Sofie Piepers graduated as a vet in 2005 and since that time she has been a member of M-team UGent. She is passionate about mastitis and milk quality. As a veterinarian and researcher, Sofie uses her expertise to coach and train vets in mastitis management and encourages them to become the best udder health experts they can be. She loves networking, collecting new information at scientific conferences, and later turning that knowledge into practice. She also enjoys to inspire her veterinary students, showing them how to successfully utilize their talents as udder health advisors. Finally, she loves the reward of transferring data into evidence and evidence into action.
After graduation, Sofie immediately started working on her PhD on heifer mastitis at the Department of Reproduction, Obstetrics and Herd Health. In 2010, she obtained her degree of Doctor in Veterinary Medicine at the Faculty of Veterinary Medicine of Ghent University. After her PhD, she started working as a post-doctoral fellow worker within the M-team UGent. She is still coordinating the research projects within the Mastitis and Milk Quality Research Unit, is actively involved in the herd consultancy and has a huge experience in interactive coaching & training of vets, farmers and veterinary students in mastitis management. She organized several workshops & seminars on mastitis and milk quality for representatives of stakeholders in the dairy industry and gave over 25 presentations on different aspects of mastitis and milk quality for vets and farmers. From 2009 until 2011, she coordinated the pilot project udder health: a first step towards a better udder health and milk quality in Flanders, Belgium funded by the Flemish Government and European Union. In 2011, she worked for some months at the Quality and Milk Production Services of Cornell University in the US. In 2014, she was co-organizer of the first National Mastitis Council Regional Meeting outside the US and Canada. As well, she is co-editor-in-chief of M²-magazine.
Favorite quotes: “Energy and persistence conquer all things” and “Slow and steady wins the race.”
Personal values: She values integrity, enthusiasm, passion, action, sense of duty.