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Through the Faculty Exchange Program of the Southeast Asian University Consortium for Graduate Education in Agriculture and Natural Resources (UC), Institute of Biological Sciences UP Los Baños (UPLB) Professor, Dr. Rita P. Laude completed her visit of the University of British Columbia (UBC) in Vancouver, Canada where she gained exposure on the various strategies, methods, and equipment in genomics and systems biology researches as applied to agriculture.
Dr.Isman Murray, dean of the Faculty of Land and Food Systems, and UBC’s coordinator for UC welcomed Dr. Laude for her 10-day visit, which commenced on 1 May 2012. He likewise helped organize Dr. Laude’s seminar entitled “Coconut Biotechnology: Gene Discovery of Fatty Acid/Triglyceride Biosynthesis, Cocosin Promoter, and Tissue-Culture-Transformation in Corn as a Model System,” attended by food, nutrition, and health faculty and researchers.
The said program also gave Dr. Laude the opportunity to meet with the host scientists and todiscuss future collaborative researches involving faculty members and researchers under the UPLB-Philippine Genome Center Program for Agriculture. Among them were Dr. Hennie van Vuuren, Dr. Justin Lin, Dr. Zhongli Luo, Dr. Christopher Walkey, and Ms. Lina Madilao of UBC’s Wine Research Center who helped explain the various research activities of the center. In managing the laboratory, Dr. van Vuuren has been engaging post-doctoral fellows. He says that this way, the Center has become more efficient and more productive, by allowing the Head to use his time more in resource generation activities.
Dr. van Vuuren’s team also showed Dr. Laude the Center’s wine cellar - a collection of more than 1000 wines of different brands and ages - where she was able to have a taste of vintage wine identified by undergraduate students as part of their thesis with the Wine Research Center.
Part of Dr. Laude’s itinerary was a visit to UBC Okanagan campus where she met Dr. Michael Russello, head of the Conservation, Ecology, and Evolutionary Biology Laboratory of the UBC Okanagan’s Biology Department.
Established only in 2005, the Okanagan campus plays host to the productive and well-organized laboratory of Dr. Russello which now manages various research activities on crocodiles, kakonee salmon, and the American pika, a small rodent-like mammal that looks like a squirrel or guinea pig. To carry out these researches efficiently, Dr .Russello has been involving his undergraduate and graduate students. With such a scheme in place, joint research involving UPLB graduate students is highly feasible, according to both Drs. Laude and Russello. (Jesselle S Laranas)
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- Category: 2012
Effective April 2012, Dr. Hironobu Shiwachi succeeded Dr. Akimi Fujimoto as Director of Tokyo University of Agriculture's (TUA) Center for International Programs (CIP). Concurrently, he will serve as TUA's Coordinator for the University Consortium (UC).
Prior to his new role, Dr.Shiwachi was CIP's Deputy Director and affiliated with the Faculty of International Agriculture and Food Studies, Department of International Agricultural Development in TUA. He developed yam and rice production technologies and authored a significant number of journal articles on these.
Dr. Shiwachi is an alumnus of Kagoshima University, Japan, where he obtained his master's (1995) and PhD (2000) degrees in Agricultural Sciences.
Source: TUA database
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- Category: 2012
Dr. Jose V. Camacho, Jr., dean of Graduate School has been designated as the Coordinator of UP Los Baños (UPLB) for the Southeast Asian University Consortium (UC). Dr. Camacho replaces Dr. Cristeta N. Cuaresma, as UPLB's UC Coordinator, effective 26 April 2012.
Prior to his current position in the UPLB Graduate School, Dr. Camacho was the Associate Dean of the University’s College of Economics and Management. His specialization and research focus are on the economics of education, labor and human resource, institutions, and political economy.
Dr. Camacho graduated with a master's degree in Economics of Development at the Institute of Social Studies, The Hague, Netherlands in 1995 and a PhD in Economics at Kyoto University, Japan in 2007.
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- Category: 2012
The Southeast Asian University Consortium for Graduate Education in Agriculture and Natural Resources (UC) has awarded six thesis grants this year to graduate students from Kasetsart University (KU), University of the Philippines Los Baños (UPLB), and Universiti Putra Malaysia (UPM).
Through the UC Thesis Grant, each graduate scholar receives USD 500 to fund their respective graduate research that falls within the strategic priorities of the consortium.
The UC Thesis Grant awardees for 2012 are:
Kasetsart University (KU)
- Mr. Kitti Koonsanit, "Automatic Segmentation of Hyperspectral Imagery using Clustering and Image Processing Technique"
- Ms. Ranee Saisaleem, "Study of Genetic Diversity using Microsatellite in Cucumis sativus"
Universiti Putra Malaysia (UPM)
- Mr. Bashir Ibrahim Muse, "Modeling Consumer Behavioral Intentions towards Genetically Modified Food (GM)"
- Ms. Sohana Shabnam, "Mixed Culture of Microalgae for Phycoremediation of Oil Palm and Domestic Wastewater and Biomass Production for Sustainable Biofuel Generation"
University of the Philippines Los Baños (UPLB)
- Mr. Bryan Rey R. Oliveros, "Use of Ozone as a Wash Water Additive for Sanitizing Organic Produce"
- Ms. Josephine B. Makiling, "Assessment of Amenity-led Migration and Its Influences on Ecotourism at the Taal Volcano Protected Landscape (TVPL), Philippines"
Since it was launched in 1995, the UC has awarded 202 thesis grants from the UC-affiliated universities, namely: KU, UPLB, UPM, Bogor Agricultural University (IPB), Universitas Gadja Madah (UGM), University of British Columbia (UBC), and University of Queensland (UQ).
Aside from the thesis grant, the UC also offers student grants for credit and for research. For faculty members of participating Consortium universities, grants for conference, research, and visiting professor programs for teaching purposes are offered. Details on these grants can be found at the Consortium website at www.uc.searca.org.
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SERDANG, 1 August - Universiti Putra Malaysia (UPM) is now the first university in Malaysia to obtain accreditation in business from the Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business (AACSB), the world's largest accreditation association for business schools and universities.
AACSB International President and Chief Executive Officer, John J. Fernandes, announced the accreditation of UPM's Putra Business School and the Faculty of Economics and Management through their website at www.aacsb.edu.
Other international universities recognized by AACSB include the University of Texas at Brownsville (USA), Chongnam National University (South Korea), Dongguk University (South Korea), Istanbul University (Turkey), Peking University (China), Providence College (USA), and West Texas A & M University (USA).
Fernandes said that AACSB accreditation is the highest achievement for an educational institution that offers business degrees. The accreditation is a sign of excellence in business, which at present has been achieved by only 655 business schools in 44 countries.
UPM was audited by the AACSB Peer Review Team (PRT) on 27 to 30 May 2012. With the successful audit, UPM becomes the sixth university in Southeast Asia to receive AACSB Accreditation.
According to UPM Vice Chancellor Dato 'Ir. Dr. Radin Umar Radin Sohadi, less than five percent of business schools worldwide are accredited with the AACSB. With UPM's accreditation, a new benchmark for the quality of tertiary education in Malaysia has been set.
Sohadi, in particular, commended the management and staff of the Putra Business School and the Faculty of Economics as well as the strong support of Malaysia's Ministry of Higher Education for this milestone. With its international recognition, UPM's image, quality, and reputation is enhanced.
UPM joins an elite group of the world's top business schools that are accredited by AACSB including the London Business School, University of Pennsylvania, Harvard University, Yale University, Columbia University, Warwick Business School, and the University of Toronto.
Source: UPM Media|1 Aug 2012
