Our BSF research was recently featured in a docu-series by Channel NewsAsia on climate change and circular economy. Here's the excerpt with Dr. Nalini.

Keep your eyes peeled for us on Channel NewsAsia this July! Details to be announced.

​Update 26.07.21:
​The CNA Docu-series featuring our BSF Team is now available on CNA website. See our new post BSF Featured in CNA Docu-series on closing the loop for waste for the excerpt with Dr Nalini.

Do visit Ep 2: The Circular City | Climate For Change: Closing The Loop | CNA Video On Demand - CNA (channelnewsasia.com) if you'd like to catch the full episode.

Happy 2021! Here's to successful experiments and publications for everyone in the new year.

Reprolab just held an "Introduction to Mosquitos Workshop" this week, kindly organised by our mosquito experts Hui Qing (PhD student) and Tze Xuan (UROPS student). The workshop covered the basics of mosquito research like trapping, identifying, and dissecting different species of mosquito.

Hui Qing teaching us about how to identify a mosquito

​Students from Prof He's lab and new incoming students to Reprolab all learning how to identify different species of mosquitoes.

A successful 2-day mosquito workshop! Thanks to Hui Qing and Tze Xuan for their hard work in preparing for this!

Thanks for bringing such joy to the lab, Hillary 😂 You're the best!!

For The Straits Times's Halloween special, Dr Nalini gave a sneak peek into the work being done at NUS's black soldier fly research facility.

Read the article here:
https://www.straitstimes.com/singapore/clearing-up-the-bad-reputation-of-halloweens-creepy-crawlies

Happy Halloween everyone! Stay safe when trick-or-treating!

Good job everybody for surviving 10 weeks of data science!! (Don't forget what we've learnt.)

Project description
 
Global food loss and waste has been identified by the Food and Agriculture Organization of
the United Nations (FAO) as an issue of major public concern. Around 1/3 of the world’s food goes to waste every year, and even a small country such as Singapore has had an increase of nearly 35% in food waste over the past decade. However, there is actually immense potential to upcycle this high-value food resource via insect bioconversion: Using fast-growing insects to consume food waste and produce high-value commodities.
 
Black soldier fly (BSF) larvae are able to voraciously feed on and process food waste quickly. Mature larvae and the leftover frass are also nutrient-rich, and can be processed into animal feed as well as nutrient-rich soil supplements suitable for farming. Thus, BSFs are an attractive solution for efficient organic waste management via bioconversion. BSFs could present a sustainable solution to Singapore’s crisis of food waste and security, yet there is a paucity of essential information on how we can optimize.
 
The PhD student will quantify and test bioconversion efficiency using various waste streams at NUS BSF facility. In addition, he/she/they will investigate the feasibility of industrializing BSFs in collaboration with a local industrial food waste company.
 
Requirements

• Minimum Degree in biology, environmental science or a related field
• Keen on working with and maintaining insects for research purposes. Fieldwork experience is desirable but absence is not a preclusion.
• Ability to work collaboratively in a team and communicate with people with and without a science background.
• Statistical background as well as proficiency in R programming and Python are preferred.
• Written and verbal competency in English

 
Application details
 
Apply via http://www.dbs.nus.edu.sg/education/prospective-graduate-students.html

• Deadline for application is 30th June 2020
• Applicants should be ready to start by January 2021

 
The Reproductive Evolution Lab at NUS is led by Assistant Professor Nalini Puniamoorthy.

Dr. P shared more about our lab's exciting findings on dung beetles during NTU's EOS-ASE Seminar series talk yesterday. Here's the video if you missed it!