Professor Michael McGowan

Researcher biography
Michael McGowan grew up on a wheat/fat lamb/beef cattle property near Tamworth in northern NSW. He completed his undergraduate veterinary training at The University Sydney in 1979 and after spending several years in rural practice completed an internship in food animal medicine and surgery and then a residency in theriogenology at the Western College Veterinary Medicine (Saskatoon, Canada). In 1986 he commenced his Phd studies at The University Sydney conducting a series of studies on the impact of pestivirus (BVDV) infection on the reproductive performance of cattle. In 1988 he was appointed lecturer in animal reproduction in the Faculty of Veterinary Science at The University of Queensland. His areas of research include defining the pathogenesis and impacts of leptospirosis, heat stress and neosporosis on dairy and beef cattle fertility, development of bull selection and management strategies, defining factors affecting the reproductive performance of beef and dairy cattle and development of methods of synchronizing oestrus and ovulation to enable AI at a fixed time. He was appointed Professor of Farm Animal Medicine and Surgery at The Royal Veterinary College (University London) in 2000 and was invited to become a founding diplomate of the European College of Animal reproduction in 2001. Currently he is Professor of Livestock Medicine in the School of Veterinary Science at The University Queensland and Honorary Professor of Farm Animal Medicine and Surgery at The Royal veterinary College.