Staff and students at Easter Bush Campus gathered this week to mark the retirement of Professor Andy Peters.
Prof. Peters joined the University of Edinburgh in May 2016 as Programme Director of SEBI-Livestock, the Centre for Supporting Evidence Based Interventions in Livestock. The programme is hosted by the Royal (Dick) School of Veterinary Studies and the Roslin Institute. SEBI-Livestock was initially founded with a £6.5 million grant from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, setting out to improve the availability of quality data on livestock health and productivity in low-and middle-income countries.
Prof Peters helmed this complex and challenging project and developed a team with expertise and skills spanning data science, veterinary science, social science, and epidemiology. Together they have built a programme to support donors, donor partners, researchers, and policy makers to access and mobilise livestock data for evidence-based decision making. Now in its second £7 million funding phase, SEBI-Livestock is increasingly focused on providing monitoring and learning services to the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and applying advanced data analytics to access hard to reach livestock related data in low-and middle-income countries.
“I am proud of what we have achieved with the SEBI-Livestock team and to have worked on addressing critical data gaps for decision making,” said Peters. “Our current team is strong and high-performing, and they are poised for further growth and expansion. I wish them well. I also appreciate all the support from the Easter Bush community in setting up and sustaining the programme,” he said.
“Andy always sees what is possible. He sees the glass as half full and uses this to guide his decision making. His vision to improve livestock health and productivity through better data is proving to be successful,” said Sam Thevasagayam, Director of the Livestock Team at the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. “Those of us who have worked with him are fond of him as a leader, a mentor and as a friend,” he said.
Prof Peters brought a wealth of experience to his role as SEBI-Livestock director, from over 40 years working on veterinary vaccine development and regulation, endocrinology, and production medicines. He was Professor of Animal Health and Production at the Royal Veterinary College, London in the 1990s, and he also worked for many years in the animal health industry, both as a senior executive and independent consultant. A veterinarian with DVetMed, PhD and DSc degrees in animal and veterinary science, he has published some 180 scientific papers and two books on Vaccines for Veterinary Applications and Reproduction in Cattle respectively.
Despite retiring from the University of Edinburgh, plans are afoot for Andy to continue collaborating with SEBI-Livestock. He will also work through his business consultancy on developing veterinary medicines for livestock in low-and middle-income countries as well as higher income countries. He will continue to serve as a member of the board of trustees of the Soulsby Foundation and Chair of the ‘Safe Medicines for Animal through Regulatory Training’ (SMArt) charity.