President - Professor John Kastelic

Professor Kastelic’s origins were on a cattle farm near Edmonton, Alberta, Canada. He received his DVM from the U. of Saskatchewan (US) in 1982, and spent  more than 2 years in private practice and 1 year in a MS program at US before transferring to the U. of Wisconsin-Madison. Under the supervision of OJ Ginther, he was involved in early studies on the use of ultrasonography for reproductive imaging and studying the ovaries, uterus and conceptus in cattle. He completed my PhD in 1990 and was then recruited by Glenn Coulter (AAAA Founding President) to work at the Lethbridge Research Centre (~200 km/130 miles from Calgary). In 2012, he joined the U. of Calgary, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine where he is Professor of Theriogenology and Head of the Department of Production Animal Health.

Contact Details:
Email: jpkastel@ucalgary.ca, therio@shaw.ca

Vice President - Associate Professor Diego Bucci

Professor Bucci is DMV, PhD and Associate Professor of Veterinary Physiology  at the Department of Veterinary Medical Sciences of the University of Bologna, Italy. He has authored over 60 publications in peer-reviewed international journals. He has also been a member of the Board of Directors and Vice President of the Association for Applied Animal Andrology for the past 2 year. His scientific interests are freezing sperm and oocytes techniques and their enhancement using pre- and post-freezing antioxidants; studies of sperm metabolism in different domestic species through indirect immunofluorescence techniques, western blotting, and flow cytofluorimetry as well as seminal plasma enzymes in sperm function and cryopreservation and the use of open source and commercial CASA to study sperm motility. Educationally, Professor Bucci teaches the fields of domestic animal veterinary physiology, reproductive technologies and the physiology of wild animals and cetaceans as well as delivering statistical seminars in the Doctorate of Veterinary Sciences.

Contact Details:

Email: diego.bucci3@unibo.it 

ResearchGate: Diego Bucci

Secretary/Treasurer - Associate professor Zamira Gibb

Associate Professor Gibb gained her Bachelor of Animal and Veterinary Bioscience (Hons 1st Class) from the University of Sydney, Australia, in 2007, followed by her PhD from the same institution in 2013. She joined the University of Newcastle, Australia, in 2013, where she was recently promoted and tenured. She has also been an Australian Research Council DECRA Fellow since 2017. She has over 65 refereed publications, being first or senior author in 40. With a central focus on stallion reproduction, Zamira leads the livestock research group within the University of Newcastle’s Priority Research Centre in Reproductive Science. Zamira’s research encompasses a stream of strategically important developments that will provide solutions to the challenges faced by all factions of Australia’s sustainable and culturally significant livestock breeding industries. Outside of academia, Zamira enjoys cooking, fine wine and riding her dressage horse. Zamira has been a member of the 4A Executive Board for 2 years. where she has been an Officer, serving as co-Secretary and Treasurer.

Contact Details:
Email: zamira.gibb@newcastle.edu.au

Twitter: @ZamiraGibb

Director - Doctor Laura Abril-Parreño

Dr Abril-Parreño is a postdoctoral researcher at the Physiology Department of the Veterinary Faculty of the University of Murcia (Spain). Her main interests are in sperm biology and the molecular mechanisms regulating the interaction of sperm with the female reproductive tract. Currently, her research is focused on the identification of novel molecular biomarkers that can be used in the prediction of bull fertility. Dr Abril-Parreño is trained in human andrology and embryology as well as in ancillary egg, embryo and sperm freezing techniques, having worked at a leading Spanish fertility clinic (IVI; 2016) as well as at the Laboratory of Reproductive Medicine, Pilsen, Czech Republic (2016-2017). In 2021, she completed her PhD which was focused on sperm transport across the cervix of ewe breeds known to have differences in pregnancy rates following cervical artificial insemination with frozen-thawed semen. Through this, she has developed skills in a range of Omics technologies (transcriptomics, glycomics, metabolomics) as well as ultra-performance liquid chromatography (UPLC) and mass spectrometry (MS). In addition, Dr Abril-Parreño has been awarded travel grants for young researchers from Santander (Spanish bank; 2015) as well as the ASEBIR (Spanish Association for the Study of Reproductive Biology; 2016) to work on the development of protocols for semen preservation. She is a member of the Spanish Association for the study of Reproductive Biology (ASEBIR) and part of the organizing committee of the COST Action ANDRONET (European andrology network– research coordination, education and public awareness).

