Dr. Thallman's primary research is building an extensively phenotyped beef cattle population. This population is known as the Germplasm Evaluation population.  It will serve as a resource for USMARC's work in determining associations between genomic variation and economically important traits.  The Germplasm Evaluation population, will also contribute to improving the estimation of across-breed EPD adjustment factors, and/or multibreed evaluation through estimation of breed differences and breed-specific heterosis. Dr. Thallman develops statistical theory and software to support analysis of problems in statistical genetics, particularly problems involving DNA marker data. He also contributes to solving practical problems in the effective implementation of DNA testing by the beef cattle industry.