Alan L. Archibald is Head of the Division of Genetics and Genomics at The Roslin Institute and Royal (Dick) School of Veterinary Studies, University of Edinburgh. Professor Alan Archibald is internationally recognised in the field of farm animal genetics and genomics research. He co-led the first international farm animal genome project – PiGMaP. Together with Professor Chris Haley, he was awarded the Royal Agricultural Society of England’s Research Medal in 1997 for research work of benefit to agriculture. He is a member of the Steering Committee of the Swine Genome Sequencing Consortium that is promoting efforts to sequence the pig genome and chair of the Governing Council of the European Animal Disease Genomics Network of Excellence for Animal Health and Food Safety.

His research is concerned with understanding the genetic control of complex traits, including production efficiency, product quality and host response to infectious disease, mainly in pigs and cattle. His current research of relevance to this conference includes dissecting the genetic control of predisposition to boar taint.

He has a personal chair in Mammalian Molecular Genetics in the Royal (Dick) School of Veterinary Studies at the University of Edinburgh and is as a Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh which is Scotland’s National Academy of Science and Letters.