07-02-04

New chair named for ISU Food Sciences and Human Nutrition Department

AMES, Iowa -- Ruth MacDonald has been named chair of the Department of Food Science and Human Nutrition at Iowa State University.

MacDonald will begin the Iowa State post Aug. 1. She has been chair of the food science department at the University of Missouri in Columbia since 2002, having joined the faculty in 1987.

MacDonald earned master's and doctoral degrees in nutrition from the University of Minnesota, St. Paul. She is a registered dietician. Her bachelor's degree is from McDaniel College, Westminster, Md.

She has conducted research that uses transgenic mouse models to identify factors in food that reduce the incidence or progression of cancers of the breast, prostate and colon.

MacDonald will replace Diane Birt, Mary B. Welch Distinguished Professor in Family and Consumer Sciences, who will return to teaching and research in the department. Birt also is the director of the Center for Research on Dietary Botanical Supplements.

The Department of Food Science and Human Nutrition is administered by the Colleges of Agriculture and Family and Consumer Science.

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