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Dr. R. Michael Akers currently serves as Department Head and Horace E. and Elizabeth F. Alphin Professor of Dairy Science at Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University in Blacksburg, Va. Mike grew up in southwest Virginia and was active in 4-H. He completed his BS (Biology) and MS (Dairy Science) at Va Tech under the guidance of Dr. Bill Heald and his Ph.D. at Michigan State University in 1980 with Dr. Alan Tucker. After time as a research physiologist at UDSA, Beltsville, he moved to Va Tech in 1981. He was appointed full Professor in 1992 and was named Horace E. and Elizabeth F. Alphin Professor in 1996. His research efforts have emphasized endocrine and growth factor regulation of mammary development and mammary function. Work has focused on identification of local tissue elements that regulate mammary cell proliferation more recently the role of insulin-like growth factor axis molecules and extracellular matrix proteins on heifer mammary development. Approaches have included creation of transgenic mice, development of bioengineered bovine mammary cell lines, and use of proteomics to identify proteins involved in stimulation of mammary cell proliferation. He is also currently working with colleagues to identify bovine mammary stem cells and how they are impacted by nutrition and the endocrine system. After more than two decades of teaching and research, Dr. Akers became head of the Department of Dairy Science in 2004 while maintaining his research program. The department has reorganized and expanded in faculty and resources under his leadership. He has maintained work with several long-term collaborators both in the U.S. and internationally. They have exchanged graduate students, shared research projects, and published manuscripts jointly. The graduates of Mike’s research program and occupy a variety of respected academic and industry positions. He authored or co-authored more than 160 full refereed scientific papers and 165 abstracts. In 2002 he completed a book, Lactation and the Mammary Gland, published by Iowa State Press. In 2008 he and Dr. Mike Denbow published “Anatomy and Physiology of Domestic Animals”, Blackwell Press. He has received three ADSA research awards: Agway Young Scientist, Borden Award, and Pharmacia & Upjohn Physiology and the Growth and Development Award from the ASAS. He also received the Alumni Award for Research Excellence from Va Tech in 2000. In 2006 he was named a Fellow by ADSA.