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INVESTIGATOR: Hansen, T. R.; Anthony, R. V.

PERFORMING INSTITUTION:
COLORADO STATE UNIVERSITY
FORT COLLINS, COLORADO 80523

ARBL NATIONAL NEEDS FELLOWSHIPS

NON-TECHNICAL SUMMARY: The 2009 NNF Targeted Expertise Shortage Area (TESA) 1: Animal and Plant Production, Animal Reproduction identifies a national shortage in PhD students. For this reason the goal of the present proposal is to increase multicultural diversity of the nation's scientific and professional expertise through recruiting three high quality PhD trainees. These students will be mentored, trained and integrated into training of other Animal Reproduction and Biotechnology Laboratory MS, PhD, DVM, DVM-MS and DVM-PhD students. Innovative and collaborative graduate student training approaches will be used to address the NNF TESA of Animal Reproduction. These globally-competitive students will be placed into successful career tracks and their success will be tracked to ensure that these students have contribuged to the emerging market demands in animal agriculture and reproduction.

OBJECTIVES: This proposal addresses the 2009 NNF Targeted Expertise Shortage Area (TESA) 1: Animal and Plant Production, Animal Reproduction. The overall project goal is to meet national needs for PhDs with expertise in Animal Reproduction. Objectives include: 1) Increase multicultural diversity of the nation's scientific and professional expertise through recruiting three high quality PhD trainees; 2) Mentor, train and retain these PhD trainees using innovative and collaborative approaches with research emphasis in the NNF TESA of Animal Reproduction; and 3) Place and track progress of these globally-competitive students in career tracks that meet the emerging market demands in Animal Reproduction. The ARBL is interdisciplinary by nature and has 22 contributing faculty from the Departments of Biomedical Science (Administrative home), Clinical Sciences and Animal Sciences. Fourteen of these faculty agreed to serve as student mentors for this program. The research training of pre-doctoral students is designed to develop: 1) a philosophy of research centered on careful delineation of the hypothesis to be tested combined with critical selection and validation of methods to be used, adequate replication, thoughtful interpretation, and timely and concise publications; 2) mastering diverse research techniques that allow pursuing new problems aggressively and developing new approaches with confidence; and 3) functioning as an independent investigator as well as team researcher. To accomplish these training goals, our students generally are involved with several projects, and collaborate and interact with other research units within the ARBL and throughout the general agricultural community at CSU. A required course entitled "Science and Ethics" was developed at the ARBL through collaboration with Bernard Rollin who is an internationally know bioethicist of the Department of Philosophy at CSU. The mission of the ARBL is to excel through discovery, translation and dissemination of knowledge in animal reproductive sciences and biotechnologies at local, national and international levels. We approach this mission through ensuring the health and welfare of animal populations and setting high standards and values, such as demonstrating inclusiveness and diversity, encouraging and rewarding innovation, acting with integrity and mutual respect and supporting excellence in teaching, research, service and outreach. The ARBL is committed to advancing basic science in animal reproduction with the intent of application to translational research, development of biotechnologies and active use in clinical service programs.