Rate My Professor Pekka Uimari

Pekka Uimari is Professor of Animal Breeding Science in the Department of Agricultural Sciences at the University of Helsinki, a position he has held since 1 September 2013. He also holds the Title of Docent in the same department since 1 January 2010 and has served as Supervisor for the Doctoral Programme in Clinical Veterinary Medicine and the Doctoral Programme in Sustainable Use of Renewable Natural Resources since 1 January 2014. Uimari is a member of Helsinki One Health since 1 January 2019 and has been affiliated with Animal Science Research at the University of Helsinki since 1 August 2001. Prior to his current role, he was Research Manager at MTT Agrifood Research Finland from 1 November 2011 to 31 August 2013 and Principal Scientist there from 1 March 2009 to 31 August 2018. From 1 August 2002 to 28 February 2009, he worked as Researcher at Jurilab Ltd. He was appointed Director of the Department of Agricultural Sciences for the term 1 January 2022 to 31 December 2025 and currently serves as Deputy Director of the department. Uimari supervises doctoral students, has acted as custos, opponent, and pre-examiner for numerous dissertations, and has been a visiting researcher at institutions such as Suranaree University of Technology.

Uimari's research specializations lie in animal science, agronomy, quantitative genetics, genomic selection, and breeding programs for livestock, with a focus on pigs and cattle. His academic interests encompass genetic parameters and social interactions for feeding behavior and production traits, resilience traits, inbreeding rates and effective population sizes, selection signatures, genetic diversity, population structure, and adipose gene expression profiles across breeds. He manages projects including PiGCross for single-step genomic evaluations, Perinnöllisen edistymisen ja monimuotoisuuden seuranta, and AI in monitoring pig health. Uimari has produced 74 research outputs, including 66 articles. Key publications are 'Detection of selection signatures in indigenous African cattle reveals genomic footprints of adaptation, production and temperament traits' (2026, Mammalian Genome), 'Genomic insights into the population structure and genetic diversity of Ugandan indigenous cattle' (2025, Animal Genetics), 'Adipose gene expression profiles in Northern Finncattle, Mirandesa cattle, Yakutian cattle and commercial Holstein cattle' (2024, Scientific Reports), 'Inheritance of feed intake-based resilience traits and their correlation with production traits in Finnish pig breeds' (2024, Journal of Animal Science), 'Signatures of positive selection after the introduction of genomic selection in the Finnish Ayrshire population' (2024, Journal of Dairy Science), and 'Estimation of social genetic effects on feeding behaviour and production traits in pigs' (2021, Animal). He serves as Editor in Chief of Agricultural and Food Science and is a member of the organizing committee for the Agrinatura General Assembly and Conference 2024.