Two A&M students took home top honors at the Alltech Young Scientist program’s North American competition. Physiology of reproduction graduate student Xiaoqiu Wang and entomology graduate student Elizabeth Walsh placed first and second in the competition, respectively.

According to Alltech’s website, the competition is the largest agri-science competition in the world, with more than 50,000 undergraduate and graduate students participating in the past decade. Competitors come from six continents and 65 different countries.

According to the website, students like Wang and Walsh are helping solve serious world problems.

“With challenges from climate change, water availability, energy insecurity and dietary shifts, the future of science and agriculture lie in the minds of today’s young generation and these Texas A&M winners are making a big difference and deserve to be recognized in their local community,” the site said.

The competition dishes out over $75,000 to competitors annually, as well as fully funded post-doc and PhD positions to the global final winners.
Wang, along with seven other regional winners from across the globe, has been invited to compete in the Global Competition at the company’s headquarters in Lexington, Kentucky.