Newsletter 2003
Animal Sciences
Newsletter 2003
A Word From Your Department Head1
Greetings from the Department of Animal Sciences! Many exciting things are happening in the Department. Our goal in this newsletter is to bring you up-to-date with some of our recent accomplishments and activities and to introduce you to some new initiatives that are enhancing our programs. Although most of the newsletter is focused on events during the 2002 calendar year, we have provided information from earlier activities as well.
In the spring of 2001, the Department was reviewed by an external review team led by USDA-CSREES. In preparation for the review, our faculty and staff performed an extensive review of past accomplishments of extension, research, and academic programs and identified those areas in which to focus future efforts. The USDA review was timely because we are now using the team’s assessment, along with stakeholder input, to develop a departmental 5-year strategic plan that will support the School of Agriculture and University-wide plans. Our plan includes the strengthening of our core programs in Animal Growth and Developmental Biology, Animal Well-Being, and Sustainable and Efficient Animal Production Systems.
With nearly 400 undergraduate students and 64 graduate students, we have continued to review and revise the curriculum in order to meet the changing needs of the students. In an effort to better prepare our undergraduates for careers, we have recently added specializations of Biotechnology, Animal Behavior and Well-Being, and Pre-Veterinary Science to our undergraduate curriculum. In addition, new courses have been added to our curriculum at both the undergraduate and graduate levels. Job placement and internship experiences have been given extra attention since Barry Delks joined the department as our Career Services and Alumni Relations Coordinator.
As departmental members retire, we have been fortunate to recruit faculty and staff that continue to strengthen our efforts in extension, research, and teaching. Faculty searches for a reproductive biologist and a molecular geneticist are in progress. The individuals recruited into these two positions will complement existing programs and will lead to a stronger research program in transgenic biology.
Many of our activities are interdisciplinary, cutting across departments, as well as involving other universities. We are continuing to explore how our programs can be enhanced by increasing our collaborations with other institutions. In addition, our programs are becoming more international which is allowing more faculty and students to experience new cultures and to learn about agriculture at a global level. The number of Animal Sciences students in various university study abroad programs continues to grow. A number of our faculty members continue to carry out international collaborative work which is giving our students many opportunities to interact with international colleagues.
In 2003, we look forward to our interactions with students, alumni, and friends to enhance our academic, scholarship, research, and extension education programs at Purdue University. We thank you for your many contributions to our past accomplishments and hope you will assist us in reaching our goals for the future.
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1From the editor: Alan Grant was appointed Department Head July 1,
2002, after serving as Interim Department Head. A native of New York, Alan
received his B.S. from Cornell and his M.S. and Ph.D. from Michigan State
University. He joined the faculty in 1990 in the Animal Growth and Development
Area. He was selected as a University Scholar in 2001.