Kristin Hales, Ph.D., PAS

Kristin Hales, an associate professor and Thornton Distinguished Chair in Animal Science, is a nationally-recognized USDA expert in ruminant nutrition and beef cattle energetics.

Hales received her bachelor's and her master's degrees in animal science from Oklahoma State University-Stillwater. Her doctorate in animal science is from Texas Tech. Recent honors for Hales include being named a 'Top 3 Reviewer' for the Journal of Animal Science (2016); and a 'Top 10 Reviewer' for the Journal of Animal Science (2015). She is a committee member on the American Society of Animal Science's Animal Production Committee (2017-2019), and served as the chairperson of the Ruminant Nutrition Program Committee of the Midwest Society of Animal Science (2016-2018).

She currently serves as an associate editor for the journal, Applied Animal Science. Hales has published more than 65 research papers, and was recently awarded the Outstanding Early Career Research Award from the Midwest Section of the American Society of Animal Science (2019).

For eight years, prior to joining the Tech faculty, Hales served as a research animal scientist with the USDA Agricultural Research Service's U.S. Meat Animal Research Center in Clay Center, Nebraska. Prior to that she worked as a research animal scientist with the USDA Agricultural Research Service's Conservation and Production Research Laboratory in Bushland, Texas.