Chair
Abdulfatai Tijjani
The Jackson Laboratory
Bar Harbor, ME United States

Term of service (1st, 2019-2023)

Abdulfatai Tijjani is a post-doctoral fellow (livestock genome analyst) at the Centre for Tropical Livestock Genetics and Health (CTLGH) and International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI), Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. He is a member of ILRI’s Livestock Genetics program and the CTLGH Diary genomics program, working on bioinformatics analysis of whole-genome sequences of indigenous African cattle to identify genomic regions underpinning tropical adaptation, resilience, and production traits, in support of breeding programs. He is also contributing to bioinformatics capacity building, including supervision of ILRI graduate fellows and training of research partners from within Africa. Tijjani has a degree in veterinary medicine (DVM) from Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria, Nigeria, and his PhD in genetics from the University of Nottingham, UK.

Member
Arth Bhaljibhai Chaudhari
Kamdhenu University
Sardarkrushinagar, India

Term of service (1st, 2021-2025)

Arth B. Chaudhari is currently an assistant professor in the Department of Animal Genetics and Breeding in the College of Veterinary Science and Animal Husbandry, Kamdhenu University, Sardarkrushinagar, Gujarat state, India. His research interests are in cattle, buffalo, sheep, and goat genetics and genomics, heat tolerance, tick resistance, and genomic selection. Chaudhari’s interests also include collaboratively working with developing and developed countries on research projects. As a newly elected member of the ISAG Committee, he pledges with hard work, punctuality, full faith, determination, and good accuracy to carry his honest scientific responsibility for the betterment of the animal genetics and breeding communities.

Member
Marina Fortes
The University of Queensland
Brisbane, Australia

Term of service (1st, 2019-2023)

Marina Fortes has a degree in veterinary medicine (2004) and an MSc in animal reproduction (2007) from the University of Sao Paulo, Brazil. She completed her PhD in genetics at the University of Queensland (UQ). Between 2012 and 2014, Fortes worked as a post-doc at the Queensland Alliance for Agriculture and Food Innovation (QAAFI-UQ), investigating cattle puberty with genomics approaches. In August 2014, Fortes joined the School of Chemistry and Molecular Biosciences, where she is now a senior lecturer and the leader of the Livestock Genomics Group. Her group is interested in understanding how genetics influence livestock production and reproductive biology. Ongoing collaborations link her group with a rich research environment, both domestic and international, which contributes to the development of sustainable livestock industries.

Member
Catarina Ginja
CIBIO-InBIO, Universidade do Porto, PT
Porto, Portugal

Term of service (1st, 2021-2025)

Catarina Ginja is the leader of the Archaeogenetics research group at CIBIO-InBIO, and an invited Assistant Professor at the Faculty of Sciences, University of Porto. She graduated in Zootechnical Engineering from the University of Trás-os-Montes e Alto Douro-UTAD (2000) and obtained her MSc degree in Animal Science from the same university (2002). C Ginja completed a PhD degree in Animal Breeding and Genetics from the Technical University of Lisbon (2009). Following her research at the Veterinary Genetics Laboratory, she was invited to work as a Research Assistant at the University of California in Davis (2008-2010). In October 2010, C Ginja was awarded a Marie Curie grant to work at the Centre for Environmental Biology of Lisbon University and to launch an innovative archaeogenetics research. C Ginja is experienced in state-of-the-art technologies including the analysis of ancient genomes of domesticated animal species. She has a strong publication record in the field of population genetics and conservation of domestic animal genetic resources. In 2014, she was invited as chairperson and cattle representative of the FAO/ISAG Committee on Animal Genetic Diversity. She collaborates with Breeder Associations to define conservation and management measures.

Member
Khanyisile Hadebe
Agricultural Research Council
Centurion, South Africa

Term of service (1st, 2021-2025)

Khanyisile Hadebe (Mdladla) is a senior researcher at the Biotechnology Platform at the Agricultural Research Council, South Africa. Hadebe’s research field is the characterization of the biodiversity of indigenous Animal Genetic Resources (AnGR), with special interest in population relatedness and structure, signatures of selection and adaptation, and environmental fitness. Her research application is in development and optimization of genomics and digital tools in breeding and conservation programs for locally adapted AnGR. She is involved in community projects that assist village-based smallholder goat farmers to improve on records, make informed management decisions, and optimize production to market standards, to potentially gain access to local market opportunities within the value chains.

Member
Kwan-Suk Kim
Chungbuk National University
Cheongju Chungbuk, Korea, Republic of

Term of service (1st, 2019-2023)

Member
Mostafa Nassar
Cairo University
Giza, Egypt

Term of service (1st, 2021-2025)

Mostafa Nassar is an associate professor at Cairo University, Egypt, and a visiting researcher at Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, Germany. He received his PhD from Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin. His scientific focus area is poultry breeding and genetics, for improving the productivity and conservation of genetic resources. Nassar’s research focuses on the application of genomics to animals, particularly chickens, to unravel the genetic basis of complex traits and to facilitate molecular breeding to accelerate genetic progress, promotion of resilience, animal welfare, and resource conservation, using statistical analyses and bioinformatics tools.