Raphael Mrode is principal scientist in Quantitative Dairy Cattle genetics at the International Livestock Research. He holds a joint position at the Scotland Rural College as Professor in Quantitative genetics. He has been involved in the development and research underpinning genetic evaluations in dairy and beef cattle in the United Kingdom a member of Technical committee of the International organisation (INTERBULL) in charge of dairy cattle evaluations, auditor of International Committee for animal recording (ICAR). He has been lecturing in the Edinburgh University postgraduate course on Quantitative Genetics and Genome analysis since 2005, author of the widely used textbook, “Linear Models for the prediction of Animal breeding values” now in the third edition and has given international training courses in genetics and genomics in several countries including South Korea, India, Romania, Nigeria, Kenya, Tanzania and Ethiopia. His major role at ILRI involves developing and testing innovative genetic and genomic approaches to livestock genetic improvement that can deliver substantial improvements to poor farmers in low-input environments.