, from service technician to director of technical services. In 2010, she completed her PhD in poultry physiology at Mississippi State University under the supervision of JPaul Thaxton. Christensen joined the faculty of the Center of Excellence for Poultry Science at the University of Arkansas in 2014 as an extension poultry specialist and associate professor. She is responsible for the commercial broiler farm at the U of A, which provides the opportunity to do practical research that is important to stakeholders in Arkansas and the industry. Her main focus is management and production including lighting, density, and wellbeing issues.

Malea G. Frank
Tyson Foods, Inc. 

Malea Frank earned her BS in poultry science from the University of Arkansas in 2001. In 2014, she received her PhD from the University of Arkansas. Her PhD research focused on the effects of betaine, and how it impacts performance and meat quality for broilers reared under higher temperatures. Frank began her career with Tyson Foods, Inc., in 2014. She is the nutritionist for the broiler breeder program, formulating for 32 feed mills and providing technical support to broiler breeder operations in the field. Her professional interests are focused on improving broiler breeder nutrition and production. She also serves as a committee member for the Arkansas Nutrition Conference.

University of Georgia
Poultry Science Department 

The Department of Poultry Science at the University of Georgia coordinates its recruiting efforts through a Poultry Recruiting Committee comprised of a faculty chair, a program coordinator, several faculty, and more than 10 avian ambassadors. Most recently chaired by Brian Fairchild (2013-2016), the committee revitalized its recruiting effort, adding several highly innovative and effective components to its recruiting strategy. These efforts have resulted in the Department of Poultry Science currently having the highest undergraduate enrollment in its history. Since 2008, they have hosted high school students in a short summer course—aptly named “Avian Adventures”—engaging them in poultry labs and career opportunities in the poultry sector. In 2015, these efforts expanded to an additional short course—“Avian Academy”—for high school ag and STEM teachers, allowing them to become conversant in physiology, nutrition, processing, genetics, and management lecture/lab exercises utilizing poultry examples. The myriad of activities by the recruiting committee has been highly successful, and will hopefully continue to add to our pipeline of students pursuing careers in poultry science.

Dawn A. Abbott
University of Saskatchewan 

Dawn Abbott was born in Marshfield, Wisconsin. She grew up on small acreages, raising chickens and hogs, and enjoyed rural life. Her family moved to Montana when she was in the 5th grade. After finishing high school, as well as one year of university in a pre-med program in Montana, she moved to Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, Canada, and has remained there ever since while maintaining her US citizenship. Abbott was originally interested in a medical career; however a family move and the arrival of her own children led her in another direction. She completed the Medical Laboratory Technologist program at the Saskatchewan Institute of Applied Science and Technology in Saskatoon in 1991, and was employed by the University of Saskatchewan soon after. Abbott is an upbeat and positive person, and tries to share this positivity with her coworkers. It is not uncommon to find her singing or dancing around the lab!

Paul B. Tillman
Poultry Technical Nutrition Services 

Paul B. Tillman received his BS and MS degrees from the University of Georgia and completed his PhD in practical poultry nutrition 30 years ago at the University of Arkansas under Park Waldroup. Tillman’s professional career has encompassed such roles as poultry grader for shell eggs, processed eggs, broilers, and turkeys with the USDA/AMS; layer nutritionist to some 60 accounts across the USA and Canada at Nutrius/BioProducts; Technical Services product support for Vitamins and Carotenoids in poultry and aquaculture, including a period as North American Carotenoid Marketing Manager at Roche; a decade as Director of Swine Technical Services, supporting animal health products at Alpharma; poultry nutritionist for Ridley Feed Ingredients; and Director of North American Poultry Technical Services for Ajinomoto Heartland, Inc., where Tillman has perhaps had the most significant impact upon the poultry industry. For the past seven years, Tillman has been a consulting poultry nutritionist for his own company, Poultry Technical Nutrition Services, LLC. In his consulting role, his services include providing sound feed formulas, which balance optimal animal performance with maximal profitability. Tillman is either the primary author or co-author of more than 30 peer-reviewed journal articles, more than 40 abstracts or posters, two book chapters, and more than 20 invited papers at both National and International Nutrition Conferences, including several PSA symposia.

Michael H. Kogut
USDA-ARS 

Michael H. Kogut has been an active and productive researcher for over 30 years, the last 24 of which have been with the USDA-ARS. He is currently a Research Microbiologist and Lead Scientist of the project plan entitled “A Systems Biology Approach to Understanding the Salmonella-host Interactome in Poultry and Swine” managed within the Food and Feed Safety Research Unit at the Southern Plains Agricultural Research Center, College Station, Texas. Kogut has authored and co-authored more than 180 publications, including several book chapters, 6 patents and has over 100 invited presentations at various scientific forums worldwide. He is recognized as an international authority for his research in avian gut health, poultry innate immunity/Salmonella research, and heterophil immunobiology. Kogut’s research is centered on alternatives to antibiotics to control disease and increase production; specifically the development of cost-effective, pre-harvest immunological interventions to improve gut health. Kogut also personally conceived, organized, and executed a new forum on Food Animal Gut Health. Over the course of his career he has mentored seven PhD students and five post-doctoral research associates.

Matthew Aardsma
Purdue University  

Matthew Aardsma grew up in Central Illinois in the heart of corn and soybean country. His parents encouraged him to explore his interests in agriculture and animal production, and by the time he finished high school he had worked with many types of animals, but particularly enjoyed raising poultry. He left home to attend the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and, while working toward his BS in animal sciences, was fortunate to work with a number of great individuals and gained valuable experience in conducting research and working with poultry, songbirds, and swine. Upon graduation with his BS in 2013, he started towards an MS degree at UIUC under Carl Parsons, with an emphasis in poultry nutrition. Aardsma learned a lot studying with Dr. Parsons and Samuel Rochell, and finished his MS in 2015. After a summer internship at Southern Illinois University working in aquaculture nutrition with Jesse Trushenski, he started working towards a PhD in animal nutrition at Purdue University. Aardsma is currently studying with Jay Johnson and focusing on nutrition-based stress physiology in poultry and swine. He and his wife Esther have three kids, one dog, three parakeets, and eight goldfish. They enjoy walking in the evenings in their sleepy small town, remodeling their 120-year-old house, gardening, and speculating about what life will be like when Aardsma finally finishes school!

Pratima Adhikari
University of Georgia   

Pratima Adhikari is a veterinary graduate from Nepal. She completed her BS in veterinary science and animal husbandry from the Institute of Agriculture and Animal Science in 2010. As an internship project, she worked in “Isolation and Identification of E. coli from broilers of western Chitwan, Nepal.” After graduating, she earned her MSc in animal nutrition from the University of Manitoba, Canada under the supervision of Charles Martin Nyachoti. She is currently a PhD candidate in the Department of Poultry Science at the University of Georgia, undertaking multiple studies on bacteriological and immunological aspects by feeding prebiotics, probiotics, bacteriophages, yeast derived products, and nitrocompounds, to reduce Salmonella in laying hens. Adhikari started her PhD in 2013, under the supervision of Woo Kyun Kim. Her dissertation project will be completed in 2017 and is titled “Dietary interventions to reduce Salmonella Enteritidis in ceca and internal organs of laying hens: Bacteriological and immunological perspective.”