Buhr, Johnson and Korver named PSA fellows

The status of Fellow is one of the highest distinctions a PSA member can achieve. The election to Fellow recognizes members of the Poultry Science Association for professional distinction and contributions to the field of poultry science and service to the Poultry Science Association. Not more than five members may be elected as Fellows at any one annual meeting. A two-thirds majority vote by the Board of Directors is required to elect any nominee as Fellow.

 

Dr. Richard Jeffrey Buhr “Jeff” earned a BS degree in Animal Science from California State Polytechnic University-Pomona, and an MS in Avian Sciences and PhD in Anatomy from the University of California-Davis under the mentorship of Ursula K. Abbott. He joined the faculty of the Department of Poultry Science in 1987 as an Assistant Professor, and the Agriculture Research Service of the U.S. Department of Agriculture in 1997 as a Research Physiologist. He has served as Project Leader in the Poultry Microbiological Safety and Processing Research Unit at the U.S. National Poultry Research Center in Athens, Georgia; and also holds an Adjunct Professor / Graduate Faculty appointment in the College of Agriculture at the University of Georgia.

Dr. Buhr’s research program has spanned avian embryonic development/incubation from Coturnix quail to the Ostrich; poultry slaughter/euthanasia from featherless broilers to on-farm slaughter, with an emphasis on food safety regarding Salmonella and Campylobacter detection, recovery, and decontamination interventions from the time that the egg is laid through carcass chilling. He has co-authored 181 journal manuscripts, 302 abstracts, 27 popular articles, 8 wall display posters, 2 book chapters, obtained 2 patents, developed 3 germplasm releases, provided more than 60 invited national and international presentations, and presented lectures/laboratories in 6 University poultry/anatomy courses. His many research collaborations have resulted in 93 manuscripts co-authored with students, which includes 23 first-manuscripts first-authored by the students. Dr. Buhr is indebted to the poultry industry, from breeding companies to equipment manufacturers, for providing access to poultry stocks, carcasses, and equipment, and the assistance and training provided to him by farm workers, technicians, graduates students, and colleagues.

Buhr has been a member of the Poultry Science Association since his first meeting in 1981, served 2 terms as Associate Editor for the Poultry Science-Physiology and Reproduction section 1990-1995 and 2 terms as Subsection Editor for the JAPR-Meat Bird and Products section 2003-2008. Buhr serves as an ad-hoc reviewer for numerous journals for both manuscripts and review articles, research grant proposals, and University/ARS scientist’s research program productivity and impact for promotion and tenure. Buhr served on and chaired the Russell Research Center IACUC and presently serves as a voting member on the USNPRC IACUC (2016-present).

Buhr’s dynamism during anatomy lectures and laboratories was recognized by the Outstanding Teaching Award in the Department of Anatomy as a graduate student (1984, 1985) and the School of Veterinary Medicine (1985) at the University of California-Davis. At UGA he received Instructional Awards from the College of Agriculture and Environmental Sciences 1988, and Office of Instruction Development 1990. He was recognized by the undergraduate Poultry Science students with 1989 Co-Dedication of The Georgia Poultryman magazine and the 1993 Dedication, in addition to Faculty Member of the Year Award 1989, 1992, and 1994. In recognition of Buhr’s research contribution to the U.S. broiler industry, he was honored to receive the National Chicken Council’s Broiler Research Award in 2009 and the Frank Perdue Live Poultry Food Safety Award 2012 from the Poultry Science Association.

 

Dr. Alan Johnson held the position of Walther Ott Professor of Avian Biology in the Department of Animal Science at the Pennsylvania State University. Dr. Johnson grew up in Massachusetts and New Hampshire. He received a B.A. in Zoology (1972) and an M.S. in Zoology (1977) from the University of Vermont and a Ph. D in Physiology (1979) from Cornell University. He conducted post-doctoral research with Dr. Tienhoven (1978-1981) before joning the faculty of the Department of Animal Sciences at Rutgers University as an Assistant Professor in 1981 and rose through the ranks to Associate Professor and Professor. While at Rutgers, Dr. Johnson served as a Director of the Animal Science Graduate Program for seven years. Dr. Johnson joined the faculty of the Department of Biological Sciences at the University of Notre Dame in 1993 as a Full Professor of Physiology and a member of the Walther Cancer Research Center. A prestigious Walther H. Ott Professorship in Avian Biology was offered to Dr. Johnson at the Pennsylvania State University in 2009, a position that he held until his retirement in December 2018.

