AFNS Chair Ruurd Zijlstra
Congratulations go out to many of our esteemed colleagues for recognition of their exemplary work.
Chair of the Department of Agricultural, Food and Nutritional Science Ruurd Zijlstra recently received the American Feed Industry Association's AFIA-ASAS Non-Ruminant Animal Nutrition Research Award. Zijlstra is a professor of swine and carbohydrate nutrition and his research is largely focused on unique aspects of carbohydrate nutrition, the nutritional quality of coproducts in pigs, feed quality evaluation techniques, and dietary means to enhance gut health in pigs.
The North American Colleges and Teachers of Agriculture recently bestowed NACTA Educator Awards on Edward Bork and Michael Dyck. Bork is the director of the Rangeland Research Institute and Dyck is the director of the animal science division. Both are popular instructors, as recognized by their awards.
At the same meeting, AFNS graduate student Koonphol (Kooney) Pongmanee, who is supervised by Doug Korver, received the Graduate Student Teaching Award.
All three recipients were nominated by Frank Robinson, himself a three-time ALES Teacher of the year. Through feedback from Students, Robinson said, it was clear Bork and Dyck were excellent candidates educator awards and, says Robinson, as his teaching assistant, Pongmanee "gave his time to students freely to make sure they were learning, rather than to put his time teaching."
Congratulations also go out to Diana Mager, who was recently recognized with a PEN Achiever Award at our annual Members Awards Ceremony. Mager was nominated by peers within the Dietitians of Canada and the award is presented annually to an individual who demonstrates leadership in evidence-based practice through significant contributions to practice-based evidence in nutrition.
Two researchers in the Department of Agricultural, Food and Nutritional Science, Carla Prado and Caroline Richard, have both been recognized with prestigious Canadian Institutes of Health Sciences grants. Read about it here.