Meet Our New Faculty
Anderson A. C. Alves
Dr. Anderson Alves will be joining the Department of Animal and Dairy Science at UGA as an Assistant Professor in Precision Livestock Science. Originally from Brazil, Dr. Alves earned his Master's and Doctoral degrees in Animal Science and Animal Breeding and Genetics from the Federal University of Ceara (2016) and Sao Paulo State University (2019), respectively. He served as a Lecturer at the Federal Institute of Education, Science, and Technology of Maranhao (Brazil) until 2021, when he joined the University of Wisconsin-Madison to work as a Research Associate.
At UGA, Dr. Alves's research agenda will center on harnessing sensor technologies and artificial intelligence (AI) techniques to support efficient and sustainable livestock farming, driven by non-invasive and automated methods for monitoring welfare, health, and production indicators in Dairy Cattle and other livestock species. His research group will focus on the development and application of efficient statistical learning methods and computational tools for the analysis of high-dimensional livestock data derived from different sources, including cameras, acoustic sensors, farm records, radio-frequency systems, and modern molecular information. Examples of applications include the use of computer vision systems to monitor individual behavior in dairy cows, enabling early disease prediction, estrus detection, and identification of heat stress indicators.
Jorge Hidalgo
Originally from Mexico
Education:
Bachelor in Animal Science (Universidad Autónoma Chapingo, Mexico)
Masters in Animal Breeding and Genetics (Universidad Autónoma Chapingo, Mexico)
Ph.D. in Animal Breeding and Genetics (University of Georgia, USA)
Current job:
Assistant Professor – Animal Breeding and Genetics - Animal and Dairy Science Department, University of Georgia
Research focus: Large-scale genomic evaluations for livestock
Young Jang
Dr. Jang is an assistant professor of non-ruminant nutrition in the Department of Animal and Dairy Science at the University of Georgia. Dr. Jang earned his Ph.D. in swine nutrition from Seoul National University in South Korea in 2012 with sow nutrition research and was a postdoctoral scholar at the University of Kentucky from 2012 to 2017. Dr. Jang was an assistant professor of monogastric nutrition in the Department of Animal and Food Sciences at the University of Wisconsin-River Falls from 2017 to 2023, where he mainly taught animal nutrition and swine production courses before joining the University of Georgia.
Dr. Jang has been working on a variety of research projects regarding feed additive evaluation, such as probiotics, sodium butyrate, iron-binding peptides, etc., to improve immunity and gut health in pigs and evaluating alternative feed ingredients in swine diets. Some of his research achievements involve fat-soluble vitamins, specifically vitamin A, D, and E, to newborn, weaning, and growing-finishing pigs; using non-starch polysaccharide degrading enzymes and phytase for pigs and sows; and minerals such as iron, selenium, copper, calcium, and phosphorus. His primary research interest is in amino acid, vitamin, and mineral nutrition for sows and piglets, including reproduction, immunity, and gut health, along with feed additives that can be beneficial for pigs and sows.