After graduating from school in 1985 in Graz, Birgit enrolled in the diploma degree programme Agronomy at the University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences, Vienna (BOKU). She graduated in 1991, after specializing on Livestock Sciences, followed by the graduation in Agricultural Teaching and Advisory Service in 1992 (at the former Federal Seminar for Agricultural Education, Ober St. Veit). For her dissertation, ‘Effect of selection on milk production on the grazing behaviour in dairy cattle’, a project funded by the Austrian Science Fund, Birgit spent two summers, in total 9 months, at the University of Edinburgh, Scotland. She completed the doctorate in 1995, which was followed by a post-doctoral research including a 5.5 months research stay at the Univ. of Animal and Range Sci., Montana, USA. After further projects and two maternity leaves, an Elise Richter Fellowship was granted for the project ‘Genetics of juvenile health and survival in dairy cattle’. Together with a project on health monitoring in cattle, this formed the basis of the habilitation in 2010. Currently, Birgit is a part-time Senior Lecturer in Livestock Sciences at the University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences, Vienna (BOKU). Apart from teaching (37.5% employment from global budget), she works on third-party funded projects (50% employment), mostly in leading positions. Her main focus is on functional traits and the development and improvement of genetic evaluations in ruminants.