Noelle E. Cockett
June, 2010

After receiving her M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in Animal Breeding and Genetics from Oregon State University, Noelle Cockett spent five years as a Research Geneticist at the USDA, ARS U.S. Meat Animal Research Center in Clay Center, Nebraska. She joined Utah State University as an assistant professor in 1990, was promoted to associate professor in 1993, and to full professor in 1996. Noelle is currently the Vice President for Extension and Agriculture, the Dean for the College of Agriculture, and the Director of the Agricultural Experiment Station at Utah State University. She has also served as the Interim Dean of the School of Graduate Studies, the Vice Provost for Academic Affairs, and the Interim Provost for the University.

Cockett's research program has centered on the identification of genetic markers associated with economically important traits in livestock. Her current projects include the identification of genetic markers for parasite resistance in sheep and the development of a ovine high resolution radiation hybrid map. She has been the U.S. Coordinator for Sheep Genome Mapping since 1993 and is an active member of the International Sheep Genomics Consortium. Cockett has published over 95 referred articles, over 165 abstracts, technical reports and proceedings, nine book chapters, and recently edited a book entitled "Genome Mapping and Genomics in Domestic Species". Cockett served as Co-Editor for Animal Genetics from 1995-2004 and Chief Editor from 2004-2008.

During her time at USU, Cockett has been the PI on over $5.25M in external competitive grant funding. Most recently, she received a USDA/NRIGCP grant in 2008 entitled "Addition of 60,000 SNPs to the Ovine Genome Map" and another USDA/NRICGP grant in 2009 entitled "Assembly of the Ovine Whole Genome Reference Sequence". Both projects are providing large scale resources for sheep genome research. She is also the PI on the USDA Special Research Grant entitled "Joint U.S. and China Biotechnology Research and Extension".