Dr. Keith Ou

A professional headshot of Keith Ou wearing a brown blazer with blue and white striped button up shirt.
Keith
Ou, Ph.D.
,
Assistant Professor, Animal Biotechnology and Conservation
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Dr. Keith Ou brings his passion, experience and formal training in teach to Delaware Valley University’s Department of Animal Biotechnology and Conservation. “Learning by doing” has been central to his own education journey and now guides his approach to fostering student growth in an engaging, inclusive classroom. He integrates research and real-world, hands-on experiences to prepare students for professional success while connecting them with current scholarship and community work, as embodied in the Teacher-Scholar Model. Ultimately, his goal as a teach and mentor is to inspire students to envision futures in their chosen fields and to equip them with the experiences and skills to achieve them.

Dr. Keith Ou earned his bachelor’s degree in animal science with a minor in human nutrition from California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo. After a gap year as an animal nutrition intern at Disney’s Animal Kingdom, an animal care technician at the University of California, San Francisco, and a research and development intern at EnviroFlight, he earned his Ph.D. in animal science from Cornell University. Drawing on real-world case studies from his professional experiences, Ou enriches his course materials with practical insights and fosters an active learning environment.

Dr. Keith Ou has presented his work at multiple national conferences and is a member of the Association of Zoos and Aquariums (AZA), the Comparative Nutrition Society (CNS), The Wildlife Society (TWS), the American Society for Nutrition (ASN), the Poultry Science Association (PSA) and the American Society of Animal Science (ASAS).

Recent Publications

  1. Ou KJ, Du J, Liu G, Chapagain A, Nuccio DA, Singh P, Kim WK, Kwon YM, and Lei XG. “Efficacy and biosafety of 25-hydroxyvitamin D3 biofortified in egg yolk in mice fed two levels of dietary fat.” The Journal of Nutrition. 2025;155(8):2631-2642
  2. Sun T, Kalia S, Wyman B, Ou KJ, and Lei XG. “Impacts of feeding three strains of microalgae alone or in combination on growth performance, protein metabolism and meat quality of broiler chickens.” Algal Research. 2024;83:103691.
  3. Ou KJ, Magnuson AD and Lei XG. “Efficacy, biosafety and metabolic impacts of feeding mice egg yolks enriched with three bioactive nutrients in different combinations.” Precision Nutrition. 2023;2(2):e00039.
  4. Ou KJ, Magnuson AD, Sun Z, Kalia S, Sun T and Lei XG. “A triple enrichment of three bioactive nutrients in eggs of laying hens elicited moderate interactions on related gene expression.” Precision Nutrition. 2023;2(2):e00034.

Research Projects

  1. 2024 Northeast Sustainable Agriculture Research & Education (SARE), Graduate Student Research Grant. GNE24-328: “Potential of feeding laying hens with combined hempseed meal and microalgae as a sustainable regime to produce health-promoting and low-carbon eggs.” Awarded to K.J. Ou (Pl: Dr. X.G. Lei).
  2. 2024 New York State Pollution Prevention Institute, 2nd Annual Student and Faculty Research Program. “Developing a novel tri-enzyme complex as a new poultry feed additive to enable simultaneous decreases of manure nitrogen, phosphorous and heavy metal pollutions.” Awarded to E. Fierro, A.M. Madler, K.J. Ou and J. Du (Pl: Dr. X.G. Lei).

Selected Awards

  1. 2024-25 SUNY Provost Diversity Fellowship, Cornell University
  2. 2023-25 Center for Teaching Innovation Teaching Fellowship, Cornell University
  3. 2022 Susan Crissey Memorial Scholarship, Comparative Nutrition Society