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CORVALLIS - An award-winning teacher with expertise in beef production is the new head of Oregon State University's Department of Animal Sciences.

James Males, 52, in July will assume administration of a department that has 38 faculty members and more than 230 students. OSU county extension agents around Oregon who specialize in livestock production also are members of the department.

OSU's animal sciences department is dedicated to teaching, research and extension work in livestock production, including beef and dairy cattle, sheep, horses and poultry. More than 4,800 animals are kept on campus farms under authority of the department.

Males was most recently the head of the Department of Animal and Range Sciences at South Dakota State University in Brookings.

Males graduated from high school in Indiana and attended Pennsylvania State University, taking his undergraduate degree in animal production. He continued his post-graduate studies in ruminant nutrition, earning his masters degree at Michigan State University and his doctorate at Ohio State University. He completed post-doctoral work at Oklahoma State University.

Males' academic career has taken him to Southern Illinois University, Washington State University and then to South Dakota State University, where he has been for the past 10 years.

Lloyd Swanson has been serving as interim head of the department since February 1997.