Matthew Crouse is from El Paso, TX. He received his B.S. in Animal Science with an Equine emphasis and a minor in Chemistry from New Mexico State University in 2014. As an undergraduate, he was involved in research projects that stimulated his interest in graduate school. In December 2016, Matthew completed his M.S. in Animal Science, ruminant nutrition emphasis, under the direction of Dr. Joel Caton. His M.S. focused on the “Effects of maternal nutrition on fructose, glucose, and cationic amino acid transporter expression in bovine utero-placental tissues from days 16 to 50 of gestation.” Matthew placed 3rd in the 2014 WSASAS undergraduate poster competition. In the WSASAS graduate student paper competition he placed 3rd in 2015 and 2nd in 2016. Matthew has recently begun his Ph.D. in Animal Science, with an emphasis on nutritional and mechanistic aspects of developmental programming in beef cattle, under the co-direction of Drs. Alison Ward and Joel Caton at NDSU.