Award:
FASS-AFIA New Frontiers in Animal Nutrition Award
Univeristy:
University of Illinois
Year:
2011
Section Awarded:
National
George C. Fahey Jr., FASS-AFIA New Frontiers in Animal Nutrition Award
George Fahey Jr. was born in 1949 in Weston, West Virginia, and was raised on a farm that produced beef cattle, sheep, and forage crops. He received a Bachelor’s degree in biology, a Master’s degree in agricultural biochemistry, and a Doctorate in animal nutrition, all from West Virginia University, Morgantown. He joined the faculty at the University of Illinois in 1976 and currently is professor emeritus of animal sciences and nutritional sciences and Kraft Foods endowed professor emeritus of nutrition. His area of research is comparative nutrition, and the primary disciplines studied are carbohydrate nutrition (including work on dietary fibers, novel polysaccharides, oligosaccharides, starch, and resistant starch) and protein nutrition (to include work on amino acid bioavailability and indices of protein quality). 1976 to 1990, beef cattle and sheep were the focus of his work and forage and agricultural byproduct utilization was the discipline studied. In 1990, he assumed leadership of the companion animal nutrition program in the Department of Animal Sciences at the University of Illinois and made the dog and the cat the focal points of his research activities. Fahey has authored or coauthored many books, book chapters, and refereed journal articles along with numerous abstracts, monographs, and popular press articles. Seventy-one students have completed either MS or PhD degrees under his direction, and he has mentored 17 postdoctoral research associates.