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

a woman holds a vial of liquid in a lab

Field Note

Elizabeth Zhang: Living the dream
Elizabeth Zhang ’26 is a senior in Animal Science with a concentration in pre-veterinary medicine. Currently she is an undergraduate researcher in the lab of Heather Huson , associate professor of animal genetics. We sat down together to talk...
  • Animal Science
  • Animals
  • Genetics
Man riding a tractor in a field

News

More productive farming lowers global emissions

A new analysis shows that improved farm productivity has been the driving force in keeping global greenhouse gas emissions from agriculture in check, with implications for how countries support farmers and research.

  • Charles H. Dyson School of Applied Economics and Management
  • Agriculture
  • Climate Change
Single lit candle

News

Dawn Schrader, moral psychology expert, dies at 67

Dawn Schrader, associate professor in the Department of Communication in the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences, known for her intellectual rigor and deep humanity, died Jan. 6 at age 67.

  • Communication
person standing front of aquatic tank

News

Round Goby invade the Hudson River Estuary, NY
Kelsey Alvarez del Castillo published the second paper documenting her studies on round goby in the Transactions of the American Fisheries Society in January 2026. Round Goby are a highly invasive fish species that have recently invaded the...
  • Biological Field Station
  • Ashley School of Global Development and the Environment
  • Natural Resources and the Environment Section

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