The Department of Animal Science master's and doctoral candidates presented their research at the 2019 Paul Noland Graduate Student Awards Competition on Jan. 10. The competition judges students in three areas: abstract, oral presentation, and curriculum vitae. One M.S. student and one PhD student is awarded a $750 travel stipend for regional and national research meetings.

Ruchita Uttarwar, whose research was titled "Comparative evaluation of four RNA extraction kits in the isolation of viral RNA from fecal, nasal and tissue samples," was selected as the winning master's candidate. Uttarwar is a graduate research student under the supervision of Jiangchao Zhao, and has completed her veterinary and animal science study (B.V.Sc & A.H) from Nagpur Veterinary College and Maharashtra Animal & Fishery Science University, both in India.

Xiaofan Wang who presented research titled "Lifelong dynamics of the swine gut microbiome: from birth to market," was selected as the winning doctoral candidate. Xiaofan started her M.S. program in fall 2012 in Maxwell's lab at the University of Arkansas. After receiving her M.S. degree, she chose to continue with her studies as a Ph.D. student. Her academic background is in cellular biology, swine gut microbiome, gut health, and microbiome cultureomics.

The award commemorates the legacy of Paul R. Noland, an emeritus professor of animal science at the University of Arkansas. Noland served as head of the Department of Animal Science from 1988 until his retirement in 1994. He joined the faculty in 1951 after receiving his doctoral degree from Cornell University. Noland passed in 2015 at age 91.