Universiti Malaya Researchers Interns for Identification of Mealybugs

A research team from the Faculty of Science, Universiti Malaya (UM), conducted a visit to identify mealybugs at the Plant Protection Laboratory, Faculty of Agriculture, UNIB. This program is packaged in the form of SABBATICAL LEAVE and will last nine months. This activity is also a return visit to the Collaborative Research and Student Mobility activities held by UPT KSLI UNIB last year through the Implementation Arrangement (IA) program. Researchers from the UM Faculty of Science, Dr. Nurul Ashikin Abdullah and her student, Elin Wong Sing Ying, will do an internship on the mealybugs Identification technique (Hemiptera: Pseudococcidae). This program aims to create joint research collaboration between the two universities with outcomes in the form of publication of journal articles and textbooks and joint completion of student final assignments.

This activity was supervised directly by Prof. Agustin Zarkani, the person in charge (PIC) at Bengkulu University. “There are several basic stages of training activities that will be provided, such as sampling techniques, slide mounting techniques and species morphology identification techniques,” he said. “The next stage will be in the form of molecular identification techniques and scientific drawings,” explained Prof. Augustine. Separately, this activity was also highly appreciated by the faculty and rector of Bengkulu University. Dean of the Faculty of Agriculture, Prof. DW Ganefianti, welcomed the presence of the researchers from UM with great enthusiasm. “The increasing presence of foreign researchers at the Faculty of Agriculture can now be an indicator of achieving the university’s vision, world class university 2025,” he said. Bravo Faperta!