Dale R. Woerner, professor and Cargill endowed professor, department of animal and food sciences, Texas Tech University, is an academic professional and meat and food industry consultant. Dale earned his bachelor’s and master’s degrees in animal science, meat and food industry management from Texas Tech University in 2003 and 2005, respectively, and earned his doctorate in animal science/meat science from Colorado State University in 2009. He served on the faculty at Colorado State University for nine years, and recently joined the faculty at Texas Tech University in an endowed chair position. He has conducted more than 12 million dollars in industry funded research and has published more than 300 scholarly works. Dale has served as a member of the National Cattlemen's Beef Association's Beef Innovations Group, has served as the president of the AMSA Intercollegiate Meat Coaches Association, serves as chairman of the National 4-H Meat Judging Advisory Committee, and is a member of the American Meat Science Association board of directors. In 2013, Dale was selected by Vance Publishing as a “40 Under 40” honoree as a young leader in the agricultural industry contributing to the 2050 challenge, the challenge of feeding 9 billion people by 2050. Also, Dale was named one of the Top 10 Industry Leaders for 2014 by Cattle Business as a “Difference Maker,” and was recognized along with his wife, Wendy, in 2014 by Texas Tech as Horizon Award Recipients. In 2015 he received the American Meat Science Associations Achievement Award, in 2018 was recognized by the American Society of Animal Sciences with the Early Career Achievement Award and was recognized the same year as a Distinguished Alumni by the TTU College of Agricultural Sciences and Natural Resources. Also, in 2018, Dale was selected by the American Meat Science Association membership to be the chairman of the Reciprocal Meat Conference, the premier meat science conference in North America. Most recently, he was awarded the North American Meat Institute's 2018 Harry L. Rudnick Educator's Award.