Rate My Professor Heather White

Heather White is a Full Professor of nutritional physiology in the Department of Animal and Dairy Sciences at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. She serves as Associate Dean for Faculty Affairs and Graduate Student Mentoring in the College of Agricultural and Life Sciences and as Faculty Director of the Dairy Innovation Hub, which spans the University of Wisconsin-Madison, Platteville, and River Falls campuses to advance dairy research in animal health, human nutrition, environmental stewardship, and farm viability. White earned her B.S. in Biology with a Chemistry minor from Saint Mary’s College in 2005, where she received the Outstanding Senior Comprehensive Research Project and Mother Elizabeth Rose Outstanding Biology Student awards. She completed her M.S. in Nutritional Physiology at Purdue University in 2007 and Ph.D. in Animal Sciences through the Interdepartmental Nutrition Program, emphasizing Biochemical and Molecular Nutrition, in 2009, earning the W.R. Featherston Outstanding PhD Award. Following her doctorate, she was a postdoctoral research fellow at the Indiana University School of Medicine investigating molecular influences on lipogenesis. White joined the University of Connecticut Department of Animal Science as an Assistant Professor in August 2011 and transitioned to the University of Wisconsin-Madison Department of Dairy Science (now Animal and Dairy Sciences) as an Assistant Professor in April 2013.

White's research program centers on hepatic and whole-animal nutrient partitioning, metabolism, and health in dairy cattle during the transition to lactation. Her work elucidates mechanisms underlying glucose and energy metabolism, gluconeogenesis, TCA cycle function, feed efficiency via residual feed intake, and metabolic disorders such as ketosis and fatty liver, with translational implications for human non-alcoholic fatty liver disease. She employs hepatocyte cell culture models and examines interventions like rumen-protected choline. White has garnered major awards including the ADSA Foundation Scholar Award (2019), Cargill Animal Nutrition Young Scientist Award (2017), AgSource Friend of the Cooperative Award (2017), American Dairy Science Association Midwest Branch Young Dairy Scholar (2011), and multiple teaching and research competition honors from Purdue University and ADSA. Notable publications encompass 'The role of TCA cycle anaplerosis in ketosis and fatty liver in periparturient dairy cows' (Animals, 2015), 'Symposium review: One-carbon metabolism and methyl donor nutrition in the dairy cow' (Journal of Dairy Science, 2020), 'Feeding value of glycerol as a replacement for corn grain in rations fed to lactating dairy cows' (Journal of Dairy Science, 2009), 'Relationships between body condition score change, prior mid-lactation phenotypic residual feed intake, and hyperketonemia onset in transition dairy cows' (Journal of Dairy Science, 2017), and 'Choline and methionine differentially alter methyl carbon metabolism in bovine neonatal hepatocytes' (PLoS One, 2017). Her contributions inform science-based feeding strategies and metabolic interventions enhancing dairy productivity and sustainability.