Ph.D. Students

Current Ph.D. Students

Whitney Brown, September 2023 to present.
Whitney is working on research projects to optimize dairy heifer growth and reproductive management.

Megan R. Lauber, March, 2021 to present.
Megan is working on research projects to optimize use of sexed semen in nonlactating dairy heifers and lactating dairy cows.

Former Ph.D. Students

Paulo D. Carvalho, January 2014 to May 2016.
Ph.D. Thesis: “Manipulation of progesterone before timed AI to increase fertility in lactating dairy cows.” Major findings included: 1) presynchronization with GnRH alone (i.e., GGPG) decreased fertility to TAI by 10 percentage points compared with cows submitted to a Double Ovsynch protocol for first TAI; 2) decreasing progesterone at initiation of an Ovsynch protocol increased ovulatory response to G1 by 20 percentage points but increased fertility to TAI by only 3.5 percentage points; 3) addition of a second PGF2α treatment 24 h after the first within a resynch protocol decreased progesterone at G2 resulting in a dramatic increase in fertility to TAI; 4) adding a second PGF2α treatment to but not reducing the duration of an PRID-Synch protocol for resynchronization of ovulation increased fertility.
Current position: International Sales and Research Specialist, Sexing Technologies.

Julio O. Giordano, October 2007 to January 2012.
Ph.D. Thesis: “Improving reproduction in lactating dairy cows through development of synchronization of ovulation protocols and economic decision support systems.” Julio’s thesis focused on three areas: 1) experiments to increase conception rates of resynchronized inseminations while decreasing the interbreeding interval; 2) temporal associations between pregnancy-associated glycoproteins and progesterone after induction of pregnancy loss using two experimental models for inducing loss; 3) development of two economic modeling strategies for assessing reproductive performance under various reproductive management scenarios.
Current position: St. John Family Sesquicentennial Faculty Fellow in Dairy Cattle Management, Associate Professor – Dairy Cattle Biology and Management, Department of Animal Science, Cornell University, Ithaca, New York.

Alessio Valenza, April to October, 2010 and July to December, 2011.
Dr. Valenza was a veterinarian working on his Ph.D. at Bologna University in Italy. Alessio spent 13 months in my lab during a sandwich program as a part of his Ph.D. program.
Research Project: Evaluation of an accelerometer system for detection of estrus and timing of ovulation in dairy cattle. Results showed that 1) 1/3 of cows that were hormonally synchronized to come into estrus did not show estrus or ovulate; 2) introducing estrous detection into a hormonal protocol for first timed AI affected fertility to timed AI.
Current position: Technical Manager, Ruminant Corporate Marketing, Ceva Santé Animale S.A, Liborne, France.

Noelia Silva del Río, October 2002 to September, 2007.
Ph.D. Thesis: “Epidemiology, physiology and nutritional management of twinning in dairy cattle.” Results showed that 1) twinning is increasing in the dairy cattle population over time; 2) less than 5% of all twin births are monozygous; 3) pregnancy loss is nearly 3-fold greater for cows diagnosed with twins compared to singletons; 4) increasing the transition feeding period from 3 to 8 wk was not a viable management intervention for cows carrying twin fetuses but did increase milk production regardless of pregnancy type.
Current position: Veterinary Medicine Extension Specialist, Department of Population Health & Reproduction, School of Veterinary Medicine, University of California, Davis. Located at the Veterinary Medicine Teaching and Research Center (VMTRC), Tulare, California.

Chainarong Navanukraw, May 1999 to August 2003.
Research project: Chainarong was a Ph.D. student with Dr. D.A. Redmer and Dr. L.P. Reynolds in the Department of Animal Sciences at North Dakota State University who spent three months in my laboratory learning to conduct transrectal ultrasound, collect and process blood samples, and handle lactating dairy cows. Dr. Navanukraw then returned to NDSU and conducted a synchronization research project in dairy cows as part of his Ph.D. research program. I served as a Ph.D. committee member for Dr. Navanukraw.
Current position: Associate Professor, Department of Animal Science, Khon Kaen University, Thailand.