One of the Poultry CRC’s original PhD scholarship students is back from an overseas industry internship and teaching the next generation of Australia’s poultry scientists.
Bec Forder returned to Australia in February to take up an Associate Lecturer position at the Universty of Adelaide’s Roseworthy Campus.
“I’m expanding on the findings from my PhD to develop poultry-related Honours projects for my undergraduates,” she explained.
Bec completed her PhD on mucin bacterial interactions during early post-hatch development of broiler chickens in 2007 at the University of Adelaide, fully funded by the Poultry CRC. She then successfully applied for one of the CRC’s postgraduate industry internships, spending a year at Alltech’s Center for Animal Nutrigenomics and Applied Animal Nutrition in Kentucky as a postdoctoral research intern.
“I was part of a research team that organised dietary trials and sample collection to study the effects of Alltech’s products (yeast derived dietary supplements) on intestinal function and development of poultry,” said Bec, now back in her hometown, Adelaide.
“I was responsible for setting up Alltech’s histology facility and training research staff on how to prepare tissue for histologic sections. I was also able to work with the Alltech-UK nutrition alliance at the Coldstream Poultry Research Farm.”
Bec’s journey is an excellent example of how effective the CRC’s education program can be in encouraging talented young scientists to pursue a career in poultry science. The CRC’s unique combination of undergraduate and postgraduate scholarships and industry internships provides a compelling path for the next generation of industry stars.
Who knows? Maybe one of the CRC’s future interns will be one of Bec’s Honours students.
