Esbenshade named Fellow, Odle is award winner at ASAS annual event
Dr. Ken Esbenshade, associate dean and director of Academic Programs in the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences, was among top honorees at the annual meeting of the American Society of Animal Science (ASAS), held in Denver, Colo., this past July. Esbenshade was named ASAS 2010 Fellow in the administrative category. At the same event, Dr. Jack Odle, William Neal Reynolds Professor of Nutritional Biochemistry in the College, received the ASAS Animal Growth and Development Award.
According to the ASAS website, http://www.asas.org, the Fellow of the American Society of Animal Science is an award recognizing distinguished service to animal science and the livestock industry over a long period of time. Noting the significance of Esbenshade’s honor, Dr. Billy Flowers, CALS Alumni Distinguished Professor of Animal Science, said that the ASAS Fellows awards “are reserved for people that have been working in their respective area at least 25 years, so it is viewed as something similar to a lifetime achievement or career accomplishment award. The committee doesn’t always select a Fellow in each category every year.”
An animal husbandry graduate of Delaware Valley College, with master’s and doctoral degrees from Purdue University, Esbenshade came to N.C. State University in 1981 as a faculty member in the CALS Department of Animal Science. He served as department graduate administrator and later as head of the department after leading the College’s Agricultural Institute program. In 2001 he was named associate dean and director of Academic Programs for the College.
In nominating Esbenshade for the ASAS fellowship, Flowers said, “Dr. Kenneth L. Esbenshade has provided exemplary leadership for the livestock industry and the ASAS as an administrator. Every organization in which he has assumed a leadership position has been able to accomplish their goals with effectiveness and efficiency. He has been on the forefront of helping develop and refine many of the policies and programs that are currently shaping the landscape of how animal scientists function in the ever changing environment facing land-grant universities. Examples of his contributions to the livestock industry at local, national, and international levels can be found throughout his career in administration.”
Dr. Jack Odle was awarded the Animal Growth and Development Award, given annually by the ASAS to stimulate research excellence in growth and development. With a career focus in developmental nutrition and biochemistry, Odle conducts research relevant to both agriculture and medical science: His laboratory uses the piglet as a model to study metabolism throughout postnatal development. Odle’s research efforts are focused on the ontogeny of lipid metabolism and on growth and development of the injured intestine. He has garnered more than $6 million for research, has published 100 peer-reviewed papers and 200 abstracts and technical reports, and has trained 34 students. He also directs a USDA-funded graduate training grant, operating on the research campus in Kannapolis. He has served on the editorial boards of the Journal of Animal Science and the Journal of Nutrition, including six years as associate editor. He currently serves as associate editor for Advances in Nutrition and also for a new Chinese Journal, the Journal of Animal Science and Biotechnology.
Founded in 1908, ASAS is a non-profit professional organization for the advancement of livestock and meat science. ASAS members are involved in university research, education and extension, as well as in the feed, pharmaceutical and other animal-related industries.
