Brittany Allman
FrieslandCampina Research Grant
Nutrition, Food and Exercise Sciences
When I was 5 years old, after my parents separated, I went to live with my dad for one reason – I told my mom that I didn’t want my dad to be lonely. After a rocky first two weeks, my dad threw in the white towel and took me back to stay with my mom. When I got out of his truck, the only thing I said with tears in my eyes was, “but Dad, I’ll make you proud.” After that, he threw me back in the truck and it’s been signed, sealed, delivered ever since! Although it’s been a tumultuous ride, my dad knew hard work better than anyone and he taught me perseverance, dedication and balance. I promised him that I would be the first generation with a bachelor’s degree, and then that turned into first generation master’s degree, and then that turned into first generation Ph.D.! And I’ve enjoyed the whole process. My research at FSU deals with exercise, nutrition and fat metabolism, and lucky for me, fat metabolism never goes out of style! I am highly motivated to conduct research that will dispel common myths and practices of gym-goers – commonly called “bro-science.” I plan to continue this research to continue to clean up some of the current dogmas of sports nutrition. I was blessed enough to earn an external grant from FreislandCampina (a dairy company), as well as the National Strength and Conditioning Association’s Women’s Foundation Grant. With these awards, I was able to purchase materials required for the research and allow myself to fully focus on data collection. Without the awards, I would certainly not be able to conduct a study to the caliber that I did. Currently, I am not sure where my path will go, but I am job-hunting now, so time will tell!