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Walailak University’s first three Gold CB (Jor Por) Award winners conferred the honor by Her Royal Highness Princess Chulabhorn in WU Commencement Ceremony for Academic Year 2020 and 2021 


    Walailak University’s first three Gold CB (Jor Por) Award recipients have officially been conferred the honor by Her Royal Highness Princess Chulabhorn in a commencement ceremony. 

   Walailak University’s first three Gold CB (Jor Por) Award recipients have officially been conferred the honor by Her Royal Highness Princess Chulabhorn in a commencement ceremony on September 25, 2022 in the Auditorium Hall, Thaiburee Building, Walailak University.The award winners, namely Assoc. Prof. Dr. Manat Chaijan, Assoc. Prof. Dr. Worawan Panpipat, and Assoc. Prof. Dr. Manas Kotepui, known for research endeavors and contributions to the fields of Food Science and Public Health through high impact Quartile 1 journals publications, had been announced earlier in May 2022 and received congratulation flowers from Professor Dr. Sombat Thamrongthanyawong, Acting President of Walailak University. 


    The Gold CB (Jor Por) Award, the abbreviation of the name of Princess Chulabhorn Walailak, which is placed under a coronet at the center of the University Emblem, was instituted in 2021 as a mark of exceptional research caliber. To be granted Gold CB Award, candidates must present academic endeavors thorough academic publications of Quartile 1 full researcher articles and Review articles. The works must not be published earlier than January 2022 and candidates are required to submit 10 pieces as First Author or Corresponding Author.   Following the submission, candidates are subject to a rigorous selection process involving four major committees. Upon approval, an official announcement of the award winners will be made in the Walailak University Council meeting.


    Being recognized with such prestige, Assoc. Prof. Dr. Manat Chaijan, Assoc. Prof. Dr. Worawan Panpipat, and Assoc. Prof. Dr. Manas Kotepui asserted their motivation to further contribute to Walailak University’s research community in consistency with the university’s progress as a Global and Frontier Research university according to the initiative of the Ministry of Higher Education, Science, Research and Innovation. 


Assoc. Prof. Dr. Manat Chaijan: One of WU’s Top 2% Stanford University-listed Food Scientists 


      Assoc. Prof. Dr. Manat Chaijan, Lecturer of School of Agricultural Technology and Food Industry and a food scientist listed as the world’s Top 2 Percent Scientist by Stanford University in 2021, pursues his research in food security, seafood development in particular. The publications submitted for Gold CB Award are predicated on the production of Surimi – a paste made from fish or other meat, playing a pivotal role in ensuring sources of protein for industrial demands as well as food security. 


     “The daily food item made from Surimi you can relate to is Crab sticks or fish balls in a fresh market,” said Assoc. Prof. Dr. Manat. 
Assoc. Prof. Dr. Manat’s particular focus is the process of Surimi making from one solidly relying on white fish meat, becoming lesser and harder to come by, to one easier and more sustainable using dark fish meat or other untypical Surimi-fish choices feasible using a PH Shift method.  


    “Simply put, this technological advance untightens the tiny components conducive to the meat’s quality including its odor, color, fishiness, and other unwanted attributes, leaving behind the white clean meat to be further processed into Surimi,” explained Assoc. Prof. Dr. Manat. He reiterated that this food scientific advance can sustainably provide a wider range of viable raw materials which can serve as a more economical option for protein production. 


     Assoc. Prof. Dr. Manat emphasizes the role of a food scientist in manufacturing alternative food choices taking advantage of technological progress to make what we were once inedible edible or even commercially valuable, and shifting our mindset to ensure food security.

Click on the link below to access bio scholar of Assoc. Prof. Dr. Manat Chaijan
https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=gOEeIMAAAAAJ&hl=en&oi=ao

Assoc. Prof. Dr. Worawan Panpipat: Food Scientist  


      Assoc. Prof. Dr. Warawan Panpipat, Lecturer of the School of Food Science, refers to herself as a food scientist focusing on the development of functional ingredients – foods whose quality scale and depth exceed those of the fundamental properties i.e., carbohydrates, protein, etc. The ultimate purpose of her publications is to ensure food security, however, by adding more value to alternative food options, one of which registered for a patent involves the development of a food formula nurturing farm-raised sago palm weevil larvae to embody oil rich in promising nutrients.  


