What are your job duties/job responsibilities in the College of Agriculture, Food and Natural Resources?

I am an assistant professor in the Division of Animal Sciences. My current appointment is 45% research, 45% teaching and 10% service. In other words, I teach several 4000/7000-level courses, advise students, and participate on committees while also conducting fundamental research designed to understand how to better meet the nutrient requirements of ruminants.  

How long have you worked in CAFNR?

I joined CAFNR in August of 2018.

What do you enjoy about working for CAFNR/Mizzou?

I grew up around agriculture and take pride in helping to improve people’s lives by providing solutions to farmers and ranchers by generating new knowledge and by educating future generations of agriculture producers and consumers. What makes CAFNR and Mizzou a special place to work is that it is a great community of experts that spans a broad range of disciplines but maintains a welcoming culture and friendly environment. This makes CAFNR and Mizzou a special place that enables me to investigate new aspects of ruminant nutrition. Also, we have excellent students that make it fun to help see how to bring together complex biological principles in a manner that solves real-world problems to better help feed the world.   

What do you enjoy doing in your free time?

When I’m not running after the kids with my wife, then I enjoy just running around Columbia or on the trails. 

What is something your co-workers/other CAFNR employees don’t know about you?

Normally, the fun fact I like to tell people is that I have 3 species of ruminal bacteria that were named after me, which was a consequence of hanging out too much with a microbiologist; however, I have also run a couple of marathons in the past several years and am planning to run the marathon in St. Louis this spring.