ANSC Graduate Awards 2019

ANSC Annual Graduate Student Awards

Thursday, May 9, 2019

 
THE LOUJA GRADUATE TRAVEL AWARDS 

The LOUJA Graduate Travel Awards were established to provide grants to Animal Sciences Graduate students, presenting outstanding research papers based upon original research and excellence of presentation. The LOUJA Graduate Travel Awards were established in honor of the leadership and dedication to the animal industry of Dr. and Mrs. J.L. Krider. Dr. Krider served as Head of Purdue's Department of Animal Sciences from 1963 to 1971 and Professor until his retirement in 1979. Previously he had served on the staffs of Cornell University and University of Illinois as well as on administrative assignments with Central Soya. He was very active in many organizations serving as President of the American society of Animal Science and as a consultant to several organizations and countries.

 

Each year, Dr. Jake Krider and his wife, Louise, provide travel funds to a few Animal Science graduate students to attend scientific meetings. Eligible students must be the author or a co-author on the abstract and must be the presenter at the meeting. Meetings can be regional, national, or international as long as the proceedings are published to public acquisition or viewing.

 

Mrs. Krider passed in October, 2000 and Dr. Krider passed in June, 2005.

 

2019 LOUJA AWARD WINNERS: 

 

Megan LaFollette - Human beliefs and animal welfare: a cross-sectional survey on rat tickling in the laboratory. Advisor: Dr. Brianna Gaskill. Presented at the 53rd Congress of the International Society for Applied Ethology (Bergen, Norway).

 

Saheed Osho - Impact of dietary chitosan oligosaccharide and coccidia challenge in broiler chickens. Advisor: Dr. Layi Adeola. Presented at the International Poultry Scientific Forum of the Southern Poultry Science Society (Atlanta, Georgia).

 

Chan Sol Park - Comparison of amino acid digestibility in fish meal, porcine plasma, porcine red blood cell, and blood meal between broiler chickens and young pigs. Advisor: Dr. Layi Adeola. Presented at the ASAS-CSAS Annual Meeting and Trade Show (Austin, Texas).

 

Derico Setyabrata - Investigations of dry-aging impacts on meat quality attributes of cull beef loins. Advisor: Dr. Brad Kim. Presented at the International Congress of Meat Science and Technology (Berlin, Germany).

 

Jacob Tuell - Effect of photoperiod on meat quality attributes and oxidative stability of postmortem broiler fillet meat (M. Pectoralis major). Advisor: Dr. Brad Kim. Presented at the American Meat Science Association Reciprocal Meat Conference (Fort Collins, Colorado).

 
 
BOOK-HARMON LEADERSHIP SCHOLARSHIP

The Book Harmon Leadership Scholarship was established in 2005 by Bob Book and Bud Harmon in recognition of their efforts to provide and promote leadership in animal agriculture. Each year, the Book-Harmon Leadership Scholarship provides a $1,000 scholarship to reward a graduate student in Animal Sciences that has displayed outstanding leadership skills and efforts.

 

Criteria for receiving the scholarship:

  • Major in Animal Sciences
  • Have and maintain a minimum overall GPA of 3.0
  • Possess good communication and leadership skills
  • Be involved with department, university and national organizations
  • Have an up-to-date Progress Report from their Graduate Advisory Committee
 

The Book-Harmon Leadership Scholarship is awarded to Alan Duttlinger.

  

While pursuing his MS degree at Kansas State University, Alan managed the Segregated Early Wean Research Nursery, where he was responsible for overseeing the daily care of 400 pigs, coordinating research projects with other graduate students, and managing the work of many undergraduates. After leaving Kansas, Alan worked as the Director of Junior Activities for the National Junior Swine Association and held a position with the Indiana Packers Corporation as a Research and Development Specialist. Here, Alan worked with a junior board of directors and managed many interns. He guided the interns to take on appropriate levels of responsibility and helped them gain meaningful leadership experiences from their work and interacting with each other in team settings. This team-based approach allowed for an exchange of ideas among the interns and fostered learning.
 

Congratulations, Alan!

  

 
G. W. FRIARS INTERNATIONAL GRADUATE STUDENT FELLOWSHIP

The purpose of the Gerry W. Friars Fellowship is to alleviate some of the monetary stress of foreign students at Purdue University. Dr. Gerry Friars completed his Ph.D. at Purdue University in 1961, while on leave from the Ontario Agricultural College; the College later became part of the University of Guelph. Dr. Friars'; career at Guelph from 1951 to 1985 involved teaching and research in poultry and fish genetics and breeding. From 1985 to 1995, he was the Chief Scientist at the Atlantic Salmon Federation with a cross appointment at the University of New Brunswick. His long association with graduate students cultivated an awareness of the financial needs of these students. An annual award of $1,000 is awarded to an international M.S. or Ph.D. student studying quantitative poultry or fish genetics in the Department of Animal Sciences. This year's recipient is Ayodeji Aderibigbe.

