A New Track: Malheiros Moves Into Reproductive Physiology Position

The Prestage Department of Poultry Science (PDPS) is pleased to announce our newest tenure-track faculty member. Ramon Malheiros started July 1, 2020 as Assistant Professor with an emphasis on poultry reproductive physiology.

Dr. Malheiros isn’t new to PDPS, though. We’ve been lucky to call him our colleague and friend for many years. Now, he’s moving into a tenure-track position, with the ability to continue his record of collaboration.

We asked Dr. Malheiros about his new position, to help folks get to know him in his new role.

What’s your favorite thing about North Carolina?

North Carolina is an amazing state and place. The geography is very diverse, with around two hours driving, you can reach the magnificent Appalachian Mountains, or you can drive down to the Emerald Coast, and be at the beach at Atlantic Ocean. Also, in the Piedmont region, you also have an abundance of trees, lakes and parks that makes this place so beautiful in all seasons.

What’s the most surprising thing you’ve learned about NC State?

North Carolina State University is a huge university, most people don’t know that. We have more than 30,000 students, and so many international students that choose to came to State. You can find people here from almost all the parts of the globe.

I learned that NC State University is one of the high-ranking places to study in the U.S., due the diversity of fields of knowledge that you can pursue at the university. You can study disciplines ranging from aerospace engineering, humanities and poultry sciences! Everyone is very welcome at NC State!

Tell us about your position and focus.

This position focuses on supporting the N.C. and U.S. poultry industry with investigations and educational instructions about the nutrition, physiology, metabolism and reproduction of poultry.

With a strong focus on research, this position will allow me to develop a strong field of investigation, and with the results, expand it to an Extension program. With these two approaches, I’ll  have an amazing opportunity to teach and educate people in the area of poultry sciences.

Tell us about the transition from Research Associate to Assistant Faculty. What’s different? What might continue?

My transition from Research Associate to Assistant Professor brings to my table some differences and importantly, some other responsibilities.

Now I can mentor graduate students on my own and have my own projects. But the most important thing about my transition is the amazing guiding support that I have inside the Prestage Department of Poultry Science (head of department, colleagues, staff and students) and in CALS.

The Prestage Department of Poultry Science to me, is like a big family — we collaborate and work together all the time.

What’s the most important thing for people to understand about what you do?

The most important thing that people should understand about the poultry science department and about others departments in our College of Agriculture and Life Sciences (CALS) is that we are here to produce food for the people.

The poultry industry is the #1 agricultural commodity in N.C., with an economic impact of more than $34.4 billion. The world human population is expected to grow to 9.3 billion by 2050, an increase of nearly 30% from the current level.

We work hard to feed the world population.

Food derived from animal sources is expected to be in great demand due to its nutritional value, especially poultry meat and eggs. In summary, my job is to study poultry reproduction and some implications that could affect the good performance of these animals, to help the poultry industry through an Extension program, and educate and teach our students.

At the end our bigger objective is very simple: we work hard to feed the world population!

What else should everyone know about you?

I am from the big nation of Brazil, in South America. I speak as my mother language Portuguese, not Spanish!

Even being from Brazil, I don’t play soccer! I like to collaborate with other people. I like music a lot, but unfortunately I don’t play any musical instrument.