![Laura Merriman photo](https://nutrition.ansci.illinois.edu/sites/nutrition.ansci.illinois.edu/files/merrimn2.jpg)
E-mail: Laura.Merriman@abvista.com
Laura Merriman grew up in central Illinois where her family owned and operated an equine facility. In addition to horses, the farm was also home to an eclectic group of other animals such as mules, goats, chickens, turkeys, geese, peacocks, dogs, cats, cows, rabbits, and fish. She became actively involved in groups and programs that focused on horses and other animals, such as 4-H and FFA. These early experiences provided her with the interest and initial training that guided her towards a career working with animals.
After graduating from Clinton Community High School in 2005, she attended Illinois State University where she majored in animal science and minored in biology and chemistry. During her freshman year, Dr. Paul Walker offered me a position to work in his laboratory; this served as her introduction to laboratory work and animal research. Then, during her senior year, she worked with Dr. Jon Holt on pilot studies involving swine nutrition and soybeans. She stayed at Illinois State to pursue a Master’s Degree. During this program, she carried out a number of growth and digestibility trials in order to investigate the use of fermented soybean meal and supplemental phytase in weanling pig diets.
Upon completion of her Master’s degree, Laura came to the University of Illinois to further study non-ruminant nutrition and continue to work in the area of calcium and phosphorus. She earned her Ph.D. in 2016 with a dissertation titled "Digestibility of calcium in feed ingredients and requirements of calcium in growing pigs." She now works as a swine technical nutritionist at AB Vista.