For his contribution to cattle research, an ISU professor was awarded the Dean of Foods Award. Ronald Horst, collaborative professor of animal science, received the award during a joint meeting of the American Dairy Association and the American Society of Animal Science on July 24-28. He received the award in Baltimore on July 26. Horst, who also works for the United States Dairy Association in Ames, said the award was given to him for research with cattle. “I was nominated for the award by a co-worker at ISU for my work with diseases in dairy cattle,” he said. He said receiving the award came as a pleasant surprise. “I’m very happy. It was very gratifying and quite an honor to have received the award,” he said. Horst said the American Dairy Science Association works to advance the cattle industry. “It’s a group of people from the United States and other countries who work with dairy cattle,” he said. “They spend lots of time with college students and support them. They also have undergraduate groups they’re very active with.” Don Beitz, distinguished professor of animal science, nominated Horst for the award. He said Horst is very active at Iowa State, though he doesn’t have an official appointment. “Ron has an adjunct professorship at Iowa State, which lets him participate as a co-major professor for graduate students,” Beitz said. “He collaborates on research projects and has been on university committees such as the Nutritional Sciences Council, which is an interdepartmental program.” Horst said he is particularly proud of his latest research project. “The most recent work I did was with preventing milk fever in cattle. This disease occurs at the time they have a baby, when they are producing so much milk that they lose calcium from their blood and aren’t able to replace it fast enough,” he said. “A lot of them need treatment to recover. I’ve developed ways of feeding them to prevent that problem.” Beitz said the Department of Animal Science was very pleased to see Horst win an award. “The department is very proud of Ron; he was very deserving of the award,” Beitz said. “He is the world’s leading authority on vitamin D in farm animals. He’s also an extremely good major professor for graduate students and an excellent mentor for them.” Beitz also said he has enjoyed working with Horst. “Ron is an excellent colleague,” he said. “He’s very fair, cooperative and easy to work with. He’s also a highly respected scientist and person both on and off campus.”