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Dr. Avanelle Kirksey is the Meredith Distinguished Professor of Foods and Nutrition Emeritus; the second female named a distinguished professor at Purdue. Her dynamic, productive and imaginative research program bridged the gap from basic mechanistic science to human behavior and cognition. In addition to her demanding research program, she was an inspiring role model for students. Her research specialty area was the role of Vitamin B6 in early development; international research and the human functional effects of mild-to-moderate malnutrition.
Dr. Kirksey received the B.S. degree from the University of Arkansas; the M.S. degree from the University of Tennessee; and the Ph.D. degree from Pennsylvania State University. She taught for two years at Penn State Faculty, and then came to Purdue as an associate professor in 1961 in this department. She became a full professor in 1970. For 10 years (1982-1992) she was principal investigator for the Nutrition Collaborative Research Support Program (NCRSP), a joint effort among scientists from several disciplines in the U.S. and in Egypt, Kenya and Mexico to test the effects of marginal malnutrition on human functions and, in so doing, to strengthen the nutrition research capacity of the host countries. She had 197 technical reports, book chapters, refereed papers and abstracts.
She had a special appointment as Program Administrator (1988-1992) for this international collaboration from 1988-1992 with Purdue as the management entity for six U.S. universities (Universities of Arizona, California at Berkley, Connecticut, Kansas, Purdue and California at Los Angeles) and three host country institutions in Egypt, Kenya and Mexico. She was also the Program Facilitator (1987-1992) for a World Bank project in Indonesia to develop nutrition graduate and research programs in Gadjah Mada University and Institut Pertanian Bogor.
She has won many awards: Fellow of the American Institute of Nutrition; Lederle Award for research of significant to human nutrition, American Institute of Nutrition; Borden Award for Research in Infant and Child Nutrition, Distinguished Alumna of both Pennsylvania State University and University of Arkansas; among others. She received an Honorary Doctorate from Purdue in 1997. The Kirksey Lecture at Purdue gives annual recognition to her career, as invited speakers share current research in the areas of maternal, infant and child health or international nutrition. She enjoys a rich retirement in her native Arkansas.
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