Adam J. Davis
2007 D.W. Brooks Award for Excellence in Teaching
Department: Poultry Science
Adam J. Davis has had a universally positive impact on the quality of internships for students in the College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences. Time and again, the poultry science associate professor has gone above and beyond the call of duty in assisting students in pursuing internship experiences.
Prior to Dr. Davis’ arrival at the University of Georgia, students in the biological sciences and animal health majors had limited opportunities for internships. By giving direction to the program, coordinating student internships, helping students with placement and developing business relationships to enhance internship opportunities, Dr. Davis has increased the number and quality of internships available to students in the years he has been on the CAES faculty.
As well as internship opportunities, Dr. Davis has initiated new courses at CAES such as Birds in Our Lives. This class has been suggested as a model for other departments across the college and several poultry science departments across the country.
Dr. Davis also teaches a course on the physiology of avian reproduction.
Because of his outstanding teaching, Dr. Davis is recognized for his instructional excellence by students and colleagues alike.
Dr. Davis has served as a member, secretary and chair of the College Curriculum Committee. He is recognized as one of the authorities on curricula matters in the College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences.
In the lab, Dr. Davis and his staff focus primarily on how nutrition impacts reproduction in poultry. In particular, they are interested in how nutrient intake influences follicular selection and development in females.
His other areas of research include amino acid interactions, alternative grains and de novo fat synthesis.
Dr. Davis earned his bachelor’s of science in animal science at Cornell University in 1990 and his doctorate in nutritional biochemistry at Cornell in 1995.
He started his professional career in 1995 at Cornell University as a postdoctoral associate and went on to become a research associate in 1997. In 1998, Dr. Davis joined the UGA faculty as an assistant professor and, in 2004, was promoted to associate professor.
His honors include receiving the Milton L. Sunde Award in 2002 from the American Society for Nutritional Sciences. The award recognizes outstanding experimental, applied or fundamental research in nutrition that uses avian species. The same year he also received the CAES Outstanding Academic Advisor Award and the UGA Outstanding Undergraduate Academic Advisor/Mentor Award.
The following year, he won a certificate of merit award for outstanding faculty academic advising from the National Academic Advising Association. In 2004 he was selected to be the recipient of the Department of Poultry Science Henry Marks Teaching Award.