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His research has spanned a wide range of topics and his previous and current leadership roles showcase the interdisciplinary strengths that he will bring to the new position. From collecting expeditions in the deserts of Tunisia that support the breeding of salt and drought-tolerant alfalfa breeding to examining the way Vermont livestock grazing practices can sequester carbon in the soil, Eric Bishop von Wettberg's career spans a wide range of topics.  

He is a faculty member in the Department of Agriculture, Landscape, and Environment and will remain the Director of the Vermont Agricultural Experiment Station. In addition, he frequently teaches Biology in the Catamount Core as well as courses like Animal Genetics courses in Animal and Veterinarian Science.  His Crop Genetic Heritage lab has several ongoing projects that include breeding and genetics, nutritional impacts of alternative cropping systems, and pasture management of grass-based production systems. One such project, a collaboration with the Vermont Land Trust, involves 15 farmers across Vermont and looks at the impacts of grazing practices. Grazing is widely advocated to utilize marginal farmland and as an approach to farming that can be less input-intensive and require less fertilizer.

Bishop von Wettberg, who began his new role this month, is already able to articulate three broad goals for the ASCI department:

1. The development of a new major and co-major option that would provide students who are interested in animals -- but may not have the interest to take all of the lab-based courses such as Chemistry, Molecular Genetics, and Physiology -- an avenue to get the hands-on experience with animals that they want and to have a major that it leaves more space to take on secondary or paired interests, such as a business degree, or a psychology degree, where their interest in animals complements something else.
2. Improvements to the Miller Farm Complex, which houses both the ¶¶Òõ̽̽ CREAM program and the Ellen A Hardacre Equine Facility, which is used by students in Equine Studies, the ¶¶Òõ̽̽ Dressage Team, and the Horse Barn Coop. Bishop von Wettberg has already been involved in the strategic planning process for the complex and has multiple ideas about how it can better serve as a model for new land management practices and an even more prominent beacon of our land grant mission to those traveling on Highway 89.
3. His third goal is to broaden graduate student offerings by building out programs that increase the number of accelerated master's programs. ASCI already has some AMP students, but he's hoping to expand those opportunities by tying them to other life science departments in the college. These would allow joint master's programs that have a strong, paired emphasis on scientific skills, as well as farm management and interaction with community stakeholders.

"The ¶¶Òõ̽̽ Department of Animal and Veterinary Science has a fantastic record of success in the acceptance rate of our students into Vet School, but I'd also like for us to widen our majors, degrees, and concentrations so that we're also training people for careers in Extension, for careers as technical service providers, for careers in veterinary medicine beyond becoming a veterinarian. I'd like to see us giving students more opportunities for cutting-edge careers where skills from multiple disciplines, as well as transdisciplinary skills, are very helpful."

His new appointment as the Chair of the Department of Animal and Veterinary Science confirms his breadth of scientific interests and his ongoing curiosity for how livestock fodders can contribute to animal health and subsequently become a critical component of human health.

"One of ¶¶Òõ̽̽ interim president Patti Prelocks's key initiatives is "Planetary Health" and animals are at the center of that. It's clear a great many human diseases are caused by the western diet. The way that we generate our food, whether it's from plants directly or animals that have consumed plants, is key part of improving human health, and ASCI have several faculty who work in this area. We have long standing expertise around Vermont’s largest agricultural section dairy, with many of our faculty including Feng-Qi Zhou, Joao Costa, Kate Creutizinger, Felipe Machado de Sant'Anna, John Barlow, Julie Smith, Jana Kraft and Stephen Wadsworth working in this area. We have biosecurity experts like Julie Smith, thinking about how animal diseases move, zoonotic epidemiology, and studying diseases like bird flu that move from birds to livestock to people. We have faculty like John Barlow and just joining us, Felipe Machado de Sant'Anna, who have deep expertise in studying animal microbiomes.   A substantial portion of the human microbiome, which influences our health, our mood, our digestion, and our disease resistance, comes from the animals with which we're in close association. I have several projects underway with ASCI professor Jana Kraft, where I'm investigating the genetic differences among plants, and I collaborate with Jana and students in her lab to characterize how that leads to nutritional differences, whether it's differences in the fatty acid profile of beans or in our pasture work.  One of our new faculty members, Kate Creutzinger, is developing research on using food waste to feed livestock. When we think about livestock diets, we don't think about the emotional well-being of cows particularly often. The diet is a key part of that, and when we feed cows, silage corn, and not much else, there's not a lot of variation to that food experience. But variations in diet, such as utilizing food waste, might make living in a barn more interesting for a cow, which may impact animal health. ASCI is also in the middle of a search for an additional faculty member who will focus in the area of One Health. 

We have a long list of distinguished colleagues that focus on unique aspects of animal veterinarian care: Courtney Collins, Joao Costa, Joanna Platzer, Chrissy Rohan, Stephen Wadsworth, Jenny Wilkinson, Feng-Qi Zhao. As well as a long-standing and illustrious partnership with the Miner Institute and its faculty, who bring additional expertise to our program.

"With this many talented faculty in ASCI, a department chair only needs a certain amount of disciplinary expertise to serve as their chair and it's an honor to support my colleagues by serving as their chair."