By Ellen Bombela, College of Agriculture and Life Sciences Communications Services
John Patience, a global leader in swine nutrition research and internationally recognized speaker, received the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences Outstanding Achievement in Research Award.
Prior to his arrival at Iowa State University in 2008, Patience served as the president of Prairie Swine Centre in Saskatoon, Canada, an applied research company affiliated with the University of Saskatchewan, where he also was an adjunct professor.
As an animal science professor at Iowa State he has brought in more than $15 million in research funding, published 65 refereed journal articles and given 139 presentations at academic and industry conferences around the world.
Patience said leaving Canada wasn't something he did easily, especially since he was retired. He decided to come to Iowa State because of its excellent reputation in animal science, the caliber of its faculty and the opportunities for collaboration amongst diversion disciplines.
"Here's this opportunity to work with all these world-class scientists with diverse skills, and in a way, I got to reinvent my whole research program, and that was very appealing to me," Patience said.
In his research, Patience strives to go beyond the obvious.
"You can do research and just observe what happened, but you won't learn nearly as much unless you figure out how something happened and why," Patience said.
With all of his experience and accomplishments, Patience's number one priority is his graduate students - helping them grow as young professionals. He does that through hands-on experience in diverse animal and laboratory research skills, exposure to the swine and feed industries and development of personal skills that support success after graduating. He said the industry is in serious need of large supply of trained scientists. Currently, the supply falls well short of the demand.
"When there is a shortage of technically trained people in the industry, that holds back the development and adoption of new technologies, which ultimately impairs industry competitiveness and growth" Patience said.
Patience received his bachelor's degree in 1974 and his master's degree in 1976 from the University of Guelph, Guelph, Ontario. He received his Doctor of Philosophy from Cornell University in 1985.
Iowa State University College of Agriculture and Life Sciences will present awards to faculty and staff on March 8 at its Spring-Semester Convocation and Awards Program in the Memorial Union.
March 1, 2018