2025 AAAS International Travel Awards - Laura Jensen

Introducing our second 2025 International Travel Award recipient, Laura Jensen.

 Laura joined La Trobe University and Agriculture Victoria in January 2023 under the guidance of Prof Jennie Pryce. Laura's upbringing on a 150-cow registered Guernsey farm in northern Wisconsin fostered her early interest in breeding and genetics. Her dedication led her to participate in numerous youth contests, including shows and dairy judging. She has enjoyed several opportunities to connect with Australian dairy farmers by officiating a few local cattle shows and helping friends exhibit cattle at IDW and the Adelaide and Sydney Royal Shows.

Laura completed her Bachelor of Science from the University of Minnesota in Animal Science where she had several industry internships including working with the young sire marketing team at Select Sires and as a genetics intern at the COUNCIL ON DAIRY CATTLE BREEDING (CDCB). At CDCB, Laura helped validate the US breeding values for Jersey health traits which were implemented in April 2020.

Laura pursued her Master of Science in Animal Molecular and Cellular Biology at the University of Florida as the National Association of Animal Breeders inaugural Doak Fellowship winner. Her thesis research was a validation of the Australian Breeding Value for Heat Tolerance in US Holsteins. In Australia, Laura began her PhD journey with Prof Pryce. Her current focus is on heat tolerance research, specifically on developing novel phenotypes from sensor technologies for improved genetic predictions.

Laura used her travel award to attend and present at the 2025 Association for the AAABG - Association for the Advancement of Animal Breeding and Genetics conference in Queenstown, New Zealand, in addition Laura will be visiting local dairy farms in the South Island.