Faculty of Biology UGM welcomed back two of its lecturers who have just completed their doctoral studies abroad, they are drs. Hari Purwanto, M.P., Ph.D., and Dr. Miftahul Ilmi, S.Si., M.Sc.
After getting welcomed at the Auditorium of Faculty of Biology UGM by Dean, Vice-Deans, and other lecturers, both presented their research outcomes from their doctoral studies.
Hari Purwanto who studied at Cardiff University, UK, did research on disease vector controls studies that are caused by insects, such as mosquito, moth, pest, etc. He focused on vector biocontrol, which is bacteria that can cause toxin in insects, especially in species of Lysinibacillus sphaericus.
"Disease vector controls is still more dominant by using chemical compounds, which is actually more expensive and may cause environmental damage. Alternatives to this issue include using organism that can disrupt the metabolism of insects that can be pests or disease vector,” said Hari Purwanto.
The organism that can be inhibiting agent is known as biocontrol organism, which can also be used as biopesticides. Meanwhile, Lysinibacillus sphaericus has the capacity to produce toxin compounds that are specific to some mosquitoes.
"My research tried to do mapping of the genes having the role to produce toxin and to learn the toxin mechanism," he said.
Meanwhile, Dr. Miftahul Ilmi, S.Si., M.Si., has graduated from Faculty of Science and Engineering, University of Groningen, the Netherlands. He made research themed “Enzymatic Biodiesel Synthesis Using Novel Process Intensification Principles”.
"This research is part of the project between the Indonesian government and Dutch institutions, to respond to world energy challenge through renewable energy development from biodiesel," he said.
Miftahul Ilmi tried to increase the efficiency effort of biofuel processing using lipase enzyme in a reactor, Continuous Centrifugal Contractor Separator (CCCS), in Groningen. Adopting zero waste technology, Miftahul Ilmi also tried to process waste of biodiesel extraction process to become the media to produce lipase enzyme from fungi.
"Waste from plant that is used in the making of biodiesel can also be used as fungi growing media to produce lipases. This research can be applied to be “Mobile Biodiesel Production Unit” to facilitate biodiesel production from natural materials that are abound in Indonesia,” he said.