TCIC Hosts the Director of the National Animal Disease Research Center for the first talk in the 2010-11 “Visiting Scientist Seminar” series.


The TCIC was recently invited by collaborators at Marshfield Clinic to join in discussions with the National Animal Disease Research Center (NADC) in Ames, Iowa about the potential of developing future interdisciplinary research projects based on 3D cell and tissue culture. As a portion of that developing collaboration, the TCIC last week hosted Dr. Kurt Zuelke who is the Director of that facility and also happens to be a UWRF alumni (class of 1984)! On December 2nd, 2010 Dr. Zuelke spent the day on campus meeting with students, faculty and administrators.
As a portion of his activities, Dr Zuelke presented a noontime talk entitled “Science, Medicine and Agriculture: A perfect mix for building your dream career.” to a group of approximately 100 students and other interested attendees. The talk covered the science done at the NADC in a variety of areas, all of which have a distinctive immunology-related theme. These include among other things being at the front and staying ahead of last-years threat from H1N1 influenza. Dr. Zuelke also highlighted how his impressive career has developed since his days at UWRF. Among his other accomplishments was serving as the USDA representative on the National Science and Technology Council in the Office of Science and Technology Policy. In that capacity he coordinated federal agricultural, biotechnology, and life science related issues for the White House during the last Administration. Needless to say the students were very impressed and hopefully more than a few saw themselves mirrored in his accomplishments as a UWRF graduate. During the morning, Dr. Zuelke met with student researchers from the TCIC as well as from departments in CAFES. Taken as a whole, the day was very successful and further discussions took place regarding future student opportunities at the Center in Iowa as well as the developing research relationship with the TCIC.