Each fall the College of Agriculture, Food and Natural Resources welcomes new faculty members to fulfill teaching, research and extension missions. This fall, CAFNR’s 11 new faculty members are at the forefront in a breadth of fields, including water quality, optoelectrics, sports leadership, reproductive biology, animal movement, energy metabolism in cattle, science communication and more. CAFNR is proud to introduce the new faculty members for fall 2017:
Heather Akin, Assistant Professor, Division of Applied Social Sciences and Missouri School of Journalism
Akin most recently was a Howard Deshong Post-Doctoral Fellow at the Annenberg Public Policy Center at the University of Pennsylvania. Her research focuses on how the public consumes and understands communication about science, and the challenges of science communication. Akin is a member of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, the International Environmental Communication Association and the International Communication Association. She has served as a Fulbright English Teaching Assistant in Indonesia. She received her Ph.D. in mass communications with a minor in Southeast Asian Studies from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Contact Akin at akinh@missouri.edu.
Noel Aloysius, Assistant Professor, School of Natural Resources and Food Systems & Bioengineering, and College of Engineering
Aloysius joins Mizzou from The Ohio State University, where he was a postdoctoral researcher in the Department of Food, Agricultural and Biological Engineering and in the Department of Evolution, Ecology and Organismal Biology. His research seeks to uncover how key drivers and mechanisms, both natural and man-made, affect water and nutrient flow pathways within the terrestrial landscape, and predict their behavior under environmental change. Aloysius is a member of the American Geophysical Union and the American Society of Engineering Education. He received his Ph.D. from Yale University School of Forestry and Environmental Studies. Contact Aloysius at aloysiusn@missouri.edu.
Alba Argerich, Assistant Professor, School of Natural Resources
Argerich joins Mizzou from Oregon State University, where she served as a research assistant professor in the College of Forestry. She is an aquatic scientist interested in understanding the effects of land use on water quality and ecosystem integrity using experimental and modeling approaches. Argerich is a member of the American Geophysical Union and the Society for Freshwater Science and is a proposal reviewer for the National Science Foundation, Division of Earth Sciences, Geobiology & Low Temperature Geochemistry. She received her Ph.D. from the University of Barcelona, Ecology Department. Contact Argerich at argericha@missouri.edu.
Eric Bailey, Assistant Professor and State Extension Beef Nutrition Specialist, Animal Sciences
Bailey most recently served as an assistant professor and endowed chair of cow-calf nutrition at West Texas A&M University. At Mizzou, Bailey works to develop educational programs for beef producers and feeders throughout the state, focusing on nutrition, management and production systems to add value and minimize costs. His research focuses on evaluating energy metabolism in production settings, managing microbial populations in rumen, and mitigating negative effects of tall fescue toxicosis for grazing cattle. Bailey is a member of the American Society of Animal Science. He received his Ph.D. in animal science with a concentration in ruminant nutrition from Kansas State University. Contact Bailey at baileyeric@missouri.edu.
Michael Byrne, Assistant Professor, School of Natural Resources
Byrne most recently served as a research associate at the Halmos College of Natural Sciences and Oceanography, Guy Harvey Research Institute, Nova Southeastern University, Ft. Lauderdale, Fla. Before that position, he worked as a post-doctoral research assistant at the University of Georgia. His research interests include telemetry and remote tracking of animals, both on water and land; animal movement and spatial ecology; habitat use and selection; and behavioral and population ecology. Byrne is a member of the Ecological Society of America and The Wildlife Society. He received his Ph.D. in wildlife and fisheries sciences at Louisiana State University. Contact Byrne at byrneme@missouri.edu.
Christopher Daubert, Professor, Food Systems and Bioengineering; Vice Chancellor and Dean, College of Agriculture, Food and Natural Resources
Daubert joins Mizzou from North Carolina State University, where he served as a professor and head of the Department of Food, Bioprocessing and Nutrition Services; director of the Food Rheology Laboratory; and system co-chair of Food, Biochemical and Engineered Systems. His research explained the physical chemistry, molecular-level interactions, and functionality of food systems through an understanding of rheological behavior, while solving problems facing the food and pharmaceutical industries. Daubert has served as editor-in-chief of the Journal of Texture Studies, is on the editorial board of the Journal of Food Process Engineers and is a fellow of the Institute of Food Technologists. He has received distinguished alumnus awards from Pennsylvania State University and Michigan State University. He received his Ph.D. in agricultural engineering and food science at Michigan State University. Contact Daubert at daubertc@missouri.edu.
Pramod Dhakal, Assistant Research Professor, Animal Sciences
Dhakal joins Mizzou from the University of Kansas Medical Center where he was a postdoctoral fellow in the Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine. His research looks at the role of progesterone in reproductive biology, including development of an animal model for the study of progesterone resistance. Dhakal is a member of the Society for the Study of Reproduction and has worked as a veterinarian and veterinary surgeon. He received his Ph.D. in veterinary medicine at Tokyo University of Agriculture and Technology. Contact Dhakal at dhakalp@missouri.edu.
Dana Massengale, Assistant Teaching Professor, School of Natural Resources
Massengale previously served as an instructor in the Department of Kinesiology and Sport Management at Texas Tech University and as an assistant professor in the Department of Health, Exercise and Sport Sciences at Texas Tech. She has also worked as a high school physical education teacher and athletic coach. Her research focuses on gender equity in sports leadership and how physical activity can empower women. Massengale received her Ph.D. at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, in sports education leadership. Contact Massengale at massengaled@missouri.edu.
Rebecca North, Assistant Professor, School of Natural Resources
North joins Mizzou from the Global Institute for Water Security, University of Saskatchewan, where she served as a research associate. Her research interests include aquatic biogeochemistry, water quality, aquatic ecology and climate change. At Mizzou, she directs the Lakes of Missouri Volunteer Program and the Statewide Lake Assessment Project. North is an associate editor of the journal Inland Waters and a member of the International Association of Theoretical and Applied Limnology and the Association for the Sciences of Limnology and Oceanography. She received her Ph.D. in biology at the University of Waterloo, Ontario. Contact North at northr@missouri.edu.
Ilker Ozden, Assistant Professor, Bioengineering
Prior to joining Mizzou, Ozden was an assistant professor of engineering (research) at Brown University and, before that, did postdoctoral training at Princeton University in the Department of Molecular Biology and Princeton Neuroscience Institute. Ozden’s research looks at the development of single- and multi-site optoelectronic probes for studying brain function by combined optogenetics and electrophysiology, the applications of which include treatment of Parkinson’s disease. He is a review editor of Frontiers in Neural Circuits and a member of the Society for Neuroscience. Ozden received his Ph.D. from Brown University in physics. Contact Ozden at ozdeni@missouri.edu.
Justin Wartella, Assistant Teaching Professor, School of Natural Resources
Wartella joins Mizzou from Lock Haven University, Pennsylvania, where he was an assistant professor of sport administration in the Sports Studies Department, in addition to serving as an online adjunct professor of sport management at Keiser University, and coordinator and instructor of the sports marketing workshop and internship at the Pennsylvania State University Summer Study Program. At Lock Haven, he helped coordinate the 2010 NCAA Division II Men’s and Women’s Swimming and Diving National Championships. He served as an event staff supervisor at both the 2017 College Football National Championship and Super Bowl XLIX (2015). Wartella is a member of the North American Society for Sport Management and the National Interscholastic Athletic Administrators Administration and was an executive council member for the Pennsylvania State Athletic Director’s Association. He received his Ph.D. in athletic administration from the University of Nevada, Las Vegas. Contact Wartella at wartellaj@missouri.edu.