Ignacy Misztal

Ignacy Misztal serves as a Distinguished Research Professor and D.W. Brooks Professor in the Department of Animal & Dairy Science at the University of Georgia's College of Agricultural & Environmental Sciences. He joined UGA as an Associate Professor in 1996 after academic positions at Warsaw Agriculture University, Hohenheim University, University of Guelph, and University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.

Dr. Misztal earned his M.S. in Computer Engineering from Warsaw Technical University in 1978 and his Ph.D. in Technical Sciences from the Polish Academy of Sciences in 1985. His research has established him as a leading figure in animal breeding and genetics methodology.

His pioneering work focuses on genetic evaluation methodology, particularly the development of single-step GBLUP (genomic best linear unbiased prediction), which has become the standard approach in the field. He also pioneered methods to evaluate animals for heat tolerance using data from public weather stations. His research addresses critical challenges in livestock production sustainability through computational strategies that improve genetic evaluation systems.

His publication record demonstrates consistent focus on genomic evaluation methods, with recent work exploring estimation of heritabilities using predictivity in large genomic models, genotype-by-environment interactions, and technical implementations of all-breed single-step GBLUP. His research group has developed software tools that have become the backbone for genetic evaluation programs used by major animal genetics companies worldwide.

• J. Lush Award (ADSA)
• Rockefeller Prentice Award (ASAS)
• Research Award (NAAB)
• Pioneer Award (BIF)
• D.W. Brooks Distinguished Professorship

Dr. Misztal has delivered over 150 invited talks across 34 countries and taught 30 short courses on 6 continents. His research has attracted more than $12 million in extramural funding and has significant impact on dairy, beef, pig, and poultry industries globally. He leads a research group focused on developing tools for large-scale genetic evaluation of animals, with a philosophy of testing ideas quickly using real-world data from industry partners.

His laboratory, accessible through http://nce.ads.uga.edu, develops practical computational solutions that address the growing complexity of genomic data in animal breeding programs while maintaining computational feasibility for national evaluation systems.