BLACKSBURG, Va – After more than six decades of teaching and research, the impact of this Virginia Tech professor can be seen worldwide.
Dr. Paul Siegel is one of the longest working professors at the university.
“I’m a chicken guy who happens to be a geneticist,” Professor Dr. Paul Siegel said.
63 years ago in 1957, Siegel joined the faculty at Virginia Tech and has been working on the same experiment ever since.
“As a geneticist, I did not want to develop a better chicken, I wanted to figure out their relationships and why things work,” Siegel said.
Although the experiment started when Siegel was just 24 years old, his research has laid the groundwork for poultry studies worldwide.
“That started from a common gene pool in 1957, one generation a year for now what would be the 63rd generation, for 63 years that one continuous thing,” Siegel said.
Siegel and laboratory specialist Christa Honaker are birds of a feather, they have been working together for well over a decade.
“His dedication and his excitement about the research about the chickens about science about people and relationships its infectious,” Laboratory Specialist Christa Honaker said.
Dedication is a word most people use to describe Siegel as he still shows up to work seven days a week, even 63 years later.
He says there are a few good rules to follow to become one of the longest working professors at Virginia tech.
“It can’t be a job, it’s got it be something that you like, and the second thing is you have got to surround yourself with nice people that are bright,” Siegel said.
Siegel’s hard work and dedication prompted the Virginia Tech’s board of visitors to name the facility where hundreds of his chickens live after him.