Mark Cook Wins PSA Award Mark E. Cook received his BS in microbiology (1978), MS in poultry science (1980, mentor, John Hebert, Poultry Sciences Department), and PhD in poultry science (1982, mentor William Springer, Veterinary Sciences) at Louisiana State University (poultry science) in 1982. Immediately following his PhD, Cook joined the Poultry Science Department at University of Wisconsin–Madison as a lecturer and was appointed assistant professor in 1983. Cook was promoted to associate professor with tenure in 1988, and professor in 1992 at the University of Wisconsin. During his 30 years at University of Wisconsin–Madison, Cook has taught courses in introduction to poultry science, poultry nutrition, poultry disease and sanitation, comparative nutrition, and feed formulation. After the merger of poultry science with animal science, Cook codeveloped a course with laboratory in introduction to animal sciences, reorganized his poultry disease course and laboratory to fit within the Midwest Poultry Consortium, and created a new course on the science supporting laws and ethics of animal use in agriculture and biomedical research. Cook has also been involved in graduate lectures across campus. Cook has received campus, regional, and national awards for his instructional efforts. Cook’s research has focused on nutrition and immunity. He has trained 18 PhD students and many MS students and postdoctoral fellows. Cook has published more than 100 peer-reviewed scientific papers (h-index 28), has been awarded more than 30 US patents. Cook has focused on translating his team’s research into products. During this process, Cook cofounded three start-up companies. Conlinco (currently BASF) is focused on bringing conjugated linoleic acid into the animal feed market. aOva Technologies (currently Ovabio) was formed to market egg antibody to secretory phospholipase A2 into aquaculture, cattle, and swine markets. Isomark is currently advancing a technology to detect the onset of infection for critically ill patients. Cook and his team also have three other products in commercial development and several technologies licensed to other companies in development, as well as products in the marketplace. Revenue from Cook’s technologies has made him one of the top Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation income generators. Cook received the Wisconsin Massachusetts’s Institute of Technology Club Individual Achievement for his entrepreneurial work (2013). While Cook has continued his teaching and research, more recently he has added administrative activities to his daily agenda. In 2013, Cook led the start up of a technology transfer platform on the University of Wisconsin–Madison campus (D2P, a $5.4 million new initiative on campus) and was a founding board member of University of Wisconsin Advocacy Consortium for Entrepreneurs. Recent campus leadership activities include, university committee chair, D2P advisory board chair, and copyright policy committee chair. Cook has been a committed member of the Poultry Science Association during his academic career. In the past, he served as a director (1994–1996), on select award committees, as program section coordinator, and as an associate editor. Cook feels that the Poultry Science Association was critical to his success in academia. “I will always be indebted to PSA. PSA was critical to my success at UW-Madison. On the UW-Madison campus, poultry is highly respected from medicine to art. Thank you, PSA members, for your willingness to maintain our identity.” Cook believes the future of our society is in continued entrepreneurial activities in business and serving as a critical resource for fellow scientists exploring ways to find value and application of their discoveries.
Posted on: Thu, 07 Aug 2014 20:15:47 +0000
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