Oladele Gazal, PhD
Professor of Physiology and Director, Laboratory for Reproductive Research & Endocrine Analyses and Director, African Studies Program at St. Cloud State University
Dr. Oladele Gazal graduated with a first-class degree in animal science at Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria, Nigeria, and as the best graduating student, he received many national merit scholarships. He won the competitive Rotary Foundation Freedom from Hunger Scholarship that took him to Iowa State University, Ames, for his doctoral degree in the area of Physiology of Reproduction. He was president of both the Nigerian Students Association and African Students Association at Iowa State. Professor Gazal won the prestigious Rockefeller Foundation African Dissertation Internship award that enabled him to study the hormonal basis for the effect of undernutrition on puberty attainment in the Zebu cattle, a subject of his doctoral dissertation.
His research interests center on the neuroendocrine control of reproduction and the interaction among nutrition, stress and reproduction in mammals. His focus is on the endocrine relationships between ethnobotanicals and reproduction. He is currently evaluating the potential therapeutic effect of a herbal extract on a major infertility disease called Polycystic ovarian syndrome (PCOS).