Kirby Hayes

Professor, Dairy Products Technology Center, Dairy Science Department, California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo, CA

Dr. Hayes comes to us from Purdue University where he developed an international reputation as a member of the faculty of the Food Science Department since 2002.  Dr. Hayes received M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in Food Science from Purdue. While an associate professor at Purdue, Dr. Hayes taught courses in foods and dairy foods and had an active dairy foods research program.  With over twenty-five refereed scientific publications, and numerous teaching papers and presentations, Dr. Hayes brings a substantial amount of experience expertise, and knowledge to our department.  Much of his recent effort has been in the area of student performance assessment, where he held a joint appointment at Purdue as Associate Vice Provost for Assessment.

Dr. Hayes is to working with our other faculty to take a hard look at our curriculum and develop recommendations for the future.  As part of the Dairy Science Department’s strategic planning effort we have developed a set of proposed strategic initiatives to help us increase the amount of students we prepare for the dairy foods industry.  Dr. Hayes plays an integral role in developing this effort.

Dr. Hayes was born and raised in central Indiana.  Most of his extended family are from Kentucky and Tennessee where they settled shortly after immigration from Ireland around the time of the potato famine. He is married to Robin who also was born and raised in Indiana. They enjoy traveling, backpacking, biking, running (well she does), fishing, and nearly all water sports.