college news Research team receives $11.3 million grant to establish infectious disease research center The National Institutes of Health is awarding a Kansas State University-led team of veterinary researchers with a prestigious five-year, $11.3 million grant under the Centers of Biomedical Research Excellence, or COBRE, program to establish a new Center on Emerging and Zoonotic Infectious Diseases, or CEZID. The center will comprise four primary research projects that will bridge areas of excellence in the collective infectious diseases programs at Kansas State University involving the colleges of Veterinary Medicine and Arts and Sciences. “The overarching goal of the CEZID is to advance our overall understanding of emerging and zoonotic infectious
diseases based on research performed in the state of Kansas,” says Dr. Jürgen Richt, Regents distinguished professor at Kansas State University and a Kansas Bioscience Authority eminent scholar in the College of Veterinary Medicine. The success and growth of CEZID will be enabled through faculty mentoring, new faculty recruitment, a pilot grant program that will fund smaller projects at universities in the state of Kansas, a regional scientific network that will provide interdisciplinary and interinstitutional collaborations, and training opportunities at universities in the state of Kansas and surrounding states.
Master of Public Health program launches online option for prospective students
CVM faculty among top global researchers in recent study
K-State’s Master of Public Health (MPH) program, working in conjunction with K-State Online, is offering a new online degree option. The new online program includes faculty from 12 departments in five colleges. This interdisciplinary program is designed for individuals currently employed in or anticipating a career in public health. Online students can choose from two areas of emphasis. The first is food safety and biosecurity, which focuses on food safety, globalization and how international trade cooperation influences public health. The second area of emphasis is public health nutrition, which examines the role of nutrition in public health and population-based nutrition programs. In addition, students will be expected to complete a public health practice project during the program. “We’re excited to partner with the MPH program to offer this opportunity to any interested students, regardless of their physical location,” says Katie Linder, executive director at K-State Online. “The COVID-19 pandemic has ushered in a renewed focus on the societal importance of public health professionals, and we’re proud to help lead the effort to prepare the next generation of this industry.”
Fourteen researchers connected with the CVM were included on a list of 93 Kansas State University faculty members that were noted as being among the top 2% of researchers in the world, according to a 2020 study done by Stanford University. Some of the cited faculty members are retired/emeritus and not currently on the faculty in 2021. The study determined the researchers included by most research citings for scientists around the world. The exhaustive list includes 159,683 persons. Many disciplines are represented by K-State faculty on the list, including veterinary science, toxicology, tropical medicine, physiology and anatomy in the CVM. From the rest of the university, other fields included entomology, food science agronomy and agriculture, marketing, microbiology, family studies, and materials. “I’m surprised and honored to be named in such an elite list of world researchers,” says Dr. James Roush, interim associate dean for academic programs and student affairs. Dr. Roush is also the Doughman Professor in Small Animal Surgery. “It serves as a challenge to continue to add to the world’s scientific knowledge and to veterinary medicine.”
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