Dr. Sian Durward-Akhurst is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Veterinary Clinical Sciences at the University of Minnesota College of Veterinary Medicine. She received her veterinary degree from the University of Glasgow and then pursued specialty training with a rotating equine internship at the Royal Veterinary College and a large animal internal medicine residency at the University of Minnesota. She also worked in equine ambulatory practice in the United Kingdom’s Peak District. She additionally earned a PhD in genetics in the Comparative and Molecular Biosciences program at the University of Minnesota. 

Dr. Durward-Akhurst became a faculty member at the University of Minnesota in 2021. She has a strong interest in equine cardiology and her research focuses on improving methods of detecting Standardbred and Thoroughbred racehorses at high risk of developing exercise-associated cardiac arrhythmias and sudden cardiac death. Her long-term goal is to reduce the frequency of sudden cardiac death in Standardbred and Thoroughbred racehorses using a combination of genetics and ECG analysis. This work has translational potential and is currently funded by a National Institutes of Health K12 career development award.