Prof. Fernando SAMODHA

Dr. Samodha C. Fernando is a Professor of Nutritional Biochemistry in the Department of Animal Science at the University of Nebraska–Lincoln. His research focuses on host–microbe interactions and the structure–function relationships that govern gut microbiome effects on animal health, nutrition, and performance. He leads a multidisciplinary program integrating microbial ecology, metagenomics, viromics, and genome-centric bioinformatics to address challenges in methane mitigation, antimicrobial resistance, pathogen shedding, and microbiome engineering for livestock. Dr. Fernando has secured major federal and industry funding, published extensively in leading journals, and collaborates broadly across animal science, microbiology, virology, and genomics. His laboratory also develops advanced gnotobiotic and humanized animal models to understand microbial regulation of host physiology.