Contact Details:
Email: Laura.abril2@um.es

Director - Associate Professor Elisa Giaretta

Dr Elisa Giaretta obtained her veterinary degree from the University of Bologna in 2011, followed by her PhD (title “ Effect of antioxidant supplementation on pig and horse gamete storage”) under the supervision of Professor Carlo Tamanini. She is currently associate professor at the University of Padua in the Department of Comparative Biomedicine and Food Science. Her research activity encompasses conservation of gametes and their quality parameters, including effects of natural antioxidants. In addition, she studies the energy metabolism and changes associated with capacitation and the acrosome reaction in sperm of different domestic species. Concurrent research interests are in farm animal adaptation and stress responses to change, aimed at developing animal health and welfare biomarkers. She has received several grants and awards and teaches subjects in both Animal and Veterinary Sciences.

Contact Details:
Email: elisa.giaretta@unipd.it

Director - Associate Professor Bart Gadella

Associate Professor Gadella is within the School of Veterinary Medicine at University of Utrecht, The Netherlands. He has played a strong role in facilitating interdisciplinary knowledge, such as by combining input from the veterinary clinics with fundamental knowledge and facilities to study cell biological and biochemical aspects of sperm cell maturation and capacitation, oocyte maturation, the in vitro fertilization processes and early embryonic development until blastocyst stages and comparison of these processes with the in situ processes in the oviduct. Besides these main research topics, he has participated in a number of diverse clinical projects in the reproductive clinics of Farm Animals Health and Equine Sciences. He attributes this combination of multidisciplinary expertise, which he has built within his group, a deep understanding of reproductive physiology and the close collaboration with in-house sophisticated analytical facilities as being invaluable in allowing him to develop his widely recognized research progam.

Contact Details:
Email: b.m.gadella@uu.nl

Director - Professor Christine Aurich

Associate Professor Aurich graduated in Veterinary Medicine from the Hannover Veterinary School, Germany in 1990. Her subsequent studies and positions have been focused upon animal reproduction, including her PhD thesis, “Endocrine regulation of reproduction in the horse” from the Hannover Veterinary School, Germany, in 1997. Since 1998, she has been at the University of Veterinary Sciences (Vetmeduni), Vienna, Austria where she has held positions, including Head of the Graf Lehndorff-Institue for Equine Science, Head of the Clinic for Horses, and Head of the PhD Curricular Committee.

Contact Details:

Email: christine.aurich@vetmeduni.ac.at

Director - Associate Professor Ivan Cunha Bustamante-Fiho

Associate Professor Ivan Cunha Bustamante-Filho, DVM, PhD has been a faculty member at the University of Vale do Taquari, in Brazil since 2011, teaching animal biotechnology and embryology. His research aims are to identify putative molecular markers associated with fertility traits in domestic animals, with a special focus on proteomics. He is particularly interested in the roles of testicular and epididymal proteins in spermatozoa function and in development of new biotechnological strategies for semen preservation. The Bustamante-Filho Lab also seeks new data as to how environmental pollutants impair reproductive physiology by endocrine disrupting mechanisms. Dr. Bustamante-Filho is currently the vice president of the Brazilian College of Animal Reproduction and Editor of Animal Reproduction. He has also great interest in scientific collaborations and networking, with current projects involving collaborations with researchers from Uruguay, England, Italy and Germany. Dr. Bustamante-Filho is Associate Editor of Animal Reproduction (JCR 0.916), Andrologia (JCR 1.951) and Review Editor for Frontiers in Veterinary Sciences (JCR 2.295), and also acts as peer reviewer for a number of journals . He also has co-organized important scientific meetings in Brazil, such as the Brazilian Congress of Animal Reproduction and the International Symposium on Animal Biology of Reproduction. He has been a Director of the Association for Applied Animal Andrology since 2020. His research interests include biotechnologies applied to animal reproduction with focus on molecular markers in andrology and gynecology as well reproductive toxicology.

