Professor Profile

Professor Profile: Dr. Ric Grummer

Dr. Ric Grummer

B.S., Dairy Science, University of Wisconsin-Madison, 1977

M.S., Dairy Science, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 1980

Ph.D., Dairy Science, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 1984

Current position: Ruminant Technical Director at Balchem Corp.; Emeritus Professor in the Department of Dairy Science at the University of Wisconsin-Madison

Why did you choose to work for Balchem Corp.? Once I made the decision to step down as department chair of the Department of Dairy Science at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, I decided I needed a new challenge. I had never worked in the private sector, so I thought that might be refreshing. I had done collaborative research with Balchem when I was at the UW so I knew the company and its products quite well and also knew we shared common values. For example, it was very important that Balchem has a strong emphasis towards research and development of products before marketing them.

What is your favorite part of your current job? Taking the knowledge that I acquired during 26 years at the UW and the new knowledge that I continue to acquire and applying it to “the real world”. There is huge satisfaction in teaching people how to get cows successfully through a stressful time- the transition period. I have had a lot of fun interacting with and sometimes reacquainting myself with former students who are working in the dairy industry. There are quite a few out there.

What are differences between working at a university and at a company? At the university, there is great freedom to pursue what interests you or what you think is important. The ability to do that was awesome. I always considered myself very self-motivated to do well, but in retrospect and to be honest, there were fewer ramifications of failure at the university. You have greater control of your life. In academia, I think it is important that your greatest sense of accomplishment comes from helping others to become successful, i.e, from teaching undergraduate and graduate students. In industry, the bottom line becomes very important. Decisions must be made quickly and there is greater pressure for them to be the correct ones. This should not be construed as a negative. I must say, there is something very invigorating about being in an environment in which “the bullets are real”! I am very lucky to have a position in industry where I still feel that teaching and research is an important part of my job assignment. Clearly, the environment in which I do these duties is different, but in a good way. I have enjoyed both careers immensely.

In your opinion, what characteristics should graduate students possess to be successful in their career development? Don’t stop learning. Have a good work ethic. To advance, you need to be ambitious and work harder than the next person. To do that and have fun at the same time, you have to be passionate about what you do. If your job is getting stale, don’t be afraid to change and take on new challenges. If you begin feeling too comfortable in your position, reflect on why that is and ascertain if you are heading toward mediocrity in your job performance and job satisfaction. If so, be willing to get outside of your comfort zone!

What do you think about the job opportunities in our dairy industry in the foreseeable future? Universities have been cutting positions ever since I began my career, so academic jobs have been limited and will continue to be limited. However, if that is where one truly wants to have a career, work hard and be a top graduate student so you have that choice! I think there will continue to be great job opportunities in the private sector. While the industry is consolidating, there has been greater emphasis on hiring students with graduate degrees. With the cutbacks in faculty hiring, the number of students completing graduate degrees will probably continue to decrease. The imbalance of supply and demand should mean excellent opportunities for young professionals, especially if world-wide demand for dairy products continues to increase. It is amazing how many companies are looking “for good people”.

Interview conducted by Kai Yuan in January 2012.

Professor Spotlight: Dr. Barry Bradford

Dr. Barry J. Bradford

B.S., Biochemistry and Animal Science, Iowa State University, 2002

Ph.D., Animal Science, Michigan State University, 2006

Current position: Associate Professor in dairy nutrition and metabolism at Kansas State University

What are your current research interests?
My group is currently focusing a lot of effort on understanding how inflammatory cascades, activated by a variety of stimuli, impact systemic metabolism. We are particularly interested in how these pathways influence the transition to lactation in dairy cattle.

What is your favorite part of your job?
If you consider the broad spectrum of things that people do for a living, I feel exceptionally lucky to be paid to learn. I love the challenge of understanding biology and I love that the vast majority of the people that I work with in this job are intelligent and inquisitive people.

What does your typical day of work look like?
Is there a typical day? One of the challenges and rewards of my job is that you are constantly being pushed to move outside of your comfort zone, because every day is a little different. However, on average I spend roughly a third to half of my time in meetings with students, collaborators, and faculty committees. On good days I get to spend a couple of hours looking at a new paper, running statistics on a data set, writing or revising a paper or grant proposal, or reviewing a manuscript. On many days I’ll spend an hour or so in front of an audience, whether it be undergraduate students, dairy nutritionists, or a journal club. I generally need to spend at least a couple of hours daily communicating by phone and email, and a lot of this work typically gets bumped into the evening hours.

What are the characteristics that you prize most in a student?
By far the most important characteristic I seek is an ability to think deeply and logically. Many students can understand the basics of biology, but it is often difficult to teach someone to think with clarity and to use sound, consistent logic. This is the key underlying attribute of a student who can write well, design experiments properly, provide quality control in their research, and link many different types of information into a unifying picture of “the way things are”. Many other traits are also important, but someone lacking this characteristic will struggle in graduate school.

What experience you want to share with graduate students who are aiming for a successful career in science?
In my mind there are 2 prerequisites for a successful career in science. The first and most important is integrity. As a scientist, you are selling your view of reality, and if your audience perceives that those views are biased by external pressures, your product becomes more or less worthless. No grant, publication, sale, or bonus is worth more than your integrity, because once that is lost you have nothing in the scientific world. The other critical piece is that you have to really enjoy science. You should not seek a career in science because it pays well, or leads to prestige, or anything like that. Successful scientists work very hard and some of the work can be very tedious…if you aren’t in it because you have a passion for this, you won’t be happy long-term. That being said, the training that graduate school provides can be excellent preparation for many other important, fulfilling jobs that are based on science.