UW graduate returns as Rochelle Chair

A Washington State University professor who received his Ph.D. at the University of Wyoming has returned to UW as the Rochelle Endowed Chair in the Department of Animal Science.

James Pru started this week in the university’s College of Agriculture and Natural Resources, where he plans to conduct research leading to reduced production costs by enhancing reproductive efficiency in livestock. His research area is in reproductive physiology.

The Rochelle Chair was established in 1992 by UW benefactors Curt and Marian Rochelle to attract and retain nationally and internationally recognized scholars and teachers.

Barbara Rasco, who’s the College of Agriculture and Natural Resources dean, said Pru’s work is significant, addressing fertility and pregnancy outcomes using molecular methods that are important for both people and animal agriculture.

Pru is a 1988 graduate of Northwest College in Powell and obtained his bachelor’s and master’s degrees in zoology and physiology and his Ph.D. in reproductive biology at UW.

He was a post-doctoral fellow in molecular reproductive biology at the Vincent Center for Reproductive Biology at Massachusetts General Hospital, Harvard Medical School in Boston and later was an assistant professor in the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology and Reproductive Medicine at Harvard Medical School until he joined Washington State University as an assistant professor.

He was promoted to associate professor in 2011 and full professor in 2017.