Dr. Michael I. McBurney

Dr. Michael I. McBurney 

My parents owned a small farm in the Eastern Townships of Quebec.  My childhood experiences with educated professionals were teachers, the local medical doctor, and the agronomist who guided our local 4H.  My parents encouraged their children to get an education and I chose to study biology (ecology) at Carleton University.  My first research experience was my BS Honours project (effect of cattle grazing on understory development in a woodlot) under the supervision of Dr Gray Merriam.  Upon graduation, I applied and was hired as a research technician in the Department of Animal Science at the University of Manitoba.  Working closely with graduate students and Drs. Tom Devlin and Ray Ingalls over the next two years stimulated my interest in research and graduate school.  After applying to numerous institutions, I was accepted into a MS program at Cornell University.  My MS dissertation focused on understanding the role of chemical treatments on low quality forage quality (Dr Larry Chase) and my PhD on physicochemical and fermentative properties of dietary fibres (Dr Peter Van Soest).  Wanting to combine my ambitions to return to Canada and to continue researching the effects of dietary fibre on human health, I accepted a post-doctoral fellowship at the University of Toronto (Dr Lilian Thompson) because it presented an opportunity to integrate my experience with in vitro models of intestinal fermentation of dietary fibres with evaluations using digesta from individuals with ileostomies during dietary interventions.  After 3 years and multiple interviews, I was offered a tenure-track position in human nutrition at the University of Alberta.  It was a great environment with excellent colleagues where I began teaching and learned to be a surgeon, including microvascular.  During this period, I took a sabbatical at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill NC to learn techniques in molecular biology.  While on faculty at the University of Alberta, my students, post-doctoral fellows and I broadened our understanding of the effects of fermentable dietary fibres, short chain fatty acids (SCFA) and glutamine on the structure, function and metabolism of gut and associated lymphoid tissues. 

In 1997, I moved to Battle Creek MI to help lead Kellogg’s global research program on dietary fibre.  During this employment, I also worked in product innovation, lead nutrition labelling teams, and provided scientific support to marketing teams.  In 2004, I was recruited to become the founding Department Head of the newly created Department of Nutrition and Food Sciences at Texas A&M University.  It was an exciting opportunity to help create a department culture, to hire new faculty (7), and to renovate/build research and teaching laboratory spaces.  In 2008, I joined DSM Nutritional Products in Parsippany NJ, North American headquarters for a Dutch multinational business-to-business manufacturer of vitamins (and later omega-3 fatty acids), where I helped guide nutrition research and outreach activities globally, managed the nutrition team providing scientific support to North American marketing teams, and created, developed, executed, and managed DSM’s TalkingNutrition blog and @DSMNutrition twitter account. 

In addition to tenured positions as Professor at the University of Alberta and Texas A&M University, I have held academic appointments at University of Toronto, Michigan State University, and Tufts University.  I served as a founding Advisory Board member of the Institute of Nutrition, Metabolism and Diabetes within the Canadian Institutes of Health Research.  I was the founding chair of the Cornell University Division of Nutrition Sciences External Advisory Board and an industry representative (non-voting member) of the FDA Food Advisory Committee.  I am an active volunteer with leadership experience in the American Society for Nutrition, Canadian Nutrition Society, Council for Responsible Nutrition, Institute for Food Technologists, International Food Information Council, International Life Sciences Institute, and New York Academy of Science, and VitaMe Technologies Inc (www.VitaScan.me)

Accreditations include professional mediation (Texas Mediation Training Roundtable) and Executive Leadership I, IMD Business School.  For research papers, visit my ResearchGate profile.  Please follow me on twitter @MIMcBurney and LinkedIn.

For additional information, please contact me via email at McBurney23@gmail.com