Several faculty members in West Virginia Universitys Davis College of Agriculture, Forestry and Consumer Sciences have earned higher academic rank, which will go into effect when the new academic year begins in August.

P. Brett Kenney , Animal and Veterinary Sciences, has been promoted to the rank of full professor. Kenney teachesMeat TechnologyandGrowth and Lactation Physiology,among other courses. His research focuses on protein functionality in muscle foods, pre-harvest poultry microbiology with an emphasis on Salmonella and Campylobacter ecology, and postmortem metabolism effects on muscle food quality. He joined the WVU faculty in 1993 as an assistant professor and was promoted to the rank of associate professor in 1999. He earned his doctorate in meat science from Kansas State University.

Four Davis College faculty members have been promoted to the rank of associate professor with tenure:

  • Harry Boone , Agricultural and Environmental Education. Boone teachesMethods and Materials in Teaching AgricultureandManaging the Learning Environment,among other courses. His research focuses on the learning environment, recruitment and retention, and consumer-driven agriculture. He earned his doctorate in agricultural education from The Ohio State University.
  • Todd Petty , Wildlife and Fisheries Resources. Petty teachesFisheries ManagementandAdvanced Population Ecology,among other courses. His research focuses on stream ecology and bioassessment and watershed restoration and management. He earned his doctorate in forest resources from the University of Georgia.
  • Chad Pierskalla , Recreation, Parks and Tourism Resources. Pierskalla teachesWildland Recreation ManagementandHuman Dimensions of Natural Resource Management,among other courses. His research focuses on developing an understanding of how people use, perceive, and benefit from outdoor recreation areas. He earned his doctorate from the University of Minnesotas College of Natural Resources.
  • Jingxin Wang , Wood Science and Technology. Wang teachesHarvesting Forest ProductsandComputing Applications in Forest Resource Management.His research focuses on forest resources management and operations, biomass utilization and bioenergy, computer simulations and system modeling. He earned his doctorate in forest resources management from the University of Georgia.

Two retiring faculty members have been granted the status of Professors Emeriti:

  • Linda Butler, Entomology. In 2001, Butler received WVU s highest research honor, the Benedum Distinguished Scholar Award. Butler, who grew up in Odum, Ga., joined WVU s Davis College of Agriculture, Forestry and Consumer Sciences in 1968 after earning a doctorate in entomology from the University of Georgia. Her research focuses on three chemical agents used to kill gypsy moths and their impact on other insects, insect relatives such as spiders, and insect predators such as songbirds and salamanders. Her experiments have found that one insecticide has lasting effects on other insects and insect relatives and the other two agents affect only caterpillars over varied durations.
  • Walter Labys , Resource Economics. Labys was appointed at WVU in 1975 to help start the Ph.D. program in Resource Economics. In 1990, he was given the Universitys highest academic award, Benedum Distinguished Scholar. During 1981-82, he was a visiting scholar in the energy laboratory at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He is a faculty research associate with the Regional Research Institute, and served as founding president of the WVU Faculty Club.