ANSC Graduate Awards 2020

ANSC Annual Graduate Student Awards

2020

 

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 Conor McCabe.

  

Conor received his B.S. degree at Cornell University in 2018. He then came to Purdue University to pursue a master’s in animal sciences and joined Dr. Jackie Boerman's laboratory. He has maintained a 3.93 GPA through his graduate coursework, while his research in the area of dairy cattle nutrition focuses on the transition to lactation, which includes the three-week period before and after calving. Results of his work have been submitted for publication to a peer-reviewed journal; he also published four research abstracts in conference proceedings and has two manuscripts in preparation. In addition, he serves as the treasurer of the Graduate Student Association (GSA), coordinates intramural athletics, and helped organizing industry tours. Conor took his leadership skills to the national level through his involvement with the American Dairy Science Association (ADSA) where he serves on the Education Committee. He believes in group centric leadership and is ready to serve animal agriculture in the future.

 

Congratulations, Conor!

 

 

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 Olufemi Babatunde.

 

Femi joined Dr. Adeola's laboratory as a master's student in 2016 and is currently in the second year of his Ph.D. program. He has maintained an outstanding academic record with a perfect GPA of 4.0 across a combination of challenging courses. He is first author on two papers published in peer-reviewed journals and co-author on a third one. Results of his studies have also been presented at international conferences. In addition to his research and academic work, Femi is an active member of the ANSC Graduate Student Association where he served as Social Chair as well as Vice President. Femi is also a member of the Meat Science Club in the Department of Animal Sciences and is an officer of the Nigerian Students at Purdue.

 

Congratulations, Femi!

 

 
THE FEATHERSTON AWARDS

The 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.

 

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 Jacob Tuell.

 

Jake started his Ph.D. studies under the supervision of Dr. Brad Kim in 2018. His research focuses on improving overall meat product quality attributes through various novel pre- and post-harvest processing approaches. In just a short period of time, Jake published 2 peer-reviewed journal articles (one as a first author and another as a co-author), 4 research abstracts, 1 industry-invited online magazine article, while he has 3 first-authored manuscripts that are currently under review. In the meantime, he was able to maintain a perfect 4.0 GPA. In addition, he received the LOUJA Graduate Travel Award from our department last year. Additionally, Jake is a good departmental citizen actively engaged in various departmental activities and services. He is a leader of our departmental Graduate Student Association (GSA) and as a member of the Graduate Student Advisory Board represents our department at the College of Agriculture.

  

Congratulations, Jake!

 

 

FEATHERSTON GRADUATE TEACHING AWARD

The Featherston 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 Danielle Marks.

 

Since joining Dr. Liz Karcher's research team in August 2018, Danielle continues to show a passion for educating youth and designing programming that will impact PK-12 student interest and understanding of common agricultural practices. Danielle's research and extension programming focuses on addressing agricultural literacy and interest in Indiana youth. She is part of a group that created an implementable educational tool to integrate STEM (science, technology, engineering, and math) concepts using the egg industry as the context. Danielle was instrumental in the development of 5 online modules; she also worked with the Envision Center to create an interactive game where students can explore the digestive track of a chicken. In addition to her thesis project, Danielle is actively involved as a teaching assistant for the 'Introduction to Animal Agriculture' course where she was responsible for the lecture portion of the course. In addition, she also helped to mentor ten undergraduate teaching assistants.

 

Congratulations Danielle!

 

 

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 Conor McCabe.

 

Conor received his B.S. degree at Cornell University in 2018. He then came to Purdue University to pursue a master's in animal sciences and joined Dr. Jackie Boerman's laboratory. He has maintained a 3.93 GPA through his graduate coursework, while his research in the area of dairy cattle nutrition focuses on the transition to lactation, which includes the three-week period before and after calving. His research project involves looking at the role of circadian timing systems on the amount of muscle used in early lactation to support milk production. Results of his work have been submitted for publication to a peer-reviewed journal; he also published four research abstracts in conference proceedings and has two manuscripts in preparation. In addition, he serves as the treasurer of the Graduate Student Association (GSA), coordinates intramural athletics, and helped organizing industry tours. Recently, Conor has also served as a teaching assistant for an agronomy class because of his success in that class as a student and his passion for teaching others.

 

Congratulations Conor!

 

 

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 the recipient of this award is Derico Setyabrata.

 

Derico started his Ph.D. studies in 2016. His research projects focus on improving meat quality attributes through various innovative post-harvest processing coupled with novel molecular approaches. Since he joined Dr. Brad Kim's lab, he has published 10 peer-reviewed journal articles (2 first author papers and 8 co-authored), 3 papers in conference proceedings, 12 abstracts, and 2 industry-invited online magazine articles. These were achieved while maintaining a 3.87 GPA. His excellent presentation skills are indicated by the fact that he received third place in the Ph.D. Division of Research Poster Competition at the Reciprocal Meat Conference (RMC) in 2018, and received the LOUJA Graduate Travel Award from our department three times in a row since 2017. Finally, he was recently selected as an honorary recipient of the Institute of Food Technologist (IFT) - Muscle Foods Division (MFD) Member of The Year award (2019). This award is traditionally given to professional members only, but Derico made history at IFT-MFD as the first-time student awardee.

 

Way to go, Derico!

 

 

FEATHERSTON OFF-CAMPUS TRAINING AWARD

The Featherston Off-Campus Training Award was established in memory of Professor W. R. Featherston to annually provide financial support for a M.S. or Ph.D. degree student in the Department of Animal Sciences to attend a formal career development training program, organized workshop, or course off campus. Eligible programs, workshops or courses include those occurring within the past six months or the remainder of the calendar year. The award consists of up to $1,000 plus an appropriately inscribed plaque for the individual. The Featherston Off-Campus Training Award is presented to Amanda Barabas.

 

Amanda began her PhD in the fall of 2017 under the supervision of Dr. Brianna Gaskill. Her research focuses on studying animal behavior and she also has an interest in animal-related regulations. Amanda is going to participate in a month-long internship at the National Institutes of Health's Office of Laboratory Animal Welfare (OLAW) in Bethesda, MD. As a Ph.D. student focusing on animal behavior and welfare, she will gain invaluable expertise in designing and executing experiments that aim to improve captive animal welfare. The findings from this research have the potential to benefit countless animals. Training at OLAW will be helpful to her future plans because she is interested in pursuing a career in animal use regulations. She hopes to play an active role in shaping new and practical animal use policy and updating existing guidelines to reflect recent findings in welfare research.

  

Congratulations, Amanda!

 
 
LOUJA GRADUATE TRAVEL AWARDS

The LOUJA Competition, during which we select the winners of the LOUJA Graduate travel awards, was cancelled this year, due to COVID-19.