M E Tumbleson

Biography

Dr. M.E. "Mike" Tumbleson grew up in the small town of Trimont, Minnesota and hitchhiked to the University of Minnesota at the age of 17. Tumbleson earned a bachelor's degree in Agricultural Education at Minnesota in 1958, a master's in Plant Physiology in 1961 and a Ph.D. in Nutrition and Biochemistry in 1964. After 20 years at the University of Missouri, Tumbleson joined the faculty at the University of Illinois in 1986, where he held a joint appointment in Veterinary Biosciences and Agricultural Engineering. In his time at the University, Tumbleson investigated a variety of areas, including the use of swine to evaluate alcoholism, ethanol production, and corn utilization. During the past few years, Tumbleson's research publications have resulted from work on evaluating dry grind corn processing facilities with respect to optimizing ethanol production from corn grain, assessing fumonisin (a mycotoxin produced by fungi existing on corn plants) effects on swine, sheep, cattle and horse health, and commercial plant work with enzyme companies elucidating effects of operating conditions and equipment. Tumbleson has co-authored more than 200 refereed journal papers and 500 scientific abstracts and presentations, often with colleagues from the Department, including Drs. Phil Buriak, Leslie Christianson, Steven Eckhoff, Kent Rausch, and Vijay Singh. Tumbleson co-authored publications with more than 100 other distinguished colleagues, including Robert Eppley (FDA, Washington, DC), David Johnston (ERRC/ ARS/USDA, Wyndmoor, PA), D.K. Gupta (G.B. Pant University, Pantnagar, India), and Luk Vriens (Seghers, Wespelaar, Belgium). In 1985, Tumbleson organized and chaired the international conference, "Swine in Biomedical Research," after which he compiled and edited a three-volume treatise of the same name. In 1995, he organized and co-chaired an international symposium on "Advances in Swine in Biomedical Research," and was a co-editor of a two-volume treatise of the same name. Tumbleson has been a pilot his entire adult life, working as both an instructor (6500 hours) and an examiner. He often combines work and pleasure, taking farmers and cooperative elevator managers up in the air to evaluate crop conditions. Tumbleson retired from the University of Illinois in May of 2006.