C. Boyd Ramsey RMC Scholar Award Winner

Muhammad Junaid Nawaz is a doctoral graduate student in the Department of Animal and Dairy Science, University of Georgia (UGA). Muhammad enrolled for his Ph.D. in the spring of 2022 with a research focus on Meat Science under the supervision of Dr. Alexander M Stelzleni. Muhammad is originally from Pakistan, where he was serving as a Lecturer at the Department of Meat Technology, Cholistan University of Veterinary and Animal Sciences, Bahawalpur for three years. Muhammad is a veterinarian with over 6 years of professional experience working in the private and public sectors related to the meat industry and also holds a Master’s degree in Meat Science and Technology from the University of Veterinary and Animal Sciences Lahore, Pakistan.

The Reciprocal Meat Conference (RMC) is the leading conference for meat science in the United States, arranged annually by the American Meat Science Association (AMSA) for the last 75 years. The RMC provides a platform for the industry and academia to come together under one roof to build a network and discuss current meat industry issues and their solutions through a series of talks and presentations. It also provides a stage to showcase the latest research via poster presentations by meat science researchers. Annually, AMSA seeks applications from animal and food science students across the United States, from students majoring in meat science, for the C. Boyd Ramsey RMC Scholar Award that is presented in RMC. The award is presented to only four undergraduate and two graduate students based on their outstanding leadership roles as a student, after reviewing their active participation in curricular, co-curricular, and extra-curricular activities regarding meat science and industry.

As a graduate student of the department of Animal and dairy Science (ADS), University of Georgia, it was an honor for Muhammad to be awarded the C. Boyd Ramsey RMC Scholar Award this year. The award was presented at a banquet ceremony during the RMC at Des Moines, Iowa, on June 14, 2022. Muhammad stated, “This was the first time I attended RMC, it was overall a great opportunity of learning and engagement with the Meat Science community. I was able to learn a lot, through the lectures, about some of the major challenges facing the meat industry. RMC offered enormous opportunities to learn about important topics and issues like automation in the global meat industry, understanding of the supply chain issues, and the latest approaches to counter biohazards such as salmonellosis to ensure meat safety. During the Community picnic and dinner, I got a chance to meet some of my favorite meat science leaders in faculty and industry and to discuss prospects of research and current challenges to the meat industry.”