This interview is with Kathryn Radke, Professor Emerita of Animal Science. She was appointed in 1984 and retired in 2011.
Kathryn’s research focused on the interactions of the bovine leukemia retrovirus with its host cells and the immune system of its animal hosts. Most of her research used sheep experimental models, but she also investigated the virus in naturally infected cows in the UC Davis dairy herd.
She taught an undergraduate interdisciplinary course, AIDS and Society, developing a model in which undergraduate assistants helped graduate student teaching assistants with discussion sections. Her teaching also included a graduate course on the changes taking place in genes and cells during the development of cancer, as well as numerous upper division lectures on infectious disease and immunology.
Her service was instrumental in the design, adoption and implementation in 2011 of a revised General Education curriculum, as well as in the development of a campus-wide core flow cytometry facility that was essential for the UC Davis Cancer Center to acquire National Cancer Institute designation.
She is interviewed by her friend and colleague, Mary Delany, Professor Emerita of Animal Science.
