Dr. Eric van Heugten

Eric van Heugten, associate editor, is a professor of nutrition and swine nutrition extension specialist in the Department of Animal Science at North Carolina State University. He earned his BS and MS degrees in animal science from Wageningen University in the Netherlands and his PhD degree from North Carolina State University, where he continued post-doctoral training for one year. Subsequently, he accepted a position as swine research nutritionist at the Wayne Feed Division of Continental Grain Company in Chicago, where he developed nutrition and feeding programs for swine and provided leadership in the development of a swine modeling program. In his current position, van Heugten has developed a highly published, multifacetted research, teaching, and extension program that includes applied swine research with direct applications and technology transfer. His current research focus includes the evaluation of nutritional strategies for heat abatement in sows, essential fatty acid requirements of sows, the effect of lipid composition and quality on swine health and productivity, the novel use of enzymes to improve health and pig performance, and the evaluation of the value of feed additives to promote health in nursery pigs in the absence of growth-promoting antibiotics. van Heugten has published 71 peer-reviewed articles in top-ranking journals; 21 peer-reviewed extension articles; and 307 scientific abstracts, proceedings papers, and reports. He has obtained over $5.4 million in grant funds from public and private funding programs and has mentored and trained 20 doctoral students and 33 master’s students. He has provided comprehensive educational programs on nutrition, outdoor pig production, biofuels, nutrient management, pork quality, quality assurance, and other relevant topics. van Heugten is a member of the American Society of Animal Science, American Society of Nutrition, American Registry of Professional Animal Scientists, Comparative Nutrition Society, and Sigma Xi. He has served on editorial boards for the Journal of Animal Science, Applied Animal Science, and the Encyclopedia of Animal Science, and he is presently an associate editor for Applied Animal Science.