Han Named AVS Chair

The Department of Animal and Veterinary Science has a new chair.

Professor Shelton Murinda retired as department chair at the end of May, and Associate Professor Hyungchul Han will serve as the new department chair.

In addition, Associate Professor Ondieki Gekara was named the associate chair for the department coordinating undergraduate and minor programs.

Murinda was hired at Cal Poly Pomona in 2005, specializing in teaching biotechnology applications in animal science, meat science and industry classes. He was appointed department chair in 2019 after serving in an interim capacity for nearly a year.

Murinda has entered the Faculty Early Retirement Program and will teach in fall semesters full time.

Han, who was named the college’s 2024 Teacher of the Year, came to Cal Poly Pomona in 2018 from Colorado State University, where he was an associate professor.  

Prior to that, he was a research scientist at Korea Cancer Center Hospital, and postdoctoral fellow at the University of Nevada and Oklahoma State University.  Han earned his doctorate from Oklahoma State University.

Gekara was hired at Cal Poly Pomona in 2016. He came to the college from the University of Arkansas at Pine Bluff, where he was an associate professor of animal science.

He also serves at the Cal Poly Pomona Agricultural Research Institute campus coordinator.