Mark A. Mirando

Dr. Mark Mirando is National Science Liaison of Animal Production Systems at the National Institute of Food and Agriculture where he provides leadership for competitive grant and capacity programs in animal reproduction.  During his time at NIFA, he has led or co-led 13 different competitive grant programs and was instrumental in creating 6 of those programs, including an interagency program with the National Institutes of Health titled “Dual Purpose with Dual Benefit: Research in Biomedicine and Agriculture Using Agriculturally Important Domestic Animal Species.” Dr. Mirando also serves as NIFA’s Science Coordinator for the Agriculture and Food Research Initiative, providing overarching coordination of scientific and peer-review integrity for the USDA’S largest competitive grant program.  Before joining NIFA, Mark served on the faculty of the Department of Animal Sciences at Washington State University from 1990 to 2000. During his tenure at Washington State University, his research on cell signaling in the uterus of livestock attained international recognition and was supported by competitive grants from the USDA National Research Initiative and the National Institutes of Health. He obtained a BS degree in Dairy Science from Tennessee Tech University before pursuing graduate studies in the physiology, endocrinology and biochemistry of reproduction at the University of Connecticut, receiving the MS degree in 1982 and PhD in 1987. He then went on to perform postdoctoral studies in uterine biology at the University of Florida from 1988 to 1990.