Paul Siegel, University Distinguished Professor Emeritus of Animal and Poultry Sciences in the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences, will receive an honorary doctorate from the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences in Uppsala, Sweden. The Faculty of Veterinary Medicine and Animal Science will present the honorary degree at an awards ceremony in Uppsala on 8 October.

Professor Paul Siegel

Since 1957, Professor Siegel has built his career at Virginia Tech on understanding the effects of breeding on the growth, reproduction and immunology of chickens. His most famous study involves a simple experiment that created high-growth and low-growth poultry lines from a common flock of White Rock chickens. After breeding the heaviest and lightest chickens with others of similar weight for more than half a century, the high-growth chickens now weigh an average of 10 times more than their low-growth counterparts by the time they reach the eight-week selection age.

This experiment, which has improved the scientific understanding of everything from animal appetites to genetics, has garnered the attention of National Geographic and the scientific journal, Nature, in recent years. In 2010, the American Poultry Historical Society inducted Professor Siegel into the American Poultry Industry Hall of Fame, the industry's top honour.

Professor Seigel received his bachelor's degree from the University of Connecticut and a master's degree and Ph.D. from Kansas State University.