Kim Vonnahme, associate professor of animal sciences, has accepted an invitation to become an international member of Gravida: National Centre for Growth and Development. The organization is a government-funded Centre of Research Excellence that brings together leading biomedical, clinical and animal scientists from across New Zealand and around the world.

Vonnahme was nominated by one of the principal investigator members of Gravida and endorsed by the organization’s scientific advisory board. She will attend meetings of the international college of members in New Zealand every two years, assist in the supervision of postdoctoral fellows and doctoral students, and participate in individual research projects with members of Gravida.

The research conducted by Gravida members seeks to reveal how conditions encountered in early life affect the way an individual grows and develops throughout life. The aim of Gravida is to advance the understanding of the underlying processes involved in these changes and to measure their implications in human health and agricultural contexts, with a view to identifying their short- and long-term consequences for health and disease.

More information on Gravida is available at www.gravida.org.nz. 

NDSU is recognized as one of the nation's top 108 public and private universities by the Carnegie Commission on Higher Education.