By:
Tom Nordlie (352) 392-0400Source(s):
Jimmy Cheek jgcheek@ufl.edu, 352-392-1971
Neil Shay nshay@ufl.edu, 352-392-1991 ext. 202
GAINESVILLE, Fla. — Neil F. Shay, a leading nutritional scientist with Kellogg Company and University of Florida alumnus, has been named chair of UF/IFAS’ food science and human nutrition department.
Shay also was appointed as a professor in the department, part of UF’s Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences.
Jimmy Cheek, UF senior vice president for agriculture and natural resources, called Shay an exceptional scientist and scholar with an outstanding record of achievements.
“Dr. Shay’s expertise lies in understanding how the availability of nutrients affects gene expression and metabolism,” Cheek said. “We are fortunate to have successfully recruited him to UF/IFAS and I look forward to his leadership and continuing accomplishments.”
Shay said he is thrilled to return to UF, where he earned his doctorate in biochemistry and molecular biology in 1990 and did postdoctoral research work from 1990-92 with the Center for Nutritional Sciences and the food science and human nutrition department.
As chair, his goals for the department include modernizing research and teaching laboratories, making new hires to replace retiring longtime faculty, finding ways to better serve the increasing numbers of students pursuing the undergraduate nutrition major, and expanding linkages to the health sciences and engineering.
Shay worked for Kellogg from 2005 until taking the post at UF. There, he became the company’s lead scientist responsible for evaluating bioactivity and efficacy of novel functional food ingredients.
From 2000 to 2005 he was an associate professor of biological sciences with the University of Notre Dame and from 1993 to 1999 he was a faculty member with the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, where he held several positions.
At UF, he was a National Institutes of Health-National Research Service Award postdoctoral research fellow in 1991-92 and a postdoctoral research associate in 1990-91. He was supervised by Robert Cousins, an eminent scholar of nutritional biochemistry who directs the Center for Nutritional Sciences.
Shay was a graduate research assistant in the UF College of Medicine’s biochemistry and molecular biology department from 1985 until he earned his doctorate in 1990.
From 1979-85 he was a high school biology and physics teacher. He received a master of arts degree in physics and education from the University of Massachusetts Amherst in 1979 and a bachelor of science degree in zoology from Amherst in 1976.
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