Recipient of the 2014 IETS Pioneer Award: William W. (Bill) Thatcher, MS, PhD.

Dr William W. Thatcher is a native of Baltimore-Perry Hall, Maryland. He developed a love for livestock when he spent part of his summers as a boy on his grandfather’s dairy farm. Dr Thatcher received his BS degree in Animal Husbandry from the University of Maryland in 1963, the MS degree from the University of Maryland under the direction of C. A. Kiddy in 1965, and the PhD degree in 1968 from Michigan State University under thementorship ofH.A.Tucker. Thatcher joined the Dairy Science Department of the University of Florida in 1969, held the appointment of Graduate Research Professor since 1988, and in 2004 transitioned to Graduate Research Professor Emeritus in the Department of Animal Sciences. Additional training was received through sabbaticals at the Physiology of Reproduction Laboratory, Institut National de la Recherche Agronomique at Nouzilly, France from 1977 to 1978 and 1985. The foundation of his research and teaching program is an interdisciplinary graduate education program. He has served as a mentor for 73 graduate students, postdoctoral fellows, and sabbatical-leave scientists. People in his laboratory have gone on to faculty and industry positions in 30 countries. His philosophy of graduate education is captured in a paper he wrote as recipient of the L.E. CasidaAward for Excellence inGraduate Training from the American Society of Animal Science (ASAS) (http://jas.fass.org/content/76/suppl_3/76.full.pdf+html). Duringhis career, Thatcher has published 360 refereed journal articles and 51 book chapters (http://www.thatcherteam.com). Through the research represented in these publications, Dr Thatcher has changed the way dairy managers and research scientists think about dairy cattle reproduction. His ability to formulate and implement experimental designs to reach significant conclusions is documented by the number of times his research has been cited (12 739; H index of 67), and the numerous invitations to present his research at national and international meetings. He has presented seven invited symposia presentations to the Annual Conference of the IETS. He also has affected the management of dairy cattle on a global scale through a prodigious and world-wide extension effort that has brought him to 49 countries. Dr Thatcher has led research that has definedmajor advances towards improving the reproductive function of the lactating dairy cow. Thatcher’s groundbreaking basic and applied research has provided tools to reverse the historical decline in fertility. Several of the pioneering and significant advancements accomplished byDr Thatcher, his students, and colleagues in the areas of basic and applied reproductive biology of dairy cattle are as follows: