José Antonio Castelló

Spain

José A. Castelló was born in Barcelona in 1930. He graduated as Poultry Expert in 1950 at the Royal Poultry School, at that time headed by his father, Federico Castelló.

He joined the school in 1953, helping his father on the farm and in administration. In 1957, he received an International Cooperation Administration scholarship from the United States and spent several months at the Universities of Pennsylvania, Arkansas, and Indiana.

In 1959, he published his first book “Alimentación de las gallinas” (Laying Hen Nutrition), which soon went out of print. From 1959 onwards, he has been teaching Poultry Nutrition and Systems of Production at the school. He became the Director after the death of his father in 1973.

Professor Castelló was one of the founders of the WPSA Spanish Branch in 1961, being its Secretary from then until November 2001. He was Co-Secretary of the XIV World’s Poultry Congress, held in Madrid in 1970, where he was elected President of the WPSA for the term 1970 to 1974.

He has been the author or co-author of 21 books on poultry and rabbits. Since 1969, he has led a group of 12 people writing a large “Tratado de Avicultura” (Poultry Encyclopedia) in 6 volumes and 2,454 pages, completing the last one in 1995.

In 1975, he promoted the exhibition “Expoaviga,” held in Barcelona for the first time in November, where he was elected President. Since then, he has been a member of its Executive Committee every 2 years.

Professor Castelló has given lectures in Spain, the United States, the Netherlands, Portugal, Italy, Guatemala, Argentina, Chile, Mexico, New Zealand, and Brazil. He has attended all the World Poultry Congresses and European Poultry Conferences since 1960, and he has led over 100 research projects on poultry nutrition and poultry husbandry.

Geoffrey Mead

United Kingdom

Geoff Mead obtained a BSc (with Special Honours) in Botany and a PhD in Bacteriology from the University of London. In 1967, he joined the Agricultural Research Council’s new Food Research Institute at Norwich and helped to establish a research group on the safety and quality of poultry meat and eggs that gained an international reputation.

His interest in the microbiological safety of poultry products and in gut-flora manipulation to control carriage of foodborne pathogens in poultry led to his appointment in 1992 as Professor of Food Safety and Veterinary Public Health at the Royal Veterinary College, London, the first post of its kind in the UK. During his career, he was Chairman of WPSA Working Group No. 5 (Meat Quality), President of the European Federation of WPSA Branches, and holder of a Temperton Fellowship in Poultry Research.

He was also on various consultative bodies, both national and international, dealing with food-safety issues affecting the poultry industry.

Banda Vasudev Rao

India

Banda Vasudev Rao was born in 1935. A native of Hyderabad, India, he began his involvement with poultry farming in the early ’60s. He devoted his life to the growth and modernization of Indian poultry production, transforming it from a backyard activity into a vibrant industry. Driven by science and technology, the poultry industry is one of the most powerful engines for the growth of the rural economy in India, supporting the livelihood of over 2.0 million people.

Time only allows me to mention a few of Dr Rao’s significant and numerous contributions to the Indian poultry industry. They include Indigenous Genetic Research and Development of high-yielding layer and broiler breeding stock, production of a wide range of poultry vaccines, a national network of over 100 diagnostic laboratories and technical service centres providing free service to farmers, and the establishment of the Dr B.V. Rao Institute of Poultry Management and Technology.

As President of WPSA (India Branch) from 1993 to 1996, Dr Rao played a significant role in the successful organization of the XX World Poultry Congress and International Poultry Exhibition in September 1996 at New Delhi.

Often lauded, he received one of the highest honours conferred by the President of India, the “Padmashree” award. WPSA’s only regret today is that Dr Rao did not live to see his induction into the Poultry Hall of Fame.

Bruce Sheldon

Australia

Following completion of his PhD from the University of Sydney in 1960, Bruce Sheldon was employed by CSIRO Division of Animal Genetics as a Poultry Research Scientist at Werribee in Victoria. He progressed to Chief Research Scientist in 1992 and was Leader of the Poultry Genetics Unit at CSIRO from 1965 to 1994 when he retired.

Over the years, he and his team of researchers at CSIRO published extensively on layer genetics and reproductive physiology in general, and more specifically on selection to reduce the interval between eggs within a clutch and on triploid intersexes and sex determination in chickens. By the early 1990s, his group at CSIRO was at the forefront of world research in developing novel technologies for molecular genetic engineering in poultry.

He received the Australian Poultry Award in 1992 and was invited that year to join the International Standing Committee on Poultry Genome Mapping. He was President of the Australian Branch of WPSA from 1982 to 1992, a Vice-President of the WPSA World Body from 1984, and Senior Vice-President from 1996 until his passing. During his time on the WPSA World Body, he was a staunch advocate for the promotion of poultry research, development, and education in developing countries. Bruce Sheldon passed away at 73 years of age in Sydney in April 2003. He is sadly missed by his friends and colleagues.

Colin Whitehead

United Kingdom

Colin Whitehead was brought up in Edinburgh, Scotland, receiving his B.Sc, Ph.D., and DSc degrees from Edinburgh University. He joined the Poultry Research Centre in 1969, carrying out research in poultry nutrition.

An early success was establishing the aetiology of biotin in preventing broiler fatty liver and kidney syndrome. His research extended to many other vitamins, lately to vitamin D in particular. He widened his fields of interest to become an authority in poultry bone biology and has carried out extensive research on nutritional and genetic factors in body composition and bone abnormality. He has authored or co-authored over 350 papers in refereed journals and other publications.

He is a former President of the WPSA UK Branch and Secretary of British Poultry Science and is Secretary/Treasurer for the WPSA European Federation and Chairman of the Nutrition Working Group. Active in conference organisation, he holds professorships at Glasgow and Guangxi Universities.