The University of the Philippines Los Baños (UPLB) secured the 3rd Best Paper award at the recently concluded 23rd International Students Summit (ISS) on Food, Agriculture, and Environment, held from July 31 to August 3 at the Tokyo University of Agriculture in Tokyo, Japan.

Mr. Jeanne Loise Pempena, a BS Agriculture and Biotechnology student majoring in Animal Biotechnology, bagged the award. He presented his paper titled “Youth-Based Recommendations for Upcycling Community Food Wastes into Sustainable Agricultural Inputs.”

This paper was co-authored with his academic supervisor, Prof. Percival P. Sangel from the Institute of Animal Science at the College of Agriculture and Food Science (CAFS), and further advised by Prof. Salvador P. Catelo from the College of Economics and Management (CEM), who also serves as the ISS Advisor for UPLB and Chairman of the 2024 ISS International Advisors Committee.

The ISS is a student-centered conference that emphasizes student-led initiatives addressing the challenges faced by their respective communities. Since its inception in 2001, the ISS has been an annual event where students from around the world gather at Tokyo University of Agriculture (Tokyo NODAI) to present and discuss their actions in the fields of food, agriculture, and environment. (MDCVelasco)