Two of the eight Fulbright scholarships recently awarded to students at University College Dublin (UCD), are in the areas of agriculture and environmental science.

Rachel White, studying a masters at the School of Agriculture and Food Science and Caroline Dowling, a PhD candidate in plant genetics at the School of Biology and Environmental Science are two of 31 recipients of this year’s Fulbright Irish Awards.

The awards present students, scholars and professionals in Ireland the opportunity to undertake postgraduate study, research and teaching in the US.

Rachel White. Image source: UCD

Rachel graduated from UCD with a first-class honours in animal science in 2017.

From there, she joined the graduate programme of Ornua where she worked across procurement, international sales and marketing for the Kerrygold brand in their Dublin and Dubai offices.

She secured a Teagasc Walsh Scholarship to undertake a masters in dairy reproduction, which is focused on uterine disease in lactating dairy cows.

Rachel’s study examines the risk factors and incidence of such disease as well as treatment efficacies to mitigate associated fertility loss.

As part of her undergraduate degree, Rachel spent a semester at Cornell University where she gained an insight into US dairy farming practices and reproductive management.

As a Fulbright-Teagasc student awardee, Rachel will visit the University of Florida, Gainesville, where she will explore the impact of infection and immunity in the female reproductive tract on fertility.

Caroline Dowling. Image source: UCD

Caroline Dowling is a PhD candidate in plant genetics at the UCD School of Biology and Environmental Science.

She completed her undergraduate degree in plant biology at UCD, which included a semester abroad at McGill University in Montreal, Canada and a research internship at the National Science and Technology Development Agency in Thailand

Caroline’s doctoral research is funded by an Irish Research Council-Environmental Protection Agency scholarship and focuses on elucidating the genetic control of flowering time in hemp (Cannabis sativa).

Hemp is a highly versatile, sustainable crop, but to facilitate global cultivation by developing new cultivars adapted to specific climatic conditions, a greater understanding of flowering time control is crucial.

As a Fulbright-EPA student awardee to Cornell University in New York, Caroline will investigate the genetic variation in a hemp germplasm collection to characterise the genetic architecture of flowering time in hemp.