New Fellowship Aims to Fuse Research and Extension for Future Animal Scientists

The University of Tennessee Institute of Agriculture has unveiled an ambitious new fellowship designed to reshape how the next generation of animal science professionals is trained. Known as F.U.S.E. Animal Science, short for the Fellowship for Undergraduate Scientific Exchange in Animal Science, the program will immerse undergraduate students in a carefully structured sequence of research, Extension and professional development experiences. The initiative arrives at a moment when agriculture faces mounting pressure from climate variability, evolving consumer expectations and rapid technological change, all of which demand a workforce that is as comfortable in a laboratory as it is on a working farm or in a producer’s meeting room.

Behind the program are Phillip Myer and Jennie Ivey, both professors in the UT Department of Animal Science, who have secured a $750,000 grant from the USDA National Institute of Food and Agriculture to fund the project over five years. Their central premise is that scientific training alone is insufficient. Students must also learn how knowledge moves out of the laboratory and into the field, where it influences livestock management, animal welfare and the economic viability of farms. By deliberately fusing these domains within a single fellowship, the program aims to produce graduates who can generate, translate and communicate science with equal confidence.

Recruitment will be national in scope, drawing applicants from animal science, agricultural and related life science programs across the country. Once selected, fellows will embark on a year-long sequence combining virtual and in-person experiences, each anchored in one of six focus areas: animal nutrition; livestock production, robotics and automation; livestock gene editing and genomics; animal disease, immunology and parasitism; animal welfare; or animal reproduction. These tracks reflect the scientific frontiers where animal agriculture is changing fastest, from precision feeding strategies to genome editing tools that promise healthier, more productive herds.

One of the program’s most distinctive features is its integrated mentoring model. Rather than pairing each student with a single advisor, F.U.S.E. assigns every fellow a team that includes research faculty, Extension faculty, a graduate student mentor and a county Extension agent. This structure exposes students to the full arc of agricultural science: the design of experiments, the interpretation of data and the practical challenge of delivering findings to producers, industry representatives and other stakeholders who will ultimately apply them. Mentors from different professional backgrounds will model the collaboration that modern agricultural problem-solving increasingly requires.

Myer emphasizes the broader stakes of the effort. By strengthening the pipeline of well-trained animal science professionals, he notes, the program will support not only agriculture itself but also the local communities, economies and food systems that depend on a skilled and innovative workforce. Ivey adds that the project will train undergraduates through mentored research, farm-based experiences and Extension activities that translate science into practical solutions for producers and stakeholders. Together, their vision positions the fellowship as an investment in rural resilience as much as in individual careers.

The technical training embedded in the fellowship is deliberately comprehensive. Fellows will receive hands-on instruction in experimental design, data collection and analysis, animal management, scientific writing and science communication. They will also work alongside Extension professionals during farm visits, production-site experiences and outreach programming, and will contribute to the development of Extension materials used with real audiences. The experience culminates in an intensive summer research and Extension residency in which students finalize their projects, sharpen their communication skills and engage directly with animal agriculture professionals, ensuring that no fellow completes the program without having presented and defended their work in professional settings.

Networking opportunities form another pillar of the program. Fellows will prepare scientific abstracts and presentations and will have opportunities to present their research at the American Society of Animal Science Annual Meeting, one of the field’s most important gatherings, as well as at a dedicated F.U.S.E. Animal Science Conference hosted by UTIA. These venues will connect students with scientists, Extension specialists, industry representatives and other leaders across animal agriculture, giving early-career undergraduates access to professional networks that typically take years to build. Recruitment for the first cohort is expected to begin in January 2027, with the inaugural fellows starting their experience later that year.

The F.U.S.E. award is part of a considerably larger federal commitment: an $8.8 million investment by USDA-NIFA in Research and Extension Experiences for Undergraduates, or REEU. That national program funds experiential learning opportunities that help undergraduates develop the technical, professional and leadership skills needed for careers in food and agriculture or for continued study in graduate and professional programs. F.U.S.E. Animal Science advances these goals by intentionally integrating research and Extension training within a single year-long fellowship, a design its creators argue is rarer than it should be in undergraduate agricultural education.

The program’s leaders bring complementary expertise to the effort. Myer’s research focuses on gut microbiology in beef cattle, with particular emphasis on the rumen microbiome and its significance for feed efficiency and nutritional physiology. He helped create rumenmicrobes.utk.edu, a public resource explaining the science of microorganisms and animal nutrition, and earned his B.S. in biology from Bradley University in 2008 and his Ph.D. in microbiology from Purdue University in 2013. He subsequently worked as a postdoctoral researcher at the USDA-ARS U.S. Meat Animal Research Center from 2013 to 2015, studying gut microbiome impacts on nutrition and feed efficiency in finishing beef steers, and currently serves as Director of Graduate Studies for the UT Department of Animal Science.

Ivey completed a B.S. in equine science at Rutgers University in 2009 before earning her M.S. and Ph.D. at West Virginia University, where she studied equine nutrition and exercise physiology. Her research and Extension interests center on nutritional, exercise and management interventions that improve equine well-being, along with the influence of owner knowledge on equine management. She serves on the Equine Health Advisory Commission for the Tennessee Department of Agriculture and on the Board of Directors for the National Association of Equine Affiliated Academics. Together with the broader University of Tennessee Institute of Agriculture, which comprises the Herbert College of Agriculture, the UT College of Veterinary Medicine, UT AgResearch and UT Extension, the two professors hope F.U.S.E. will become a national model for how land-grant institutions prepare students to carry agricultural science from the bench to the barn and beyond.

Subject of Research: An undergraduate fellowship integrating animal science research and Extension training at the University of Tennessee

Article Title: UTIA launches fellowship to prepare future animal science professionals

Article References: UTIA launches fellowship to prepare future animal science professionals. (n.d.). Original publication

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Keywords: animal science, undergraduate fellowship, USDA NIFA, Extension, University of Tennessee, research training, livestock, REEU, science communication, agricultural workforce, mentoring, professional development