Raines Awarded Research Funds at Virginia Tech

BLACKSBURG, Va., April 12, 2002 -- Pepper M. Raines, a senior at Virginia Tech in crop and soil environmental sciences, has been awarded research funding and a scholarship to support in-depth study of animal nutrition.

Selected students within various departments of Virginia Tech's College of Agriculture and Life Sciences are given the opportunity to perform research concerning animal nutrition through a program sponsored by the John Lee Pratt Foundation.

Raines, daughter of John and Linda Raines of Christiansburg, was selected as a recipient of this award based on a proposal she submitted in the spring of her junior year. The John Lee Pratt Animal Nutrition Senior Research Scholarship Program provides a $2,000 scholarship to the student and $1,000 in operating funds allocated to the department to offset the costs of the research project. An average of eight students receive the award annually.

"This scholarship is a wonderful way for undergraduates to get involved in research," Raines said. "It allows students to apply what they have learned in the classroom to research in the field, and to broaden their knowledge and add to their experience for their future career."

Raines has done research involving alfalfa plants to improve an existing virtual alfalfa plant computer program. She is working to create a more representative and accurate model in this computer program, which shows the actual growth of an alfalfa plant, based on the environmental conditions surrounding it. The goal is to develop the computer program for Extension agents so they can use it to show farmers how different management practices affect their pastures and how to improve their pasture management.

"The purpose of this [scholarship] program is to encourage highly qualified students to pursue graduate study in animal nutrition through a rewarding senior research project under the guidance of a faculty adviser," said John White, associate dean and director of academic programs. The Pratt Foundation was established to support animal nutrition research and teaching, and other programs.

John Lee Pratt, who died in 1975 at the age of 96, was a Virginia native who became a vice president and eventually a member of the board of directors of General Motors. He left $12 million to Virginia Tech, of which $5.5 million was earmarked to promote the study of animal nutrition. This endowment is used to provide scholarships to undergraduate and graduate students, to support faculty salaries, and to underwrite research in animal nutrition.

Research proposals must be submitted at the end of the spring semester of the applicant's junior year. A faculty committee, which makes final decisions of those to receive the scholarship, evaluates these proposals.