Mark Varner,  Ph.D. Professor, Department of Animal and Avian Sciences, Extension Dairy Scientist Phone 301-405-1936 FAX 301-314-9059 Email:markv@umd.edu

Mark Varner was raised on a dairy farm in Minnesota. He received his B.S. from the University of Minnesota, M.S. from Washington State University and Ph.D. from North Carolina State Univ. In 1981, he joined the faculty at the University of Maryland as an Assistant Professor and Extension Dairy Scientist. Mark has remained at the University since that time, and has been promoted to Associate Professor in 1988 and to Full Professor of Animal & Avian Sciences in 1997. Dr. Varner teaches all, or part, of four classes on campus, conducts research in dairy cattle reproductive management and maintains an active outreach-/continuing-education program for dairy farmers and veterinarians via the Internet.

He is an award winning professor, recently recognized as one of the 25 Most Influential People in U.S. Agriculture. He is a prolific writer, being author or co-author of over 100 journal articles, book chapters, abstracts for professional meetings, proceedings chapters and newsletter/popular press articles. Dr. Varner is also a popular invited speaker concerning use of the Internet at international, national and regional conferences.

Mark has been married to Eileen Jewison for 29 years, and they have two daughters. The family resides in a Maryland suburb of Washington, DC. You can contact Mark by e-mail at markv@umd.edu.

Research Interests: Studies in my laboratory examine the relative importance of factors influencing reproduction and lameness in dairy cattle. As a member of a research team, we have developed a device to automatically identify lameness in cows. We have a patent pending on the device and have licensed it to Boumatic, Inc, a leading dairy equipment manufacturer.

With a collaborator I have developed Dairy-L@listserv.umd.edu, the first and most successful Internet electronic mail network for agriculture. DAIRY-L is an electronic mail forum for technology transfer by dairy professionals.

Awards and Honors:- Selected one of "Twenty Five Most Influential" people in agriculture by Farmer'sDigest Magazine, November 1998. - Alfa Laval Agri Dairy Extension Award from the American Dairy Science Association, July 1998. - University of Maryland at College Park Alumni Association - College of Agricultureand National Resources Chapter award for Excellence in Extension, March 1996. - Elected President of Northeast Branch of American Dairy Science Association, 1991.- Gamma Sigma Delta (Honorary Fraternity of Agriculture) Certificate of Merit forExcellence in Extension, 1985.