Rocío Melissa Rivera completed her M.S. at Iowa State University in the laboratory of the late Dr Steve Ford. She then pursued a doctoral degree in the laboratory of Dr. Peter J. Hansen at the University of Florida. For her post-doctoral training, Dr Rivera worked in the laboratories of Dr Richard Schultz and Dr Marisa Bartolomei at the University of Pennsylvania. She is currently an Associate Professor in the Division of Animal Sciences at the University of Missouri. Her area of research is in Reproduction and Developmental Epigenetics. The research conducted in Dr Rivera’s laboratory aims to identify mechanisms that lead to alterations of the epigenome in oocytes and embryos as a result of procedures commonly used during assisted reproduction (ART) in humans and animals.  The main project in her laboratory focuses on the characterization of a loss-of-imprinting congenital overgrowth syndrome which occurs in ruminants and humans as a result of ART.  Dr Rivera is a Fulbright US Scholar to Spain for 2019-2020. As an Inter-Country Specialist to Ireland, she will visit University College Dublin School of Agriculture & Food Sciences Address and deliver a seminar on “Molecular Characterization of a congenital overgrowth syndrome induced by assisted reproduction”.