Dr. Edward Webb was appointed as professor of Animal Science at Tarleton State University in January 2023. The degrees he has obtained are Bachelor of Science in Agriculture(Animal Science), Bachelor of Science in Agriculture Honours(Animal Science) cum laude, Master of Science in Agriculture(Meat Science) cum laude and PhD from the University of Pretoria, and conducted postdoctoral research at the University of Ghent in Belgium and Nutrico in The Netherlands in 1997. Outstanding academic achievements includes NRF merit awards, an Agricultural Faculty gold medal for best PhD thesis, and a merit award by the SA Society for Animal Science for a meritorious PhD thesis. He received a fellowship from the Flemish Ministry in Belgium. His postdoctoral research focused on the effects of nutrition on fatty acid synthesis and aspects of growth modeling in livestock. He subsequently continued his research in the field of production animal physiology at the University of Pretoria and served as head of the Animal Science department from 2005 to 2016. He was then appointed as dean for research and graduate studies from 2016 to 2020 in the same faculty.
His teaching and research focus is on the effects of environmental and management factors such as dietary factors and growth modifiers on animal growth, adaptation and reproduction physiology, and related effects on the conversion of muscle to meat, and carcass and meat quality. The research focus is specifically on ways to improve the efficiency of animal production in resource constrained environments in an ethical and environmentally acceptable way. His research has focused on a variety of livestock and wildlife species, with projects across Africa, Europe and Australia. He has published 137 peer-reviewed scientific papers, presented 156 papers at conferences or symposia, 30 technical reports, co-edited two books, contributed 17 book chapters, 33 popular scientific papers and 1 patent. He contributed to the animal science industry by serving as president of the South African Society for Animal Science from 2009 to 2014.