Alltech presented the 32nd Alltech Student Research manuscript to Xi Chen (XiXi) during the 104th annual Poultry Science Association (PSA) meeting in Louisville, Kentucky, July 27-30.

The daughter of two animal nutrition professors, Chen was born and raised in Sichuan, China. She came to the U.S. in 2008 and received her bachelor’s degree in animal sciences from Purdue University in 2010, and her master’s degree in animal sciences at the University of Illinois–Urbana-Champaign, where her work focused on the nutritional evaluation of novel soybean meals and canola meals in poultry. In August 2012, Chen joined Todd Applegate’s laboratory at Purdue University to pursue her Ph.D. in poultry nutrition. Her research focuses on the interactive effects and mechanisms of aflatoxin and dietary modifications on performance, liver function and intestinal health in poultry. She is also exploring a novel in vitro model using duck fibroblasts to screen feed toxicity for domestic animals. Chen is an active member of the Graduate Student Association at the Purdue animal science department, and she also serves as the Midwest regional ambassador of the PSA Hatchery. She expects to complete her Ph.D. next spring, after which she plans to pursue a career in the global poultry industry.

The Alltech Student Research Manuscript Award is bestowed annually upon a student who is the senior author of an outstanding research manuscript in Poultry Science or The Journal of Applied Poultry Research. Chen’s winning paper, accepted in May 2014, focused on the performance, serum biochemistry, serum natural antibody and complement activity, and hepatic gene expression parameters in Pekin ducklings. Alltech has sponsored the award since 2000, recognizing young leaders in scientific innovation for their commitment to publishing and sharing the work within the poultry sector.