Curtis Novak grew up on a farm near Dorchester in southeastern Nebraska and is the eldest of four children. His father raises mainly hogs and cattle in addition to farming 3,000 acres, and his mother works in a medical clinic. He obtained his B.S. in biology in 1992 from Nebraska Wesleyan University. After graduating, he traveled to Lake Havasu City, Arizona, where he worked for two years as a veterinary technician. One of his many duties as a vet tech was to keep inventory on the pet food, which led to an interest in nutrition and the pursuit of an M.S. degree in animal science (poultry nutrition) at the University of Nebraska with Sheila Scheideler. Novak's M.S. studies evaluated the effect of long-term flaxseed supplementation on production variables and egg quality. He graduated in 1997 and has continued his education at Nebraska to obtain a Ph.D. in poultry nutrition. Currently, he is working with dietary protein level and total sulfur:lysine amino acid ratio to achieve optimal performance with low-protein diets. The main focus will be on the production of albumin (protein synthesis) by the laying hen's magnum. Molecular biology (RNA activity) will be used to help understand the requirements of the magnum for the production of egg white. During his graduate education, he married in January 1997 and their first child was born in January 1999.