New face for the Animal Science Department
By Brooke Tacker, 3/22/06

Dr. Rodney Geisert, a professor currently employeed at Oklahoma State University, accepted the position of director of the MU Division of Animal Sciences. He will begin as director August 1, 2006, just in time for the fall semester. Geisert will be filling a position, which Dr. Mike Smith, MU animal science professor, has been serving as interim and also leading the search committee for a permanent director.

“Serving as interim director is very different from being a professor because you tend to be trying to help everyone in the division instead of focusing on your own teaching and research responsibilities,” Dr. Smith said.

Geisert comes to MU with a Ph. D. from the University of Florida and a M.S. and B.S. from the University of Nebraska.

“The director has a key role in the recruitment and development of faculty and staff, oversees planning and educating of the department’s academic research and extension programs and is responsible for allocation and accountability of departmental budgetary matters,” Dr. Smith said.

Though Geisert is not ready to comment on his future plans as director, he did say: “I have enjoyed my past 24 years of being in the Department of Animal Science at OSU and will miss teaching. I will also miss working with my graduate students and the research we have conducted through the past quarter of a century. Missouri provides me an opportunity to help a department grow and a place that I can serve the faculty to bring national recognition to their research, teaching and extension programs.”

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