Student wins $180,000 fellowship

Jennifer Hurlbert, a Ph.D. student working under the mentorship of Dr. Carl Dahlen, recently received a USDA-NIFA-AFRI Predoctoral Fellowship Award within the AFRI Education and Workforce Development Program. The award is for up to $180,000 over three years, and it was given for her project titled “Protein/energy supplementation to beef heifers during mid-gestation: fetal programming and long-term outcomes on offspring muscle development.” 

The goals of her proposal are to determine the fetal programming impacts of providing a protein/energy supplement to beef heifers during mid-gestation on offspring muscle fiber size and number, gene transcript abundance of muscle tissue, and growth performance of intact male offspring from birth through one year of age. 

The core mission of Jennifer’s proposal is to enhance management strategies of pregnant beef cattle in order to contribute to positive developmental programming outcomes in beef calves, in addition to improving herd longevity, productivity and overall herd success. In addition to research dollars, Jennifer’s fellowship includes funding for travel, trainings and several means of professional development.