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Eight graduate students across the College of Food, Agricultural and Natural Resource Sciences (CFANS); the College of Veterinary Medicine (CVM); and the School of Public Health (SPH) were recently awarded fellowships from Minnesota’s Discovery, Research, and InnoVation Economy (MnDRIVE) for the 2018–2019 school year. Two of these students, Shivdeep Hayer, B.V.Sc. & A.H., M.S., and Frances Shepherd, conduct research within the CVM that seeks solutions to the increasingly evident challenge posed by food insecurity and population growth.
Hayer will spend his fellowship working to understand changes in antimicrobial resistance in swine bacterial pathogens. “I am excited to learn more about food production systems and policy making in the United States,” he says. “I hope that this fellowship will broaden my knowledge in these aspects of food safety.” Hayer received his master’s in Veterinary Medicine at Guru Angad Dev Veterinary and Animal Sciences University in India.
Shepherd will search for ways to improve rotavirus vaccination to prevent piglet mortality while on the MnDRIVE fellowship. She says she is most excited about interacting with fields outside her own—such as public health, policy, and food production systems— through the professional development opportunities in MnDRIVE. “I’ve always been interested in the issues surrounding food security, but this is the first opportunity I’ve had to really commit myself to formally learning about it,” she says. “I predict that this fellowship will push me to fit my research into a larger, more impactful context by always thinking about how individual research projects like mine can inform larger policy changes for the greater good of animals, humans, and the environment.”
The eight student fellows will participate in several professional development activities and events that will improve their understanding of our interconnected food systems and help them to better envision how their expertise can ensure food security, improve food safety, and protect the environment through alternative agricultural practices. During the course of their awards, they will participate in activities designed to help build their skills in communications, collaboration, and problem solving.
Photos courtesy of Frances Shepherd and Shivdeep Hayer