Andrea CuppProfessor, Animal Science

What is your position at the University of Nebraska–Lincoln?

I am the Irvin T. and Wanda R. Omtvedt Professor of Animal Science. I have a 30 percent teaching appointment and a 70 percent research appointment. I teach endocrinology, a 400/800 level course to senior undergrads and graduate students in the fall, and every other spring I teach a grant writing class for graduate students and postdocs. I am a reproductive physiologist and my research involves understanding how biological processes involved in both male and female reproduction work to increase fertility. We currently have several lines of conditional Knockout mice that we use to eliminate a gene and determine if that gene is critical to male or female reproduction. We also have a cow model that has excess androgen that we are using to better understand fertility to help cattle producers and also use the information obtained to understand and provide solutions for women diagnosed with androgen excess disorders such as Polycystic Ovary Syndrome (PCOS).

What drew you to the University of Nebraska–Lincoln?

The University of Nebraska–Lincoln has excellent animal resources and the people at UNL (faculty and administrators) were interested in getting my career off to a good start and providing the things necessary for me to succeed. Nebraska was best fit for what I wanted to do. I wanted to work in a department interested in animal agriculture and helping producers, but also wanted to conduct research providing solutions for biomedical diseases and disorders in the human population.

What aspect of working in an educational setting do you enjoy the most?

I love to learn and I love to see students learning and growing and developing their own niche whether it is back at their family farm, in industry or in an academic setting.

What do you consider your greatest achievement?

To have a job that I look forward to coming to each day. Also that I get paid to learn and help others learn as well!

What is something that most people don’t know about you?

I love to try different foods from different ethnicities.

What is your life like outside of work?

My husband, Bud Whiteman and daughter Olivia Cupp-Whiteman and I live on an acreage in Eagle where we raise boar goats and a calf or two and have a Great Pyrenees dog named Wiggles. We like to travel to see family and kick back at our little farm and watch amazing sunrises.