George Foxcroft (Left), seen here with his former
graduate students François Paradis (Centre) and Susan
Novak, is hanging up his lab coat after almost 25 years
with the Department of AFNS.

George Foxcroft, Professor of Swine Reproduction Physiology with the Department of Agricultural, Food and Nutritional Science, announced his retirement as of July, 2012 after a distinguished career of more than 40 years.

Foxcroft joined the University of Alberta in 1988 after receiving both his BSc and PhD from the University of Nottingham where he later held the position of Senior Lecturer in Animal Physiology. Since joining AFNS, he has twice been named Associate Chair (Research), received the Award for Excellence in Genetics and Physiology from the Canadian Society of Animal Science and accepted appointments as an Adjunct Professor with the Department of Physiology, a Tier I Canada Research Chair in Swine Reproductive Physiology and Co-Director of the NSERC EmbryoGENE Strategic Research Network.

“The chance to move to Canada in 1988 represented the greatest uncontrolled experiment of our lives,” said Foxcroft. “However, by any measure,  the success we have enjoyed as a family, as well as the material (establishment of the SRTC) and other  legacies of the R&D program it was possible to create, speak volumes about the great opportunities provided by Canada as a country and by AFNS as my professional home over the last 20 years.”

Between 1989 and 2009, Foxcroft served on a total of seventeen University of Alberta committees. In addition to this enormous commitment, he also led the development of the Swine Research & Technology Centre, served as Scientific Director of the Swine Breeding Management Workshop from 2005-2011 and has played an instrumental role in the planning and delivery of the Allen D. Leman Swine Conference since 1996.

Somewhere during the performance of these numerous undertakings, Foxcroft also found the time to publish an astounding 184 peer-reviewed publications and 116 extension publications; an accomplishment that played no small part in the Canadian Hirsch-Index Benchmarking of Academic Research naming him the second highest ranked academic in Canada within the Agricultural Sciences field.

As an avid gardener and an ardent curler, Foxcroft should have no problem filling his schedule. For those he leaves in the department however, filling his shoes could prove to be quite a challenge.