When Cow Rumen Microbes Eat Too Many Carbs: Ohio State Ph.D. Grad's Research Honored

WOOSTER, Ohio — Timothy J. Hackmann, who in 2013 received his Ph.D. through Ohio State University’s Interdisciplinary Ph.D. Program in Nutrition, has received the Ohio Agricultural Research and Development Center’s (OARDC) William E. Krauss Director’s Award for Excellence in Graduate Research.

The award honors the best published paper by an OARDC-supported doctoral student.

OARDC is the research arm of Ohio State’s College of Food, Agricultural, and Environmental Sciences (CFAES).

Hackmann wrote “Quantifying the Responses of Mixed Rumen Microbes to Excess Carbohydrate,” which appeared in April 2013 in the journal Applied and Environmental Microbiology, published by the American Society for Microbiology.

His study has implications for improving cattle production efficiency, reducing consumers’ food costs and boosting farmers’ profits. The microbes in a cow’s rumen help the cow digest its food.

His faculty adviser was Jeffrey Firkins, professor in CFAES’s Department of Animal Sciences.

The award includes a $1,000 honorarium and a framed copy of the published paper.

Hackmann is now an assistant professor of gastrointestinal microbiology in the University of Florida’s Department of Animal Sciences.

He also holds a master’s degree in animal science and a bachelor’s degree in biological sciences, both from the University of Missouri-Columbia.

OARDC Director Steve Slack presented the award at the center’s annual research conference April 24 in Wooster.

The conference, which included speakers from CFAES, Purdue University, and Ohio State’s colleges of Public Health and Arts and Sciences, focused on the theme “From Biology to Business -- The Transformational Power of Big Data.”

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