ConGen Global Organizers
Stephen J. O’Brien, Ph.D.
ConGen Founder and Director; Professor, Nova Southeastern University, Ft. Lauderdale, Florida, USA
ConGen 2025 Co-Directors
Taras K. Oleksyk, Ph.D.
Associate Professor, Oakland University, Rochester, Michigan, USA; Department of Biology, University of Puerto Rico at Mayaguez, PUERTO RICO; and Department of Biology, Uzhhorod National University, UKRAINE
Klaus-Peter Koepfli, Ph.D.
Senior Research Scientist, Smithsonian-Mason School of Conservation, George Mason University, Front Royal, Virginia, USA
Eduardo Eizirik, Ph.D.
Professor, Pontifícia Universidade Católica do Rio Grande do Sul, Porto Alegre, Brazil
Laurie Goodman, Ph.D.
Publishing Director, GigaScience Press, Hong Kong, China
Cindy Harper, Ph.D.
Director of the Veterinary Genetics Laboratory, Faculty of Veterinary Science, University of Pretoria at Onderstepoor, South Africa
Emma Teeling, Ph.D.
Associate Professor, University College Dublin, Ireland
Local Hosts and Organizers
Laurie Marker, D.Phil.
Founder, Executive Director, Cheetah Conservation Fund, Otjiwarongo, Namibia
Anne Schmidt-Kuntzel, D.V.M., Ph.D.
Assistant Director for Animal Health and Research, Cheetah Conservation Fund, Otjiwarongo, Namibia
Tutorial Teaching Faculty
Larissa Souza Arantes, Ph.D.
Berlin Center for Genomics in Biodiversity Research, Berlin, Germany
Henrique Figueiró, Ph.D.
Research Scientist, Vale Institute of Technology – Sustainable Development, Belém, Brazil
Lauren Hennelly, Ph.D.
Center for Evolutionary Hologenomics, University of Copenhagen, Denmark
Guest Lecturers
Agostinho Antunes, Ph.D.
Professor, Interdisciplinary Center for Marine and Environmental Research (CIMAR), University of Porto, Porto, Portugal
C. Scott Baker, Ph.D.
Professor and Associate Director, Marine Mammal Institute, Oregon State University, Newport, Oregon, USA
Michael Dean, Ph.D.
Senior Investigator, Laboratory of Translational Genomics, National Cancer Institute, Rockville, Maryland, USA
Peter Dratch, Ph.D.
Senior Biologist, U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service, Fort Collins, Colorado, USA
Carlos Driscoll, D.Phil.
Galton Corp., Frederick, Maryland, USA
Ezequiel Fabiano, Ph.D.
Lecturer, University of Namibia, Windhoek, Namibia
Abigail Guerier, M.Sc.
Executive Manager, Rhino Conservation, Ongava Game Reserve, Namibia
Cindy Harper, Ph.D.
Director of the Veterinary Genetics Laboratory, Faculty of Veterinary Science, University of Pretoria at Onderstepoor, South Africa
Yadvendradev Jhala, Ph.D.
Dean (retired), Wildlife Institute of India, Dehradun, Uttarakhand, India
Harris Lewin, Ph.D.
Research Professor, Global Futures Laboratory, Arizona State University, Tempe, Arizona, USA
Jose (Joe) Lopez, Ph.D.
Professor, Nova Southeastern University, Ft. Lauderdale, Florida, USA
Shu-Jin Luo, Ph.D.
Principal Investigator, School of Life Sciences, Peking University, Beijing, China
Audrey Majeske, Ph.D.
Special Instructor, Oakland University, Rochester, Michigan, USA
Laurie Marker, D.Phil.
Executive Director, Cheetah Conservation Fund, Otjiwarongo, Namibia
William Murphy, Ph.D.
Professor, Texas A&M University, College Station, Texas, USA
Alfred Roca, Ph.D.
Professor, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Urbana-Champaign, Illinois, USA
Oliver Ryder, Ph.D.
Kleberg Endowed Director of Conservation Genetics, San Diego Zoo Wildlife Alliance, Escondido, California, USA
Mahmood Shivji, Ph.D.
Professor, Nova Southeastern University, Ft. Lauderdale, Florida, USA
Emma Teeling, Ph.D.
Associate Professor, University College Dublin, Ireland
