A PhD student in the Department of Animal and Wildlife Sciences, Nadia Swanepoel, was recently awarded two prestigious international scholarships. She received the 2015 American Registry for Professional Animal Scientists (ARPAS) Alexander J Kutches, Sr Memorial Scholarship Award, as well as the California Animal Nutrition Conference (CANC) scholarship this year.

Nadia started her PhD studies at the University of Pretoria (UP) in August 2011 under the supervision of Prof Lourens Erasmus. He organised a sandwich programme with Dr Peter Robinson at the Department of Animal Science at the University of California, Davis, USA, to afford students from UP the opportunity to do the fieldwork part of their postgraduate studies abroad. Her research focusses on protein nutrition of dairy cattle, with specific emphasis on amino acid requirements during lactation.

As a result of her research in this area, Nadia was awarded the ARPAS Award at the Annual Continuing Education Conference of the California Chapter in Coalinga, California in October this year. As winner, Nadia was awarded the scholarship of $2 000, as well as the opportunity to present her research results in the form of a PowerPoint presentation at the meeting.

The purpose of the award is to recognise outstanding postgraduate students (students in a PhD degree programme) in dairy nutrition. The recipients are chosen from postgraduate students in California, Oregon, Nevada and Arizona who demonstrate a genuine interest in dairy nutrition and selection is based upon the individual’s background, experience, research interests and activities with groups or organisations who are role-players in animal nutrition.

Nadia was also awarded the California Animal Nutrition Conference (CANC) scholarship earlier this year. She also won this scholarship in 2012. Students from across the United States were invited to present papers at this Annual Conference in Fresno, CA. Abstracts of the papers were sent to the CANC committee from across the state to enter the scholarship competition. The winner is selected based on the originality of his/her completed research with sound experimental design and interpretations. As winner, Nadia was awarded the scholarship of $1 500.