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The National Milk Producers Federation (NMPF) announced the recipients of its 2020 National Dairy Leadership Scholarship awards. The awards, presented by the NMPF Board of Directors, support the next generation of dairy leaders and researchers and are open to qualified graduate students who are actively pursuing dairy-related fields of study.
NMPF this year awarded scholarships to:
· Ellen Lai, Ph.D. Integrative Genetics and Genomics whose research at the University of California - Davis focuses on improving production and welfare by providing genetic tools to reduce lameness caused by foot warts and sole ulcers;
· Conor McCabe, M.S. Animal Science at Purdue University in Indiana, whose current research focuses on evaluating tissue mobilization in transition dairy cows; and
· Mateus Peiter, Ph.D. Animal Science at the University of Minnesota, whose research focuses on the use of automated technologies to improve animal health and herd management on dairy farms.
NMPF also sponsors student awards through the American Dairy Science Association. The Richard M. Hoyt Award was created to recognize research efforts with direct application to the problems of the U.S. dairy industry. This year’s winner, Erin Horst, received her Ph.D. from Iowa State University with a research focus on the consequences of immune activation on energetic and calcium homeostasis and its relevance to transition cow disorders.
Carsten Walker and Robert Dwight Matson received first-place recognition as part of the NMPF Graduate Student Paper Presentation Contest in Dairy Production in Ph.D. and M.S. divisions, respectively. Walker is a second-year Ph.D. student in the Meadow Brook Endowed Immunology Laboratory at Michigan State University whose research focuses on abrogating dysfunctional inflammation associated with coliform mastitis. Matson is a graduate student at the University of Guelph in Ontario, Canada conducting research on dairy health and production in herds using automated milking systems.
