Dept. of Animal Biosciences chair named

Dr. Christine Baes has been appointed chair of the Department of Animal Biosciences. She begins her five-year term on May 22, 2023.

“I am deeply honoured to have been selected as the next chair of the Department of Animal Biosciences,” says Baes. “I am so grateful for the support of faculty, staff, students, and collaborators within and outside of the University, and I am excited to further develop our department’s outstanding legacy in research, education and outreach excellence.”

“We were excited by the interest in this important leadership role for a large and active department,” says Rene Van Acker, dean of the Ontario Agricultural College. “To have three internal candidates apply shows this, as well as the tremendous engagement we had from the department during the search process. I am grateful to all three candidates for their willingness to be considered for this key position.”

“Christine has proven her leadership capability through her tremendous success in building partnerships and pulling together very large and successful research projects. This is in addition to her role as a Canada Research Chair. I look forward to working with her in this important role and we look forward to how she will lead the department to new strengths and capacity.”

Baes’s research focuses on understanding the genetic architecture of quantitative traits of livestock, with a particular focus on dairy cattle.

After completing her B.Sc. at U of G, she went on to finish an M.Sc. in animal welfare at the Universität Hohenheim and a PhD in quantitative genetics at the Leibniz Institute for Farm Animal Biology and the Christian Albrechts Universität zu Kiel in Germany. Baes joined U of G as a faculty member in 2015.

Baes has strength and extensive experience building and leading large, complex interdisciplinary projects. She has served on numerous national and international technical, advisory and policy committees and has considerable service and leadership experience through different industry and scholarly groups. She was appointed a Tier II Canada Research Chair in 2019. In 2021, Baes was recognized for her outstanding contributions to the long-term and sustainable genetic improvement of livestock with a Minister’s Award of Excellence in Innovation and Entrepreneurship, presented by Minister of Colleges and Universities Jill Dunlop.