Ronald Horst, Ph.D. Agricultural Research Service Hall of Fame 2010 Inductee
"Dr. Ronald Horst. For a couple of years I was Acting Center Director at the National Animal Disease Center and then for about fourteen years I was research leader of the Metabolic Diseases of Cattle Research Unit. 
My background was in nutrition and biochemistry. I received my PhD at the University of Wisconsin. Did a post-doc up there, a short post-doc and then began my ARS career and, actually it was September 1977 we moved to Ames, my wife and I. She was pregnant with our first child and so it was great to have a job at that time."
What sparked your interest in science?
"What sparked my interest was my experiences growing up on the dairy farm in West Virginia. We milked about a hundred cows there and some of those animals developed a disease called milk fever. And we had some animals die of that disease and so I was thinking about this all along as I was growing up and ultimately we were able to develop a practical on-farm solution to the disease."
Talk about your principal area of research during your career.
"My principal area of research during my career has been calcium and vitamin D metabolism in animals and also in humans. 
Vitamin D is important because it has effects on several different systems in the body. Not only does it affect calcium absorption and bone to build bone and so forth as we normally think vitamin D does but it also has effects on the immune system and heart and muscle growth and that sort of thing. 
So, we over the last couple of years have found that it actually plays a role in prevention of cancer and multiple sclerosis and some things that you never would think of that vitamin D would be important in preventing. So, it's been a very exciting time these last several years in terms of vitamin D research and I'm very happy that I had a chance to have a role in it."
Reflect on your choice to spend a career with ARS.
"ARS was just an absolutely fantastic setting for doing research. We were able to, or I was able to, develop my own program, certainly within limits of the confines of the ARS mission, and not having to worry about writing grants or teaching or committees and that sort of thing. ARS allowed me to just do my research and do what I wanted to do so I could put my nose to the grind stone and not be distracted by a lot of other items that one at a university might be distracted by."
What was the most exciting discovery of your research career?
"That's a hard question to answer because we've had many exciting experiences. I think one of the most exciting things we did was a practical method that we could take out to the dairy farmer for prevention of the milk fever in dairy cattle."
What should scientists of the future be focusing on?
"Future research, probably more of the biotech genetic modification of plants some of these sort of things need to be pursued. Food research and certainly which includes animal research I think will benefit greatly by some of these genetic modifications that we are doing. But, we need to be very careful about that. We don't affect the environment or people."
Any final thoughts on being inducted into the ARS Hall of Fame?
"The only thing I liked to add is just to reiterate my appreciation of ARS and their support. The support they gave me. It was an absolute fun experience for me to have worked for ARS and it was just like being a kid in a candy shop. 
I just loved the things I was doing and the people that were working with me and I really thank ARS and would recommend any young scientist to enter ARS if they had the opportunity to."
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