Benjamin Corl named interim head of Department of Dairy Science
Benjamin Corl, associate professor of dairy science, has been named interim head of the Department of Dairy Science in the Virginia Tech College of Agriculture and Life Sciences. Corl follows Mike Akers, the Horace E. and Elizabeth F. Alphin Professor of Dairy Science, who recently stepped down after 12 years as department head to focus on research.
“This is an opportunity to build upon the foundation laid by those who have gone before me and try to build on the robust legacy in the department,” said Corl. “I look forward to working with the college leadership to advance the department and the college.”
No stranger to Virginia Tech, Corl received his B.S. in biochemistry in 1997 from the Department of Biochemistry, located in the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences and the College of Science. He received his Ph.D. in animal science from Cornell University in 2003. Corl returned to Virginia Tech in 2005 as a faculty member after a two-year post-doctoral appointment at North Carolina State University.
Corl’s research focuses on milk synthesis in the mammary gland of dairy cows. Currently his lab studies the local regulation of milk production by studying factors that influence the number and activity of mammary epithelial cells in glands. He examines how this local control can be used to increase the efficiency of milk production, and how it is mediated within the mammary gland.
Corl received the Cargill Animal Nutrition Young Scientist Award for outstanding research in the area of Dairy Cattle Production at the 107th Annual Meeting of the American Dairy Science Association in 2012.
He is a member of the American Dairy Science Association.
Written by Amy Loeffler
