About Us
Through our teaching, research and extension programs, we strive to improve health and quality of life by developing advanced food products, improving nutrition and diet, and enhancing lifestyle interventions in an integrated manner.
Academic Programs
The Division of Food, Nutrition and Exercise Sciences, one of six divisions in the College of Agriculture, Food and Natural Resources at the University of Missouri, includes multiple academic and extension programs. There are two academic programs in the Division:
In the Food Science and Nutrition degree program, 97 percent of graduates would select the major again because of the outstanding industrial employment opportunities for graduates.
The degree program in Nutrition and Exercise Physiology prepares students for careers in the health professions, health sciences and academia.
Value Statement
CAFNR strongly endorses the principles embodied in MU’s value statement – respect, responsibility, discovery and excellence. In that context, we seek to recruit and retain outstanding scholars who are:
- Leaders committed to blending service with scholarship
- Good colleagues who will collaborate with others from diverse disciplines and backgrounds
- Flexible and adaptable in an era of rapid change
Diversity Statement
CAFNR aspires to build a community where diversity is embraced through educational and program excellence that leads to:
- Respect for others.
- Awareness of choices.
- Variety of experiences.
- Understanding of issues.
- A community where we all feel safe to cross boundaries.
Facilities
The Division includes: Eckles Hall, the William C. Stringer Wing of Eckles Hall, the Agricultural Engineering Building and Gwynn Hall.
Eckles Hall was renovated in 1986 and provides 23,500 square feet for offices, classrooms and laboratories. Research laboratories include facilities for food chemistry, food microbiology, dairy processing and sensory science.
The William C. Stringer Wing of Eckles Hall was completed in 1999 and provides 32,780 square feet for offices, classrooms, kitchens and laboratories. The building has a meat processing laboratory, wet chemistry and instrumental laboratories, a microbiology preparation laboratory, a teaching kitchen to learn the principles of cooking, a fully-functional commercial kitchen and a multipurpose room that is used for fine dining, catering event and cooking demonstrations.
The Agricultural Engineering Building was completed in 1987 and has 55,000 square feet of space for offices, classrooms and laboratories. The research laboratories in the building include bioprocessing and water quality, biosensors, computer vision and instrumentation, food engineering, precision agriculture, soil physics, bioenvironment, biofuels and others. A modern student computer lab is also located in the building.
Gwynn Hall houses the MU Nutritional Center for Health (MUNCH), which includes a metabolic kitchen, a teaching kitchen and an observational food-choice behavior lab. A human research facility allows studies of the interactions of exercise and diet on metabolism, human performance and development or prevention of disease. Additional facilities include the human exercise physiology lab, lab space for clinical testing, body composition assessment including BODPOD and DXA, and an exercise training facility to train human subjects.