He will take over the professorship for Statistical Methods in Animal Breeding at the Faculty of Agriculture, Civil Engineering and Environmental Sciences (AUF) at the University of Rostock, succeeding Prof. Reinsch. At the FBN, he will head the Quantitative Animal Genetics and the focus topic ‘Promoting Diversity in Animal Farming’.
Prof Dr Schmid previously worked for many years in the Department of Animal Genetics and Breeding at the University of Hohenheim, where he obtained his doctorate, habilitated and conducted postdoctoral research. In the meantime, he also worked at the State Institute for Pig Breeding (LSZ) in Boxberg.
His research focuses on the quantitative and population genetic basis of key performance and health traits in farm animals. The focus is particularly on immune competence, basic feed efficiency, metabolic stability and (climate) resilience, as well as the adaptability of populations to changing production conditions. He is particularly concerned with the preservation of genetic diversity and the further development of sustainable, modern breeding programmes, taking into account genotype-environment interactions as well as microbiota and other omics data.
We are delighted to welcome Prof Dr Markus Schmid to the FBN and look forward to working with him in the future.
