UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. — A Penn State graduate student has received a highly competitive and prestigious fellowship from the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) to participate in its National Scientist Training Program.

Sophia Kenney, a doctoral candidate in the Huck Institutes of the Life Sciences’ intercollege graduate degree program in molecular, cellular, and integrative biosciences, has been selected to participate in the program. She and other fellows, according to the USDA, will play vital roles in the successful execution of the expanded APHIS mission related to its National Bio- and Agro-defense Facility.

Kenney’s adviser, Erika Ganda, assistant professor of food animal microbiomes in the College of Agricultural Sciences, noted that Kenney’s strong microbiology training and bioinformatic proficiency, combined with her passion for animal and public health, made her an ideal candidate for this program and career path.

The purpose of the National Scientist Training Program is to develop a new generation of transboundary and emerging animal disease scientists to support the National Veterinary Services Laboratories Foreign Animal Disease Diagnostic Laboratory, which will be moving from Plum Island, New York, to the National Bio- and Agro-defense Facility in Manhattan, Kansas.

The National Scientist Training Program will provide funding to highly qualified graduate students like Kenney, and in turn, will require the recipients to fulfill a service commitment with APHIS.