AMES, Iowa — After an exhaustive seven-month search, a leading microbiologist at the U.S. Food & Drug Admini-stration (FDA) has been tapped as the new director of Iowa State University’s Leopold Center for Sustainable Agriculture, effective June 1.

“Dr. (Mark) Rasmussen brings to us a broad-based background and exceptional scientific, agricultural and administrative strengths that will provide strong leadership for the Leopold Center and for Iowa agriculture,” said Gregory Geoffroy, who recently stepped down after 10 years as ISU’s 14th president.

Rasmussen, supervisory microbiologist and director of the USDA’s Division of Animal and Food Microbiology at the FDA’s Center for Veterinary Medicine in Laurel, Md., has provided technical guidance and research support for regulatory decisions on drugs, feed additives and contaminants in animal feeds.

Previously, he also worked 18 years as a scientist and research leader at the USDA’s National Animal Disease Center in Ames, including service as a collaborating faculty member in ISU’s Animal Science and Biomedical Sciences departments. In addition, Rasmussen has held research positions in private companies and has farmed full-time in Nebraska and taught graduate courses in rumen microbiology and sociology at ISU, and served as adviser or committee member for 18 graduate students.

Raised on a farm in northeastern Nebraska, Rasmussen earned a B.S. in agriculture and an M.S. in animal science from the University of Nebraska, a Ph.D. in dairy science from the University of Illinois and an MBA from ISU. He will be the fourth full-time director to lead the world-renowned Leopold Center since its founding in 1987. Two interim directors have served since July 2010, when Jerry DeWitt retired after 38 years of service.

Holding two patents related to his research, including food safety technology used on an estimated 20 percent of the beef carcasses marketed in the United States, Rasmussen’s scientific expertise includes areas of microbiology, food safety, animal health, ruminant nutrition, veterinary medicine and antibiotic resistance.

Since 1993, Rasmussen has worked on 22 grant projects totaling nearly $3 million on research that includes microbiology of feeds, antimicrobial resistance in bacteria, microbiology of the GI tract and nutritional physiology of animals, pre- and post-harvest food safety, toxicology and plant toxins and bioenergy and biofuel.

Rasmussen was chosen by a 10-member selection committee from three candidates, who were each given a two-day visit to campus last November, where they also presented a public seminar on their vision for the future of the Center and how their experiences contributes to the vision.

The two other candidates were Abdullah Jaradat, research leader, supervisory research agronomist and location coordinator of the North Central Soil Conservation Research Lab, a facility of the USDA’s Agricultural Research Service in Morris, Minn.; and Thanos Papanicolaou, professor of civil and environmental engineering at the University of Iowa, who’s also the Donald E. Bently Faculty Fellow of Engineering and research engineer with the Iowa Institute of Hydroscience and Engineering.

The Leopold Center is a research and education center with statewide programs. Named for Aldo Leopold, a Burlington, Iowa, native known internationally as a conservationist, ecologist and educator, the Center was established under Iowa’s Groundwater Protection Act of 1987 with a threefold mission: to conduct research to identify and reduce negative environmental and socioeconomic impacts of agricultural practices; to research and assist in developing alternative practices consistent with a sustainable agriculture; and to work with ISU extension to inform the agricultural community and the public of its findings.