FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. – An exchange student working on her doctoral degree in genetics has been awarded a scholarship from the China Scholarship Council, a non-profit organization with the Ministry of Education in the People's Republic of China.

Jingsi Tang is a student at Sichuan Agricultural University working on research in the Dale Bumpers College of Agricultural, Food and Life Science's School of Human Environmental Sciences and Department of Animal Science for the next two years as part of her dissertation.

Tang is working with assistant professor Jae Kyeom Kim in human nutrition and assistant professor Jiangchao Zhao in animal science. She is assisting with the collaborative "Impact of Glucosinolate-Rich Broccoli on Gut Microbiota, MicroRNA Profile and Immune Health in Infants" project, which was recently selected as one of the first 10 research grants to receive support from the Chancellor's Discovery, Creativity, Innovation and Collaboration Fund.

Tang was chosen for the award following a three-step process. She was named one of the top graduate students of her department at her university, then she was chosen out of all the students selected by different departments to represent the university as a whole and finally, she was selected as one of the 6,000 recipients by the China Scholarship Council to receive about $40,000 in the next two years.

The CSC manages the State Scholarship Fund, which provides Chinese students with financial aid to pursue study abroad and international students with financial aid to study in China.

Kim, Zhao and Tang are joined on the research team by associate professor of nutrition and holder of the 21st Century Endowed Chair in Human Environmental Sciences Sabrina Trudo, clinical instructor and director of the Didactic Program in Dietetics Mechelle Bailey, assistant professor of nursing Allison Scott and nursing instructor Marilou Shreve.

Their project researches how diets rich in broccoli-family vegetables can transform microbes living in infants' intestines and strengthen the infants' immune systems.

About the Dale Bumpers College of Agricultural, Food and Life Sciences: Bumpers College provides life-changing opportunities to position and prepare graduates who will be leaders in the businesses associated with foods, family, the environment, agriculture, sustainability and human quality of life; and who will be first-choice candidates of employers looking for leaders, innovators, policy makers and entrepreneurs. The college is named for Dale Bumpers, former Arkansas governor and longtime U.S. senator who made the state prominent in national and international agriculture.

About the University of Arkansas: The University of Arkansas provides an internationally competitive education for undergraduate and graduate students in more than 200 academic programs. The university contributes new knowledge, economic development, basic and applied research, and creative activity while also providing service to academic and professional disciplines. The Carnegie Foundation classifies the University of Arkansas among only 2 percent of universities in America that have the highest level of research activity. U.S. News & World Report ranks the University of Arkansas among its top American public research universities. Founded in 1871, the University of Arkansas comprises 10 colleges and schools and maintains a low student-to-faculty ratio that promotes personal attention and close mentoring.