December 1, 2023: award for oral presentation: our sandwich-doctoral researcher Carlos Girao won third prize during this year’s Quebec Bioeconomy Challenge

Today, we learned that yesterday, Carlos Girao from the Federal University of Ceará in Brazil, who had spent six months with us during his ongoing PhD earlier this year, was awarded third place for oral presentations during the 6th Student Symposium by CRIBIQ (Consortium de recherche et innovations en bioprocédés industriels au Québec) on "The Quebec Bioeconomy: Challenges, Stakes and Solutions for a Sustainable Future'', held in Victoriaville, Canada. The aim of this event was to bring together students from a wide range of Quebec public research institutes, researchers, and industry representatives to discuss the themes of bioproducts, the environment, as well as the biofood sector, and to highlight the opportunities and challenges involved in developing bioprocesses in Quebec. He had been invited to present his work on "Biopesticide potential of terpenic esters enzymatically synthesized by lipase B from Candida antarctica immobilized on magnetic cashew apple bagasse lignin" by Prof. Antonio Ramirez from the National Center in Environmental Technology and Electrochemistry (CNETE) in Shawinigan, Quebec, an expert in catalytic processes and process engineering. Carlos had developed the immobilized enzymes and used them for the production of the terpenic esters in Brazil, then visited us to explore their potential as biopesticides for sustainable agriculture. During his stay in Münster, he was supervised by Dr. Carolin Richter from our group. This was Carlos' first time giving an oral presentation in a conference and already, he won an award! Congratulations and big thanks to you, Carlos! This is an excellent stepping stone towards successfully defending your PhD soon.