Gold medal for UPM don

A scientist from Universiti Putra Malaysia (UPM) won the gold medal in the 37th International Exhibition of Inventions New Techniques and Products Geneva (INTPG) recently.

Assoc Prof Dr Sa’ari Mustapha ousted all other competitors with his winning creation named New Prospective Polyurethane Clay Nanocomposites for Fire Retardant.

The product was designed to delay the spread of fire in a building using nanocomposites polyeutherene derived from sesame oil.

The scientist also won a silver medal for his research entitled Application of a Newly Synthesised Poly (Nipam) by Electron Beam Irradiation for Affinity Precipitation of Valuable Enzyme. Another lecturer, Prof Dr Jamilah Bakar of the Food Technology and Food Science Faculty, won a silver medal for her product Halal Collagen from Freshwater Fish Skins.

She said that research to produce halal collagen products from the skins of freshwater fishes is increasing as ingredients in formulation, food processing, pharmaceuticals and the cosmetics industry.

Assoc Prof Dr Siti Nor Akmar Abdullah won a bronze medal with her product Leaf-Specific Promoter from Oil Palm for Driving Leaf-specific Expression in Transgenic Plants which deals with manipulation of oil palm leaves for the production of high value-added products.