Celebrating the life and work of Dr. Julia Dibner
9 October 2024
3 minute learn
NOVUS is remembering a founding member of its analysis crew – and a pillar within the animal agriculture trade.
Julia J. Dibner, Ph.D., handed away the week of September 30, 2024. She devoted almost 30 years to poultry analysis, a lot of these spent at NOVUS the place she served as director of biology analysis after which senior analysis advisor and Distinguished Science Fellow earlier than retiring from the trade in 2014.
She earned her doctorate in mobile and growth biology from Washington College in St. Louis, Missouri in 1980. She was first employed by the Monsanto Firm and moved to work for NOVUS when the corporate was created in 1991.
Authoring over 140 analysis papers and having offered at conferences and seminars world wide, Dibner’s cutting-edge work touched almost each a part of the animal diet additive and well being trade. Her analysis included 2-hydroxy-4 (methylthio) butanoic acid (HMTBa), natural acids, antibiotic progress promoters, hint minerals, bone and tissue growth, intestine well being, oxidative stability, early diet, nutrient formulation, and pathogen problem trials. Whereas primarily targeted on poultry, her research additionally included swine and ruminants.
Dibner collaborated with universities and establishments, many in the USA, together with The Ohio State College, College of Arkansas, Virginia Tech, Rowett Institute of Diet and Well being on the College of Aberdeen, Agriculture & Agri-Meals Canada Analysis, North Carolina State College, Stephen F. Austin State College, and the College of Missouri-Columbia. Her findings are nonetheless utilized by the analysis and trade communities globally.
Her dedication to animal analysis resulted in lots of patents, in addition to the event of groundbreaking merchandise ALIMET Feed Additive, MHA Feed Additive, MFP Feed Complement, MINTREX Bis-Chelated Hint Mineral, ACTIVATE DA Dietary Feed Acid, and former NOVUS merchandise OASIS hatchling complement and SANTOQUIN. She additionally helped develop the coccidiosis vaccine ADVENT.
She obtained quite a few awards and recognition for her scientific achievements. She was repeatedly acknowledged with nominations to Monsanto’s Science Fellow program and served as NOVUS’ first Distinguished Fellow. In Could 2003, a jury of scientists and expertise specialists from Washington College and St. Louis College in the USA awarded her the St. Louis Expertise Award for her contributions to coccidiosis management.
She additionally served as an affiliate editor for the worldwide journal Poultry Science.
As one of many few ladies within the trade within the Eighties, Dibner was a mentor to future trade leaders and advocated for ladies to pursue a profession in science.
NOVUS President and CEO Dan Meagher, who labored with Dibner when he was president of world animal diet options at NOVUS, says Julia was a useful member of the NOVUS household and the complete animal agriculture trade.
“Julia is a first-rate instance of an clever, progressive, enterprising, devoted scientist whose ingenuity sparked new areas of examine,” he says. “She labored with companions world wide who held her within the highest esteem and her legacy is with us right this moment in her analysis and our clever diet options. On behalf of the NOVUS crew, I wish to categorical my heartfelt gratitude and sympathy to her household and those that knew her.”
NOVUS is the clever diet firm offering options for the worldwide animal agriculture trade. The corporate’s portfolio consists of bis-chelated natural hint minerals and methionine feed components, together with a community of specialists worldwide to supply steering on administration greatest practices.
For data on how NOVUS helps the animal agriculture trade, go to www.novusint.com.
