Setegn Worku Alemu is a Statistical Genetics Scientist at ILRI's Animal Genetics Program, involved in innovative research on greenhouse gas emissions in cattle through the integration of genomics, microbiome science, and advanced statistical methods. His research focuses on methane emission prediction and mitigation, combining rumen microbiome data with host genomic variation using cutting-edge approaches including Bayesian neural networks and functional genomics. He collaborates with multidisciplinary teams to translate research findings into practical breeding solutions and creates accessible analytical tools and interactive data visualizations that support R&D teams and stakeholders in making evidence-based decisions for sustainable livestock production.
His work spans multiple livestock species and production systems, from developing genomic prediction models for complex traits to investigating genotype-by-environment interactions in diverse global contexts. He has proven success implementing breeding programs across low and medium-income tropical countries, with extensive experience in quantitative genetics and statistical methodologies across different livestock species. His expertise includes advanced programming in R, Python, Julia, and JavaScript, along with experience in analyzing large-scale genetic and genomic data.
He holds a PhD from Wageningen University (Netherlands) and Aarhus University (Denmark), an MSc from Wageningen University (Netherlands) with research experience at Iowa State University (USA), a postgraduate diploma in Machine Learning and Artificial Intelligence from Purdue University (USA), and a BSc in Animal Science from Debub University (Ethiopia). Previously, he worked as a Scientist in Quantitative Genetics at AgResearch (New Zealand) focusing on methane emission genomic prediction in sheep using Bayesian neural networks and developing novel statistical methodologies for sustainable breeding programs. He also worked as a Postdoctoral Researcher at Massey University (New Zealand) in collaboration with LIC, a Statistical Geneticist at the International Livestock Research Institute (Ethiopia), a Postdoctoral Researcher at Liege University (Belgium), and a Postdoctoral Researcher at Aarhus University (Denmark).