North Dakota State University's Veterinary and Microbiological Sciences Department is gaining four faculty members.
Sheela Ramamoorthy, Nathan Fisher, and Teresa and Peter Bergholz are joining the department as assistant professors.
Ramamoorthy has a 60 percent research and 40 percent teaching appointment. Her research will focus on microbial pathogenesis.
Prior to coming to NDSU, she was an assistant professor of virology at the University of Georgia's Tifton Veterinary Diagnostic and Investigational Laboratory and a clinician in the Department of Veterinary Diagnostic and Preventive Medicine at Iowa State University, where she managed the serology section of the Veterinary Diagnostic Lab. She also was a post-doctoral associate in the College of Veterinary Medicine at Virginia Tech.
Fisher has a 40 percent research and 60 percent teaching appointment. He will focus his research on infectious diseases and public health.
Prior to coming to NDSU, he was a principle investigator in bacteriology at the National Biodefense Analysis and Countermeasures Center in Frederick, Md. Before that, he was a captain in the U.S. Army Reserve and served as chief of microbiology/deputy chief of laboratory services for Operation New Dawn, the U.S. armed forces' involvement in the war in Iraq.
Fisher earned a bachelor of science degree in biochemistry and molecular biology from Centre College in Danville, Ky., and a Ph.D. in microbiology and immunology from the University of Michigan Medical School.
Ramamoorthy started Aug. 16 and Fisher started Aug. 20. Teresa Bergholz started Oct. 1 and her husband, Peter, starts Nov. 12.
Teresa Bergholz has a 60 percent research and 40 percent teaching appointment. Her research will focus on foodborne disease pathogenesis.
Prior to coming to NDSU, she was a research associate in the Department of Food Science at Cornell University.
Peter Bergholz has a special, nontenure track appointment in food safety and environmental microbiology, with 60 percent teaching in the School of Food Systems to support the food safety program and 40 percent research in the Veterinary and Microbiological Sciences Department. He'll focus his research on food safety and environmental microbiology.
Prior to coming to NDSU, he was a research associate in the Department of Food Science at Cornell University.
“We are very excited and pleased to have such highly qualified faculty join the department,” says Charlene Wolf-Hall, department head.
