……Doctoral Student Wins Award, DONS Elected into Executive Positions
A Doctoral student at Federal University of Technology Akure FUTA from the Department of Biochemistry, School of Life Sciences, Miss Mopelola Dele-Joshua has won the Professor Ukalina Gloria Obuzor (PUGO) Award for the best oral presenter of the student category at the 6th Biennial International Conference of the Organization for Women in Science for the Developing World (OWSD) Nigeria which took place from the 2nd to July 6th 2023 at the Ebitimi Banigo Auditorium, UNIPARK, University of Port Harcourt, Port Harcourt, Rivers State.
Dele-Joshua presented a paper titled, “Molecular and Biochemical studies Reveal the Cellulolytic Enzyme System of Ligninolytic Bacillus subtilis CFD-09 for simultaneous delignification and saccharification of corncob” under Track 4 Sessions on Bioinformatics, Biotechnology and Nanotechnology.
Miss Mopelola Dele-Joshua is one of the PhD students of the award-winning professor of Enzyme and Environmental Biotechnology, Folasade Olajuyigbe.Her doctoral thesis is being jointly supervised by Professor Olajuyigbe and an Indian don and her research took her to India via the grant of the International Centre for Biotechnology and Genetical Engineering ICGEB .Her project involves using agro residues such as corncobs to produce renewable energy to replace Fossil fuel (Biofuel) according to her, this study can be leveraged on in the ongoing search for solution to the issue of Fuel scarcity in Nigeria.
At the Conference, Professor Olajuyigbe, who is also the Director of the Central Research Laboratory and OWSD FUTA Branch Coordinator, emerged as the National Vice Chairperson of the OWSD while Dr. Adenike Olaseinde of the Department of Metallurgical and Materials Engineering clinched the position of the South West Zonal Coordinator.
Also FUTA won the right to host the next Biennial Conference of OWSD to be held in 2025, making it the second time FUTA will host the conference. The last time it was hosted in FUTA was in 2015.
Congratulating the Scholars on the feat achieved in Port Harcourt, the Vice Chancellor, Professor Adenike Oladiji described it as a huge achievement for FUTA adding that it has put it again in the limelight as an institution that is at the forefront in teaching, learning and research. She was optimistic that the achievement will spur other academics into excellence and productivity in their intellectual endeavours.