Virginia A. Beal Graduate Scholarship
Mengling Cao (MS, Nutrition)
Mengling is a first-year nutrition graduate student with a bachelor's degree in biology. She will be finishing up her master's next spring. She believes nutrition plays a huge role in people's lives, yet it is still a developing field. She hopes she can pursue a Ph.D. degree upon finishing her master's journey to better understand nutrition's role in disease intervention and prevention. During her free time, she enjoys building Legos and baking, both of which she finds relaxing.
It is a great honor to receive the Virginia A. Beal Graduate Scholarship, which will help fund my education expenses at UMass Amherst. I am grateful for your support, and I would like to thank you for choosing me.
It has been a fantastic year here at UMass, where I found my passion and career goal. Even though I am still exploring my concentration, I am happy with where I am now. The excellent faculty and staff who have helped me on my graduate study journey and the peer group with whom I get to work together.
I will finish my thesis in the upcoming semester. In the meantime, I have been looking for potential Ph.D. programs that I want to apply to, and the scholarship will be a tremendous asset in that regard because it can support my application costs and allow me to focus more on the application instead of worrying about it.
Mengqi Duan (PhD, Nutrition)
Mengqi Duan is a first-year doctoral student at UMass. She finished her master's in nutrition and epidemiology at the University at Buffalo, and she completed her undergraduate degree in Food Safety at the Northeast Agricultural University in China. Her research direction is focusing on nutritional epidemiology. After graduation, she would like to stay in academia or start research and development in a nutraceutical company.
Thank you very much for your support and generosity in providing the opportunity and Beal scholarship for us!
Rong Fan (PhD, Nutrition)
Rong Fan is a doctoral candidate in the Department of Nutrition at UMass Amherst, and her major research interest is to understand dietary and therapeutic strategies that enhance brown adipose tissue energy expenditure and combat obesity and its associated metabolic complications. Her thesis work focuses on the effect of fish oil supplementation and heat treatment on post-menopausal obesity and metabolic health. Her short-term professional goal is to stay in academia, become a professor in nutrition, and conduct research that contributes to obesity research and pass on her passion to the next-generation of graduate students. Her ultimate career goal is to continue to expand the field in the prevention of obesity by promoting a deep understanding of nutrition and obesity metabolism. Rong also strives to become a good mentor to students and emphasizes promoting nutritional education and human health.
I am writing to express my deepest gratitude for the generous Virginia A. Beal Graduate Scholarship that I received from you in this academic year 2023. Your kindness and generosity have granted me this fantastic opportunity to recognize my work as a Ph.D. student in Nutrition at the University of Massachusetts Amherst and encouraged me to continue to pursue a career as a female scientist in the nutrition science field.
I intend to extend my knowledge in nutrition and perform research that advances our understanding of nutrition and metabolic disease. Particularly, I am interested in studying the effect of fish oil (omega-3 fatty acids) supplementation, in combination with whole-body heat treatment (around 104 F), on post-menopausal obesity and changes in metabolic characteristics. We use in vivo animal mouse models, and in vitro cellular models to test our hypothesis. We also take advantage of our immortalized human brown adipocyte cell line to study the underlying molecular mechanisms of how omega-3 fatty acids and whole-body heat treatment bring metabolic benefits against obesity.
My ultimate career goal is to conduct meaningful research to combat the obesity epidemic, extend knowledge regarding adipose tissue metabolism, and therefore provide therapeutic targets to alleviate obesity-related complications. More importantly, expand the design of the research in international settings and expand the research. After finishing my Ph.D. education, I plan to give back to the community and help future generations of students in their education, especially young women to pursue their dream and help achieve their greatest potential.
I want to express my deep gratitude again for offering me this scholarship and the opportunity to pursue my career goal. You helped me build up my future career path and pursue excellence and success. Thank you again for your generous donation and your encouragement and recognition of my work!