Dr. Johnson is nationally and internationally recognized for his four decades of research on avian female reproduction. His pioneering research explored the cellular and molecular mechanisms that underlie ovarian follicular maturation and selection in birds. As a result of his distinguished research career, we now understand the differentiation and maturation of ovarian granulosa cells that are critical to synchronized ovulation and egg-laying. Dr. Johnson is an author or co-author of 142 peer-reviewed journal articles and12 book chapters, including a chapter in the most recent four editions of Sturkie’s Avian Physiology textbook starting in 1986. His publications are highly impactful and often cited (7200 citations with an h-index of 6). He has delivered invited lectures at 15 conferences held in North America and Europe. Dr. Johnson was exceptionally successful in securing competitive grants continuously in the last 38 years (15 as Principal investigator and 3 as Co-principal investigator) from National Institute of Health, U. S. Department of Agriculture, and National Science Foundation. He has mentored 7 M.S. and Ph. D students, and 10 post-doctoral associates. Notably, all his Ph. D students are currently involved in faculty research and teaching positions, one as a Department Chairperson, and another as a senior scientist at the San Diego Zoo in CA. Recognizing Dr. Johnson’s outstanding contributions to poultry science, the Poultry Science Association awarded him the Zoetis Fundamental Science Award in 2015.

Dr. Johnson’s service to the Poultry Science Association spans over the last four decades. He served as an Editorial Board member of the Poultry Science journal (1982-1988; 1992-1995; and 2005-2010), and as a Section Editor for the Physiology, Endocrinology, and Reproduction (2011-2014; 2014-2017). He served as the Program Chair when Poultry Science Association Annual Meeting was held at University of Wisconsin (1989). Dr. Johnson also organized a Symposium on ‘Avian Reproduction’ at the Annual Poultry Science Association meeting (2014). In addition to serving the Poultry Science Association, Dr. Johnson contributed to several other professional societies. He served as the Program Chair for the annual meeting of the Society for the Study of Reproduction (SSR) held in Canada (2005). He initially served as a member (2008-2013) and later as the Chair of the Publications Committee (2013-2014) of the SSR. In addition to helping Poultry Science journal, Dr. Johnson took an active role in other journals specialized in animal science and reproduction. He served on the Editorial Board of the Biology of Reproduction (2009-2012), Journal of Animal Sciences (1988-1991), Domestic Animal Endocrinology (1990-1993), Journal of Endocrinology (2008-2012), and Animal Reproduction Science (2010-2016). Dr. Johnson took an active role in organizing the Reproduction sections of the International Symposium on Avian Endocrinology at its meetings held in USA (1984), Japan (2012), and in Canada (2016). As a world-renowned expert in ovarian biology, Dr. Johnson was involved in the Federation of American Societies for Experimental Biology (FASEB) as a member of its Publications and Communication Committee (2005-2011).

Dr. Johnson’s expertise was often called upon by Federal funding agencies for review of grant applications. He served as a Grant Review panel member for the USDA-National Research Initiative’s Animal Reproduction Grant program numerous times (1989, 1990, 1993, 1994, 2003, 2004, 2006). He also served the National Institutes of Health Grants Review study sections (2001, 2005) and the National Science Foundation Integrative Organismal System’s Grant Proposal Review Panel (2009). Dr. Johnson was involved as an external reviewer of the Animal Science Departments of the University of Nebraska (1993) and the University of Maryland (2011).

 

Dr. Doug Korver was raised in Lethbridge, Alberta. He discovered a passion for poultry nutrition research as an undergraduate at the University of Saskatchewan while working as a student under the supervision of Hank Classen. This led to an M. Sc. at the University of Delaware under the guidance of Bill Saylor. With the financial assistance of a Purina Mills Graduate Research Fellowship, Doug completed a Ph.D. with Kirk Klasing at the University of California, Davis. He returned to Canada for a Post-doctoral Fellowship with Hank Classen in 1996. Doug was hired as Assistant Professor of Poultry Nutrition in 1997, promoted to Associate Professor in 2004 and Professor in 2010.

