(edited press announcement)

Colorado State University’s College of Veterinary Medicine and Biomedical Sciences today announced the establishment of the Iron Rose Ranch University Chair in Equine Reproduction, funded with a $3 million gift.

The chair will enhance the college’s work in equine reproductive performance and the position will be awarded to a professor at a future date in support of the Equine Reproduction Laboratory team.

The Iron Rose Ranch Chair creates a tenure-track position in the university in the equine reproduction program. With the addition of the new Iron Rose Ranch Chair, endowed chairs at the college now number six.

The Equine Reproduction Program at Colorado State has a long history of developing techniques for the equine industry. Started in 1967, today the laboratory is internationally renowned for its reproductive research. Several of the program’s discoveries directly benefit human reproductive and fertility medicine. Over the past 30 years, the laboratory has developed techniques such as collection of semen and artificial insemination, recovery and transfer of equine embryos, shipping of cooled semen and shipping of cooled embryos that are now routinely used in the equine industry.

Iron Rose Ranch, located near Carbondale, Colorado, specializes in breeding some of the finest cutting horses in the nation. This is the second chair established at Colorado State by the Iron Rose Ranch. The first, the Iron Rose Ranch Chair in Equine Musculoskeletal Disease and Injury, was created in 2004 with Dr. Chris Kawcak, as associate professor in the Department of Clinical Sciences, named to fill the chair.

Since then, Kawcak and Dr. Paul Lunn, head of the Department of Clinical Sciences, have continued to work with the Iron Rose Ranch on additional funding opportunities within the college. The new Iron Rose Ranch University Chair, noted Perryman, is a result of their joint efforts.