Dr. Julian Bartolome is 2000-2001 Alumni Fellow at UF’s College of Veterinary Medicine

University of Florida College of Veterinary Medicine has selected Julian Bartolome as the recipient of the 2000-2001 Alumni Fellowship Award, adding a promising scholar to the ranks of the college’s doctoral program.

Bartolome will study bovine reproduction under the joint tutelage of Drs. Louis Archbald in the College of Veterinary Medicine and Bill Thatcher in the College of Agriculture. The team will explore the physiology of reproduction in dairy cattle, manipulating ovulation to stimulate lactation in both normal cattle and in cows with cystic ovarian degeneration, a condition that hinders ovulation.

Bartolome said he hopes the research will enhance dairy farmers’ ability to control ovulation and increase dairy cattle productivity. The fruits of this research could prove invaluable to the dairy industry by increasing milk production and bolstering dairy farms’ economic efficiency, he said.

A native of Argentina, a country with a thriving agricultural industry, Bartolome has an interest in dairy cattle that lingers from his youth.

“I was actually born on a dairy farm,” he said. “So I have been working with cattle since my childhood.”

He follows in the footsteps of his grandfather, a dairy farmer, and his father, who is also a veterinarian.

Bartolome earned his veterinary degree in 1988 from the University of La Pampa, Argentina, and completed a two-year residency program in animal health at the National Institute of Agricultural Technology in Balcarce, Argentina, in 1990. In 1991, he was named a fellow of the Royal Veterinary College in Sweden.

He entered UF’s College of Veterinary Medicine master’s program in January 1998 as a Fulbright Scholar. He studied bovine reproduction with Archbald, who said he is eager to continue working with Bartolome.

He praised Bartolome for “his intelligence, his willingness to work, the knowledge he brought to us and his ability to interact with people.”

“Plus,” he added, “He’s just a nice guy.”

To recruit top-notch graduate students into doctoral training programs, former UF President John Lombardi implemented the Alumni Fellowship program in 1998. Funded by alumni contributions, the program allocates fellowships, which pay a yearly stipend of $25,000 for four years, plus tuition and fees, to each college.

In the College of Veterinary Medicine, candidates for the fellowship must have completed three years of specialty clinical training and an additional year of professional practice or formal internship, said Dr. Charles Courtney, the college’s associate dean for research and graduate studies.

“Just to get qualified is a major selection process,” he said. “These people could be hired as faculty at many veterinary colleges around the country. They are that well-qualified,” Courtney added. “Yet, we’re getting them to stay on and complete a Ph.D. in our program.”

Courtney shares Archbald’s enthusiasm about keeping Bartolome aboard at the college.

“We’ve really enjoyed having him and we’re pleased to get him for another four years.”

Currently on leave from the faculty at the University of La Pampa in Argentina, which he still calls home, Bartolome plans to return to that position to teach animal reproduction after earning his doctorate.