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Connor Emmet Owens

Instructor

Department of Biomedical and Translational Sciences

Cornell University College of Veterinary Medicine
Ithaca, NY 14853-6401

Office: 607-253-4438
Email: ceo46@cornell.edu

Profile

Research/Clinical Interests

Teaching Interest
 

Connor teaches in the team-taught, problem-based learning course in physiology, Function and Dysfunction, where he also serves on the course design group.

Education

  • Ph.D; Animal Science, Dairy; Virginia Tech; 2020
  • M.S.; Dairy Science; Virginia Tech; 2017
  • B. S.; Animal Science; Cornell University; 2015

Biography/Professional Experience

Connor is an Instructor in the Department of Biomedical and Translational Sciences in the College of Veterinary Medicine. He received his Masters and Ph.D in Dairy Science at Virginia Tech from 2015-2020, where his research focused on understanding associations between the maternal microbiome, reproductive outcomes, and offspring microbial development in dairy cattle. It was also during this time where he trained as a CALS Graduate Teaching Scholar, developing his teaching philosophy and applying it as instructor of record in a senior capstone course focused on dairy cattle management and through outreach during the Virginia Governor’s School for Agriculture.

Connor initially came to the College of Veterinary Medicine in 2020 as a Postdoctoral Associate with Dr. Ned Place, where he researched reproductive aging through a comparative study using naked-mole rats and mice expressing the naked-mole rat version of hyaluronan synthase 2. He served on the Trainee Executive Committees for the Cornell Center for Reproductive Science (CoRe) and Center for Vertebrate Genomics (CVG), the Department of Animal Science Diversity and Inclusion Committee, and as chair for the 2026 Gordon Research Seminar on Mammalian Reproduction.

Awards and Honors

  • ADSA Foundation Graduate Student Literature Review (Production, PhD), 2021
  • North American Colleges and Teachers of Agriculture (NACTA) Graduate Teaching Award, 2020
  • Virginia Tech Randolph L. Grayson Outstanding CALS Diversity Scholar, 2020
  • World Congress for Genetics of Applied to Livestock Production Young Scientist Award, 2018

Professional/Academic Affiliations

  • 2025 – present, Instructor, Biomedical and Translational Sciences, Cornell University
  • 2020 – 2025, Postdoctoral Associate, Population Medicine and Diagnostic Sciences, Cornell University

Additional Information

  1. Owens, C. E., A. J. Borusso, K. A. Place, V. Gorbunova, A. Seluanov, P. M. White, and N. J. Place. Expression of the naked mole-rat transgene for Has2 improved health span in C57Bl/6 mice, but it did not attenuate age-related hearing loss. bioRxiv 2025.07.27.667071; doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/2025.07.27.667071
  2. Owens, C. E., H. G. Huffard, A. I., Nin-Velez, A. J. Duncan, C. L. Teets, K. M. Daniels, A. D. Ealy, R. E. James, K. F. Knowlton, and R. R. Cockrum. 2021. Microbiomes of various maternal body systems are predictive of calf digestive bacterial ecology. Animals. 11(8), 2210; https://doi.org/10.3390/ani11082210
  3. Morales, A., L. M. Campos, J. Prestegaard, K. Alward, C. E. Owens, A. J. Duncan, M. D. Hanigan, and R. R. Cockrum. 2021. Dietary crude protein modifies fecal microbial populations independent of feed efficiency status in dairy cows. J. Anim. Sci. 99: 439-440; https://doi.org/10.1093/jas/skab235.787
  4. Owens, C. E., K. M. Daniels, A. D. Ealy, K. F. Knowlton, and R. R. Cockrum. 2020. Graduate Student Literature Review: Potential mechanisms of interaction between bacteria and the reproductive tract of dairy cattle. J. Dairy Sci. https://doi.org/10.3168/jds.2019-18050
  5. Owens, C. E., A. J. Geiger, R. M. Akers, and R. R. Cockrum. 2019. Varying dietary protein and fat elicits differential transcriptomic expression within stress response pathways in preweaned Holstein heifers. J. Dairy Sci. 102(2):1630-1641. https://doi.org/10.3168/jds.2018-14468
  6. McCoski, S. R., M. T. Vailes, C. E. Owens, R. R. Cockrum, and A. D. Ealy. 2018. Exposure to maternal obesity alters gene expression in preimplantation ovine conceptus. BMC Genomics. 19:737. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12864-018-5120-0.