    According to Assoc. Prof. Dr. Worawan, the search for an empowering food formula starts with the fact that farm-raised sago palm weevil larvae – being local delicacy as it is – is full of oil, however, lacking nutritional values and are plump with unwholesome oil. Considering both the amount of oil contained in one larva and its commercial potential as supplementary, Assoc. Prof. Dr. Worawan developed the larvae food constituting two things, 1) fattening up farm-raised sago palm weevil larvae and 2) generating 9 promising nutrients, and Omega 3 and Omega 6. 


    “Besides appealing to the industrial manufacture of supplementary food, the food formula also consistently nurtures the larvae into scrumptious ones which the farmers can sell at a good price,” said Assoc. Prof. Dr. Warawan. Currently, the formula developed is being registered for a patent, which shall be followed by broader knowledge dissemination. 


     Assoc. Prof. Dr. Worawan’s publications address diverse aspects of development of food’s functional ingredients such as Techno-biofunctionality of mangostin extract-loaded virgin coconut oil nanoemulsion and nanoemulgel, mechanism of oxidation in foods of animal origin and preservation of different types of foods i.e., preservation of chilled Asian sea bass, Gel properties of croaker–mackerel surimi blend. 

Click on the link below to access bio scholar of Assoc. Prof. Dr. Worawan Panpipat
 https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=16jXbaoAAAAJ&hl=en&oi=ao


Assoc. Prof. Dr. Manas Kotepui: Tropical Disease Analyst

     Assoc. Prof. Dr. Manas Kotepui, Lecturer of the School of Allied Health Sciences, Walailak University, has long interest in tropical diseases, particularly malaria since his Ph.D. He has published over several papers on meta-analysis involving malaria co-infections, alterations of cytokines in malaria pathogenesis, laboratory alterations during malaria infection, and investigations of candidate prognostic biomarkers for severe malaria. His research helps to project the epidemiological trends, and the prevalence of the diseases and address information gaps in response to the issues. 


     “While others’ focal point of the study is directed towards tackling malaria at the forefront, mine is predicated on constructing the archive of comprehensive data on malaria which has been collected, analyzed, and synthesized. After that, fellow professionals can put the data to practice as needed. It is all about filling the knowledge gaps bit by bit,” said Assoc. Prof. Dr. Manas. 


       Strengths of Assoc. Prof. Dr. Manas’s nature of every day’s work is the process of gathering valid facts from scholars in the fields, analyzing, synthesizing, and narrating the saturated knowledge, making a comprehensive archive for other malaria experts. Thailand’s study trajectory, as explained by Assoc. Prof. Dr. Manas, has been curving towards monkey malaria being transmitted to humans. This is the issue that Thailand’s Ministry of Public health is getting to the bottom of. Assoc. Prof. Dr. Manas’s next step is to seek international collaboration with experts in the field of Parasitology in ICOPAnhagen in Copenhagen, Denmark from 21-26 August 2022. This congress is the fifteenth in the series of International Congresses of Parasitology organized by the World Federation of Parasitologists (WFP).


      Over 2,000 participants across the world are expected and speakers publishing research studies in high-impact ranking journals are invited to share knowledge with fellows and those interested in parasitology. Assoc. Prof. Dr. Manas, as the only speaker invited from Thailand in 2022, will be giving a presentation on “Coinfections in malaria".


Click on the link below to access bio scholar of Assoc. Prof. Dr. Manas Kotepui
https://scholar.google.com/citations?hl=en&user=AhFegmEAAAAJ

      Walailak University places unparalleled importance on quality research application as emphasized by Professor Dr. Sombat in alignment with the university’s vision.  Regarding the university’s dedication to pushing research frontiers across disciplines, Walailak University has achieved over 77% of quality Q1 and Q2 research publications in Scopus-indexed journals, among the top 3 in Thailand. Professor Dr. Sombat reiterated the path Walailak has embarked itself on and its future direction.
   

“We will never stop to reinvent Walailak University to be recognized far and beyond as one of the stars among global and frontier research universities.” 

 

News by Nootchanat Sukkaew 

Division of Corporate Communication

Three Walailak University’s Gold CB Award Winners 2022 Officially Celebrating WU's Highest Research Excellence Recognition 
 


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