Contact Details:
Email: ivanbustamante.filho@gmail.com

ResearchGate: Ivan Bustamante-Filho

Twitter: @Ivanov_br

Director - Professor Gary Althouse

Professor Althouse has had a long, and continuing, distinguished career in which he has made significant contributions to animal reproduction and reproductive management (particularly with swine), scientific knowledge, education (both academic and industry) and leadership of academic and animal reproduction organizations. The latter has included the SFT (past-president), ACT (past-president), TF, AASV, ICBSP and IPVS. He is currently Associate Dean of Sustainable Agriculture and Veterinary Practices and Professor of Reproduction and Swine Health, holding the MD & DG Jones Endowed Chair in Animal Reproduction within the Department of Clinical Studies (where he also was Department Chairman for over 10 years). He has also won a number of awards including the Robert Whitlock Award for Excellence in Faculty Mentoring. Gary is an innovator and visionary with a wide and deep understanding of a number of disciplines, which has helped him to see the big picture. He also has been a generous collaborator and contributor, not only scientifically, but also with his leadership and educational knowledge and skills.

Contact details:

Email: gca@vet.upenn.edu

Director - Professor Erdoğan Memili

Professor Memili is Executive Associate Director of Research in the College of Agriculture and Human Sciences at Prairie View A& M University which is a land grand HBCU in Texas, USA. Prior to that, he served as a faculty member from Assistant to full professor in the Department of Animal and Dairy Sciences at Mississippi State University, USA where he had research, teaching and service appointments. He graduated as a veterinarian at Istanbul University, followed by  graduate research in microbial genetics and mammalian embryo development during his MS and Ph.D. studies at Wisconsin-Madison, respectively. He did epigenetics stem cell research during his postdoc at Harvard followed by basic and applied research on development of transgenic animals in Boston at Genzyme Transgenics. He completed his postdoctoral training and faculty sabbatical at Harvard and Cornell, respectively. In research, he leads a globally recognized research group pursuing fundamental research to improve fertility in livestock for food security using systems biology approaches within the concept of systems physiology. The collaborative and multidisciplinary research is aimed at uncovering sperm fertility markers and improving sperm cryopreservation. His passion and purpose are to make positive impact on agricultural science, education and the society. He has been attentive and supportive of the Association for Applied Animal Andrology (AAAA); he has collaborated with the AAAA leadership and helped secure USDA grants for the AAAA biennial conferences. He is committed to serving for AAAA to sustain the excellence, especially in its committees including scientific communication and attainment of conference grants.

Contact Details:
Email: em149@msstate.edu
ResearchGate: Erdoğan Memili

Director - Doctor Guilherme Rizzoto

Dr Rizzoto graduated as a veterinarian in 2015 from the Federal University of Pelotas, Brazil, and received his PhD (“Pathogenesis of Heat Induced Infertility in Male Mammals”) in 2020 from University of Calgary (Calgary, AB, Canada) where he worked with Dr. John Kastelic. From 2021- 22, he held a post-doctoral position (Promising Young Researcher Award) at UNESP (São Paulo State University – Botucatu, SP, Brazil) and is currently a post-doctoral researcher at Ghent University, with the support of a BOF Award (2022 – 25). He is also a Professor at UNESP in the Graduate Program in Animal Biotechnology (2019 - Ongoing). He is an enthusiast of animal andrology and theriogenology with several publications in the area and has also received important awards, including the Gustav Rosenberger Memorial Fund for young researchers. His research is focused upon impacts of heat stress on male fertility and he has received significant international grants in support.

Contact details:

Email: guilhermerizzoto@hotmail.com; Rizzotog@gmail.com

Past President - Professor Peter Chenoweth

Peter completed his Veterinary and PhD degrees at the University of Queensland Australia), and has taught in Veterinary Schools in both Australia and the US, in addition to establishing animal andrology laboratories in both countries. He was a co-founder of 4A, in Hungary in 1997. He has numerous publications in animal reproduction as well as veterinary education and animal welfare. He has co-published “Animal Andrology: Theories and Practices” (CABI 2014) as well as Manual of Animal Andrology (2022). He was recognized as the Theriogenologist of the Year in 2013, and received the Gilruth Prize from the Australian Veterinary Association in 2017 for “outstanding contributions to veterinary sciences”. He has served as served on the 4A Executive Board for a number of years, most recently as President. Although not eligible to be re-elected to the 4A Executive Board, he will continue to contribute in the post-hoc role of Past President.

Contact details: 

Email: vacavet@gmail.com