Geoffrey Dahl

Geoffrey E. Dahl is the Harriet B. Weeks Professor in the Department of Animal Sciences at the University of Florida, Gainesville. He previously served as Chair of the Department for 12 years, serving as liaison between the university, livestock producers, and allied industries in Florida. During his time as Chair, the department grew in faculty from 25 to 40 tenure track lines, increased from the bottom quartile to the top quartile in research funding, and increased undergraduate enrollment from 500 to over 600 students. In the most recent Center for World University Rankings, the University of Florida was #9 in the world for dairy and animal science (www.cwur.org/2017/s). Geoff has been invited to serve on a number of external programmatic and grant evaluation panels in the US and abroad. He was active in development of the proposal that brought the USAID Livestock Systems Innovation Laboratory, a $49 million project, to the Department of Animal Sciences at the University of Florida, and currently serves as Director of the lab.

Dr. Dahl conducts applied and basic research with direct impact on dairy production. Specific research interests include effects of photoperiod manipulation on production and health, the impact of frequent milking in early lactation on milk production, and heat stress abatement during the dry period on cow and calf productivity and health. Those research efforts are disseminated through his Extension programming in the US and abroad. Indeed, Dr. Dahl has been invited to present his research findings in 20 countries and Geoff has active Extension program efforts in a variety of developing countries including Sri Lanka, Nepal, Rwanda and Ethiopia. Dr. Dahl has authored over 160 peer-reviewed papers and numerous symposium and popular press articles. He has trained 27 graduate students and post-doctoral fellows.