  

Ayodeji (Ayo) joined Dr. Layi Adeola’s research group in the spring of 2017 to pursue his PhD. Ayo has maintained a 4.0 GPA through his graduate coursework at Purdue. Ayo is using his research to identify unique properties of a variety of exogenous enzymes in improving energy and nutrient utilization when added to the feed of broiler chickens. Ayo has presented data at the Southern Poultry Science Conference in Atlanta, GA in February, 2019; has two manuscript under review from his work at Purdue, and is a co-author on 4 published manuscripts from work completed during his MS degree at the University of Ilorin.

  

Congratulations, Ayo!

 

  

THE W.R. FEATHERSTON AWARDS

The W.R. Featherston Awards were established to recognize the outstanding achievements of graduate students in the Department of Animal Sciences. These awards were established in honor of the leadership and dedication to graduate students exhibited by Professor W.R. Featherston. Professor Featherston was on the staff from July 1962 to June 3, 1980, the date of his untimely death. Professor Featherston's teaching and research activities were a source of guidance, encouragement and inspiration to the graduate students.

 

W.R. FEATHERSTON EARLY GRADUATE CAREER AWARD

The Featherston Early Graduate Career Award was established in memory of Professor W.R. Featherston to annually recognize the outstanding M.S. or Ph.D. student within his/her first two years of graduate study. The award consists of $650, plus a certificate of award, individual plaque and her/his name will be added to the permanent plaque maintained within the department. This year's recipient is Rebecca Klopp.

 

Rebecca has joined Dr. Jackie Boerman's research group in the fall of 2018 to pursue her PhD after completing her MS at Clemson University. Rebecca published two manuscripts during her MS work; several additional manuscripts are in progress from her work at Clemson. Rebecca's research is focused on improving the health of dairy calves by dietary interventions, including feeding probiotics.

 

Congratulations Rebecca!

 

  

W.R. FEATHERSTON OUTSTANDING GRADUATE TEACHING AWARD

The Featherston Outstanding Graduate Teaching Award was established in memory of Professor W.R. Featherston to annually recognize the outstanding teaching by an M.S. or Ph.D. student within the Department. The award consists of $850, plus a certificate of award, an individual plaque and their name will be added to a permanent plaque maintained within the Department. This year's recipient is MaryGrace Erickson.

 

MaryGrace began her MS degree in the fall of 2017 under the supervision of Dr. Elizabeth Karcher. MaryGrace served as both a Teaching Assistant and Laboratory Coordinator for this ANSC 10200, and introductory course in Animal Sciences with a typical enrollment of roughly 200 undergraduate students. MaryGrace has also been involved the Animalia Learning Community. MaryGrace has published one manuscript from her MS work, with additional papers in various stages of peer review.

 

Congratulations MaryGrace!

 

  

W.R. FEATHERSTON OUTSTANDING M.S. AWARD

The Featherston Outstanding M.S. Award was established in memory of Professor W.R. Featherston to annually recognize the Outstanding M.S. student within the department. The award consists of $500, certificate of award, an individual plaque and the recipient's name will be added to a permanent plaque maintained within the department. The Featherston Outstanding M.S. Award is presented to MaryGrace Erickson.

 

MaryGrace began her MS degree in the fall of 2017 under the supervision of Dr. Elizabeth Karcher. MaryGrace's primary research questions are aimed at determining the effectiveness of STEM-based online modules as an instructional tool to increase student motivation and career interest in the poultry industry. She spent the first year of her program developing the online modules and designing surveys. In addition to working as a Teaching Assistant and Laboratory Coordinator for ANSC 10200, MaryGrace has published one manuscript from her MS work, with additional papers in various stages of peer review.

 

Congratulations MaryGrace!

 

  

W.R. FEATHERSTON OUTSTANDING Ph.D. AWARD

The Featherston Outstanding Ph.D. Award was established in memory of Professor W.R. Featherston to annually recognize the outstanding Ph.D. student within the department. This award is considered an extremely high honor in the Graduate Program and serves to reward excellence. The award consists of $1,000, a certificate of award, an individual plaque and the recipient's name will be added to a permanent plaque maintained within the Department. This year there are two recipients of this award: Megan LaFollette and Chan Sol Park.

  

Megan is working with Dr. Brianna Gaskill on a series of projects within the field of animal welfare science and human-animal interaction. Of particular note are Megan's contributions in the area of heterospecific play (also referred to as "rat tickling"), an approach implemented to improve the welfare of rats in research settings. Megan's work has had a notable impact in this area of translational animal science research, leading to enhanced welfare that has both ethical and scientific benefits. Megan has published an impressive number of papers during her graduate career (7 manuscripts to-date), with additional manuscripts in the pipeline.

 

Chan Sol began working in Dr. Layi Adeola's research group in the fall of 2015. Chan Sol's work is focused on understanding digestive utilization of amino acid in pigs, endogenous losses of amino acids, and evaluation and improvement of the current modeling approach for maintenance amino acid requirements. Understanding the digestive utilization of amino acids will allow precise formulation of feed for health and optimal animal performance, which will reduce waste in feed formulation as well as reduce excretion of nitrogen into the environment. Chan Sol is an author or co-author on 17 published manuscripts, with some additional papers from this dissertation work in preparation.

 

Congratulations Megan and Chan Sol!