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Solving the problem of greenhouse gas emissions from agricultural soil and developing more nutritious food for young children were the two winning topics in this year’s Alltech Young Scientist Program, announced today at Alltech’s 28th Annual International Symposium. There was unprecedented interest in the competition this year, with close to 8,000 participants, representing the future generation of animal health scientists.
Five regional winners representing Asia, Latin America and North America came to Lexington, Ky, to present their research before a panel of international judges for the graduate grand prize of $10,000 and the undergraduate grand prize of $5,000.
This year’s graduate winner was Qian Wang from China, who is currently a PhD student at the University of California, Davis. Wang’s research work at UC Davis focused on preventing greenhouse gas emissions (nitrous oxide) from agricultural soil. She won with her paper titled “Effects of Inorganic Versus Organic Copper on Denitrification and Nitrous Oxide Reductase Activity in Soil.”
Gisele Greghi, from the Universidad Federal de Sao Paulo, Brazil, was the winner of the undergraduate competition. Greghi’s research work focused on how to feed animals to reap health benefits in children. She won with her paper titled “Organic Selenium Combined with Vitamin E and Sunflower Oil in the Diet of Lactating Dairy Cows: Beneficial Effects of this Nutritional Approach for Animal Production and Human Health.”
“This year’s competition brought five outstanding students from around the globe to Lexington to compete. It was an exciting competition and the research papers presented all have the potential to result in significant improvements in animal and human health and welfare,” said Dr. Inge Russell, director of the Alltech Young Scientist Program and professor at Heriot-Watt University, Scotland.
“This year’s winners demonstrated yet again the importance of investing in education and the phenomenal innovation and originality that results from doing so,” said Suniti Mujumdar, Alltech’s manager of education initiatives. “It is more important now than ever before to recognize and harness the power of these young minds because it is here that solutions for the future will flourish.”
To participate in this program, students wrote a scientific paper that focused on an aspect of animal health and feed technology. The first phase of the program included a competition within each competing country, followed by a zone competition. The winners of each zone moved on to a regional phase and the regional winners competed in the global phase.
The Alltech Young Scientist Program is currently taking applicants for its 2013 competition. To enter, visit the website at www.alltechyoungscientist.com
May 22, 2012 - Alltech
