Crissey Symposium

The Crissey Zoological Nutrtion Symposium was established in 2003 to provide a forum for discussion of breaking issues and discoveries important to the discipline, and to honor the late Dr. Sue Crissey, PhD nutritionist, teacher and a pioneer and innovator in the field of zoological nutrition.

crissey_giraffe copy
Dr. Sue Crissey and a grateful client

 

Designed to provide a supportive atmosphere where students, keepers, curators, biologists, veterinarians, and nutritional scientists could present their research, observations and hypotheses, the Crissey Symposia re-established the important venue pioneered by the impactful Dr. Scholl Conferences on the Nutrition of Captive Wild Animals held in Chicago from 1980 to 1991.

The first symposium was held December 12 and 13, 2003, the year of Sue Crissey’s untimely death from ovarian cancer.  A total of 6 symposia were held, the last in December of 2012.

Dr. Sue Crissey, a resident of Burgaw, North Carolina, was a valuable faculty member at the NC State College of Veterinary Medicine, and the Director of Nutrition for the Brookfield Zoo in Chicago at the time of her untimely death from ovarian cancer. She was a dynamic lecturer, meticulous researcher and reliable collaborator. Her contributions to our knowledge about the roles of nutrition in the health of both captive and wild animals of a wide variety of species have left a legacy and a model for young zoological nutritionists to emulate.

Sue Crissey examines a nutritionally needy wooly monkey