Dr. John Pollak received his bachelor’s degree in animal science from Cornell University and his master’s and doctoral degrees in animal breeding from Iowa State University.  He joined the faculty at the University of California at Davis working as a beef cattle geneticist before moving to Cornell University.  At Cornell he and his colleague, Dr. Richard Quaas worked on methodology for beef cattle genetic evaluation working with the American Simmental Association to produce EPD’s for Simmental Cattle.  Dr. Pollak was director of the National Beef Cattle Evaluation Consortium (NBCEC) from 2003 to 2010.  In 2010 he retired from Cornell and assumed the role of Director of the US Meat Animal Research Center in Clay Center, Nebraska.  He held this position till retiring in May of 2017.  He then spent three years helping develop the Integrated Beef Systems Initiative at the University of Nebraska, Lincoln.

Among the awards received for his contributions to the field of Animal Breeding and to the industry are the Pioneer and Continuing Service Award from the Beef Improvement Federation, the Rockefeller Prentice Memorial Award in Animal Breeding and Genetics from the American Society of Animal Science, Educator of the Year Award and Presidents Award from the New York Beef Producers Association and the Industry Service Award from the Nebraska Cattlemen.  In 2013, Drs. Pollak and Quaas were selected by BEEF magazine to be among the 50 most influential people in the beef industry during the last 50 years based on their research into the development and implementation of expected progeny differences (EPDs).