Doug has published 65 peer-reviewed papers, 14 book chapters, and presented or co-authored 128 abstracts at scientific meetings, most of which have been presented at PSA annual meetings.

Doug’s approach to graduate supervision was shaped by the excellent examples provided by supervisors and colleagues. In 2010, he received the Department of Agriculture, Food and Nutritional Science “Graduate Student Mentor Award”. He has supervised one M. Ag. (course-based), seven M. Sc. (thesis-based) and seven Ph. D. students to completion, and currently supervises four M. Sc. and three Ph. D. students. He has supervised two Post-doctoral Fellows, one Research Associate, and 11 visiting graduate students from 7 countries.

Doug has taught ‘Feeds and Feeding’, ‘Introductory Animal Nutrition’, and ‘Poultry Nutrition’ at the University of Alberta, and has had shared responsibility for graduate level classes in Feed Processing and Evaluation and Advanced Nutrition and Metabolism. Additionally, he has contributed to numerous other poultry-related projects in other courses and has supervised ten undergraduate and one graduate ‘Independent Study’ research projects.

Teaching excellence has been an integral focus of Doug’s contribution to the University of Alberta and PSA. In 2020, he was awarded the Novus International Teaching Award at the PSA Virtual Annual Meeting. At the University of Alberta, he has been named to the “Teaching Wall of Fame” eight times, awarded yearly to the top 10% of instructors in the Faculty of Agricultural, Life and Environmental Sciences, based on student feedback. In addition, he has twice been awarded the Agriculture Club’s “Teaching Award of Excellence”. He earned the Students’ Union Award for Leadership in Undergraduate Teaching Excellence in 2000. In 2011, he received the North American Colleges and Teachers of Agriculture (NACTA) Teacher Fellow Award. Six of his students have received PSA Student Research Paper Certificates of Excellence, and another student received a Poultry Science Association Graduate Student Travel Award.

Doug is currently a member of the National Academies of Science, Engineering and Medicine Committee on the Nutritional Requirements of Poultry. This committee has been tasked with updating the 1994 National Research Council Nutrient Requirements of Poultry.

Doug is recognized globally as an effective industry and scientific conference speaker, focusing on nutrition-immune function interactions, bone metabolism in poultry, management of egg-type birds, and gut health/strategies to replace antibiotic growth promotors. Doug has given over 25 invited scientific conference talks in 10 countries, and over 60 talks at industry conferences in 24 countries.

Since joining PSA in 1989 as an undergraduate student, he has served as an Associate Editor and ad hoc reviewer for Poultry Science, and an ad hoc reviewer for the Journal of Applied Poultry Research. He was elected to the PSA Board of Directors from 2012 to 2015. He has been involved in various PSA committees, student competition judging at PSA Annual Meetings, organizing a symposium on osteoporosis in laying hens, and chairing presentation sections. Doug was the Nutrition Section chair for the 2019 PSA, and is the Program Chair-elect for the 2022 PSA meeting. The Informal Nutrition Symposium is one of the most popular events at the PSA annual meetings. Since 2008, he has been involved in the Informal Nutrition Symposium, as a presenter and moderator, and then as an organizing committee member. Since 2018, he has co-chaired the organizing committee. He was the 2008 recipient of the PSA American Feed Industry Association Nutrition Research Award.

The PSA has been an essential part of the development of Doug’s career. Having the opportunity, even as a graduate student, to meet his poultry nutrition heroes and receive their advice and input at PSA meetings has had a lasting effect on his approach to relationships with his own graduate students, and with the young scientists that attend the PSA annual meetings, IPSF, and other international meetings. PSA has provided an essential place for Doug to exchange research ideas, recruit new graduates, and keep in touch with colleagues and mentors throughout his career.

Many mentors, colleagues and students have played a large part in any success Doug has enjoyed. However, he would not have come to this point without the patience, endurance, and loving support of his wife Michelle, and his children Erin and Joel.