People
Our diverse, international team of researchers
Principal Investigator
Francisco Peñagaricano
Francisco is originally from Uruguay, where he earned his B.S. degrees in Biology and Biochemistry (2005) and M.S. in Animal Science (2010) from Universidad de la República. He earned his M.S. in Statistics (2014) and Ph.D. in Animal Science (2014) at UW-Madison. From 2015–2020, he was faculty at the University of Florida. His research focuses on the development and application of statistical and computational methods to dissect the genetic architecture of economically relevant traits in livestock, combining large phenotypic datasets with high-throughput genomic technologies.
Teaching: AN SCI 366 – Concepts in Genomics (3 credits, Fall) · AN SCI 875 – Design and Analysis of Biological Studies (4 credits)
Editorial Service: Editorial Board, Journal of Dairy Science · Associate Editor, Animal · Frontiers in Genetics · BMC Genomics
Postdoctoral Researchers
Gabriel Zayas
B.S. University of Florida
Research: Quantitative Genetics, Genomic Prediction, Thermotolerance
Joined January 2026
Afees Abiola Ajasa
M.Sc. University of Ibadan, Nigeria
M.Sc. University of Debrecen, Hungary
B.Agric. Federal University of Agriculture, Abeokuta, Nigeria
Research: Quantitative Genetics, Statistical Genomics
Joined October 2025
Graduate Students
Agustín Chasco
B.S. National University of Río Cuarto, Argentina
Intern, CDCB
Intern, ABS Global (2025)
Research: Dairy Cattle Genomics
Negin Sheybani
B.S. University of Tehran, Iran
Intern, Zoetis (Summer 2025)
Research: Computational Biology & Bioinformatics
Expected Graduation: Spring 2027
Ümit Bilginer
B.S. Animal Science, Akdeniz University, Türkiye
Erasmus Exchange, Aarhus University, Denmark (2023)
University Researcher, Michigan State University, USA (2024–2025)
Genetics Intern, Cobb-Vantress Inc., USA (Summer 2025)
Research Intern, UW-Madison (Sep-Dec 2025)
Ph.D. Student since January 2026
Research Staff
Dérick Cantarelli Rösler
Research: Data Collection, GreenFeed Phenotyping
Emily Tabor
B.S. Biology & Sociology, Union College (2021)
Research: Data Collection, Phenotyping
André Aguiar Zambon
Brazil
Research: Data Collection, Phenotyping
Former Members
Research Staff (2024–2025)
Past Visiting Scholars
Federica Marín
Bharti Deshmukh
Rodrigo Vivian
María André
Brayan D'auria
Laila Talarico Dias
Rodrigo de Almeida Teixeira
Eugenio Jara
Gastón Rijo
Helder Louvandini
Ligia Jimenez
Andrés Iriarte
Ana Ines Trujillo