Department Awards and Scholarships

Animal Science Excellence Fund

Gifts to the Animal Science Excellence Fund are used to fund scholarships that are awarded annually in recognition our students' outstanding achievements.

Learn More About Our Awards and Scholarships
Dr. Jerrie Gavalchin and Dean Kathryn Boor holding certificate of recognition.
Make a gift in memory of Jerrie Gavalchin to the Animal Science Excellence Fund
Gifts will be used to establish the Jerrie Gavalchin Memorial Award
which is awarded to a senior majoring in animal science.

Leonard A. Maynard Graduate Award

Dr. L.A. Maynard was one of Cornell University’s most distinguished nutritionists. An endowment in his name was established by Drs. Edith S. and Russel A. Rasmussen 1988, to honor graduate students who have a nutrition-related program.

Charlie Sniffen Graduate Student Award

Dr. Charlie Sniffen’s dedication and enthusiasm for dairy nutrition research inspired Kemin to establish the Charlie Sniffen Graduate Student Award at the Cornell Nutrition Conference in 2016.

Danny G. Fox Graduate Fellowship

Dr. Danny Fox’s 35-year career at Cornell focused on development of data, methods, mathematical models, and computer software to more accurately predict cattle nutrient requirements and nutrients derived from feeds with wide variations in cattle type, environments, and feeds. An endowment was established with leadership from Dwight Roseler, Bill Stone, Ted Perry and Larry Chase, to support a graduate student working in the animal science department the area of Dr. Fox's work.

Faculty and Staff Kudos

Award

Bison Research Grant

Ewa Bachminska, PhD candidate, received a grant to research conservation education about American bison in Yellowstone and beyond in the summer 2021. In the past, she explored European bison in Poland and Belarus; hence, she will compare educational methods concerning both species. Ewa's grant is sponsored by Cornell Institute for European Studies.

Award

Dr. Ketterings wins Faculty Excellence in Undergraduate Research Mentoring

The recipient of this award is selected annually by CALS undergraduate students to recognize an outstanding research mentor in the College who goes above and beyond to foster and support research among emerging scholars, and who has made a deep and lasting impact on their academic careers at Cornell.

Award

Rinske (Rink) Tacoma-Fogal Wins Andrew W. Mellon Student Research Grant

Rinske (Rink) Tacoma-Fogal has won the Andrew W. Mellon Student Research Grant to support her work in dairy nutrition, agronomy, and whole farm production modeling systems.

Award

Jason Cho wins first place

Jason Cho, MS student in Animal Science, received the 1st place in the graduate student competition that was held at the 2020 Virtual Agronomy, Soil and Crop Science Societies joint meeting November 9-13. His oral presentation: Spatial estimation methods for mapping corn yield monitor data.

 

Award

Ben Lehman wins third place

Ben Lehman received 3rd place in the undergraduate student poster competition that was held at the 2020 Virtual Agronomy, Soil and Crop Science Societies joint meeting November 9-13. Ben is a senior in Agricultural Sciences, a research assistant in the NMSP program (pursuing an honors thesis), a Hunter R. Rawlings III Cornell Presidential Research Scholar, and a Greenfield Scholar of the Agronomy Society of America. His poster presentation:

Cargill Global Scholar

2020 Cargill Global Scholar - Brianna Green, Animal Science Class of 2023

Advisor, Deborah Jeanine Cherney

The students selected as Global Scholars are those who demonstrate exemplary academic achievement and leadership potential and study in a field relevant to Cargill’s world of food, agriculture and risk management. Including Green, nine Cornell University students in total have been selected as Cargill Global Scholars finalists since the program’s inception. For full details, please read the Cornell Chronicle article.

Head shot of Ewa Bachminska
Profile picture of Quirine Ketterings
Rink
profile photo of jason cho
profile photo of ben lehman
A college-aged woman smiles for a headshot

Graduate Student Awards

ice sheets

News

To prevent rapid sea-level rise, reduce emissions now

The timing of emissions reductions, even more so than the rate of reduction, will be key to avoiding catastrophic thresholds for ice-melt and sea-level rise, according to a new Cornell study.

  • Biological and Environmental Engineering
  • Climate Change
  • Environment
a man crouches in front of a line of dairy cows

Field Note

Refining RuFaS: Predictions are only as good as the data behind them
Haowen Hu ’26 is a doctoral student in the Animal Science Department working under the supervision of Kristan Reed, former Animal Science faculty member and the scientific director of the RuFaS project. His main research focuses on the Ruminant...
  • PRO-DAIRY
  • Animal Science
  • Digital Agriculture
Ribas Finalist

Report

News

Cornell University Finalists for Ribas Piera Prize 2025
We are thrilled to announce that Cornell Landscape Architecture has been named a finalist for the Ribas Piera International University Prize 2025, part of the 13th Barcelona International Landscape Biennial. The award ceremony will be held on...
  • Landscape Architecture
Jason Londo examines a tree impact by extreme weather.

Field Note

Weathering the Shift: Climate Stress in Orchards
As unpredictable weather continues to disrupt growing seasons, associate professor of horticulture Jason Londo is uncovering its deepening impact on apple orchards — from long-term tree decline to subtle changes in fruit finish that influence...
  • Cornell AgriTech
  • School of Integrative Plant Science
  • Horticulture

Alumni in the News

Headshot of Elana Kriegel
Animal Science Alum Published Honors Thesis

Animal Science alum Elana Kriegel has published her honors thesis in the scientific journal Heliyon in collaboration with her mentor Debbie Cherney, and Christian Kiffner. In her time at Cornell, started the Mentoring our Undergraduates (MOU) program, and was elected MOU president as a senior. Elana was also recognized as a Merrill Presidential Scholar. Elana is enrolled at Albany Medical College for the fall of 2021.

Emilie Mulligan of Mulligan Farm in Avon, New York, hosted a virtual farm tour for high school students for ADA North East, on May 12, 2021 (courtesy of American Dairy Association North East)
Emilie Mulligan '15 adds value to family farm by building trust in dairy

“It was an unwritten rule in our famliy that you had to work away from the farm after college, and you had to bring something back that added value to the farm when you did return,” says Emilie Mulligan, owner and herd manager of Mulligan Farm in Avon, New York.

Knowing she ultimately wanted to return to the family farm, but needing to expand her knowledge and vision, Emilie took advantage of several internships at different-sized dairies and with Alta Genetics while studying animal science at Cornell University. After graduation, she worked at a large dairy in Florida and also at nearby Oakfield Corners Dairy, in Oakfield, New York, to continue learning different management styles – of cows and people – before going home.

Photo courtesy American Dairy Association North East