U.S. Ambassador Speaks at IPB Talk Special
The Excellency U.S. Ambassador—Joseph R Donovan Jr., visited Indonesia for the commemoration of 70 years of Indonesia–US diplomatic cooperation on July 8th, 2019 at SEAFAST (Southeast Asian Food and Agricultural Science and Technology) Center, IPB Darmaga Campus, Bogor. Ambassador Donovan was invited as Speaker at The IPB Talk on Complexity and Sustainability Sciences “Special Edition”, welcomed directly by Rector of IPB University—Dr. Arif Satria. In his remarks, Joseph explained that SEAFAST Center was among numerous examples of the cooperation realization between Indonesia and U.S. All parties expressed a massive hope that the existing collaboration may strive and expand further, especially in the efforts of Indonesia to face challenges of industrial era 4.0. Moreover, according to Program Manager of SEAFAST Center—Prof. Lilis Nuraida, SEAFAST Center focuses on improving food quality, nutrition, and security through science and technology. For this reason, SEAFAST Center is actively seeking partnerships and cooperation with many national, regional, and international institutions. Internationally, SEAFAST Center also possess strong relationships with leading universities and other food-related institutions throughout the world, notably Asia, Europe and North America. Dr. Arif mentioned IPB University’s serious concerns on establishing international collaborations since by far there are not less than 174 Memorandum of Agreements with international partners. Another prestigious, current agenda happening between U.S. and IPB University is newly-initiated research collaboration between 11 top tier Indonesian universities and Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) on some selected fields. Other speakers were from Michigan State University—Prof. Karim Maredia who brought up general lecture on “Biosafety issues related to biotechnology”, whereas Dr. Hashini G. Dissanayake lectured on “Sustainable socio-economic aspects of biotechnology”. During this occasion, the opening of Summer Course between IPB Department of Agroindustrial Engineering—represented by Prof. Suprihatin, Head of Department and Villanova University (U.S.)—represented by Assoc. Prof. Justinus Satrio, was launched as well. More than twenty participants from U.S., Malaysia, Thailand, Lebanon and Indonesia attended this summer course. It is the first summer course designed by Villanova University within the scope of Indonesian and U.S. cooperation. In course of six weeks, students learnt stages of fabricating clove essential oils from extraction until oil refining processes. Students continued agenda to experience cacao farming for chocolate production. Overall, this event is expected to reinforce more Indonesia–US collaborative bonds after this 70 years commemoration.
