The 2020 recipient of the Robert G.F. and Hazel T. Spitze Land Grant Faculty Award for Excellence is Kent Weigel, professor and chair of the Department of Dairy Science. A dedicated instructor who is constantly looking to maximize learning outcomes for students, he carefully assesses his teaching and is willing to incorporate innovative methods where appropriate. Weigel is strategic in his methods and truly an advocate for students and their success. He is one of the most active faculty advisors of dairy science undergraduate students.
Weigel is regarded as one the world’s top quantitative geneticists who has helped to improve the health, fertility, and productivity of dairy cattle through innovative genetics and genomics research that he has also widely disseminated to dairy producers and industry professionals. Because of this Weigel is a highly sought-after speaker at Extension meetings throughout the state of Wisconsin, the U.S. and the world.
In addition, Weigel has been an exceptionally productive researcher throughout his career. In total, he has authored or co-authored 190 peer reviewed journal articles. Over the past 10 years he has been awarded a total of $3.8 million in grants as the principal investigator. He is a co-investigator for other project awards that total $3.0 million since 2010.
Weigel has served as chair of the Department of Dairy Science since 2010. His colleagues appreciate his style of being friendly, relaxed, supportive, highly responsive, smart and always approachable.