Emil Walleser

Animals are a constant in my life. Growing up on a 300-cow dairy that grew to 1000 cows along with me has shaped the way I see the world. I spent a lot of my childhood cleaning pens, hauling buckets of grain, and throwing small square bales. The nature of my work changed not just because I matured, but because the dairy grew. In addition to manual labor, I started spending more time learning how the business side of things worked. The success of the modern agriculture operation required more than hard work, but extensive management and decision making. I was incredibly lucky to have family that pushed me towards further education at UW ? Madison for Dairy Science and again for my veterinary medical degree. The experiences I gained through each one of these opportunities helped me to understand my passions and how they guide my future. Throughout my time at UW School of Veterinary Medicine, I was actively involved in the production agriculture industry. I served as Bovine club Vice President, and chaired and hosted the Midwest Veterinary Dairy Challenge for the first time at UW ? Madison. Events like this were a highlight of my time at the SVM because I was able to drive academic and industry partnerships that students could take into the future. During my fourth-year rotations, I excelled in the production medicine courses and found a true calling in the applied data part of veterinary medicine and agricultural production. This revelation led me to pursue additional training focused on the combination of these things. Currently, I am completing my Ph.D. in Comparative Biomedical Sciences with a Doctoral minor in Statistics. My research focus is the application of machine learning and statistical analysis to predict disease from milk sample analysis. Additionally, our lab has worked with computer vision models for the detection of digital dermatitis, and numerous other projects. I love the work I currently do and am looking forward to bringing this passion to the next stage in my career. I plan on graduating next year and want to work in an industry position focused on animal health and production data. I want to pursue an industry role because I believe that agricultural advances are going to be driven increasingly by commercial companies or joint partnerships. The ability to interact directly with stakeholders is a large appeal for me. The opportunity to see my work directly impact production operations is exciting and helps me keep connected to the side of the industry where I learned so much. The exact company or project I focus on means less to me than the ability to continue working with an industry that has given me so much and is one of the few consistent aspects of my life.