Indigenous America to indigenous Borneo programme

The 2016 one-month “Indigenous America to Indigenous Borneo Programme” was run from 24 May to 24 June 2016. Integrated into a cultural programme of participating Gawai Dayak Festival in the Iban and Bidayuh Community and a Buka Puasa event, the project was on identifying and characterizing bamboo fungi and their enzymes as potential degraders of bamboo lignin for biodiesel production. Two undergraduate students, Koralis Reyes and Barbara Rodriquez from Puerto Rico jointly conducted the first phase of the projects with two Masters students, Seraphina anak Dominic Gisong and Ayu Zurainah from the Faculty of Plantation and Agrotechnology. These students were under the supervision of Associate Professor Dr. Margaret Chan assisted by Mr. Sulaiman Man and Assistant Professor Dr. Michael Ceballos from the University of Minnesota-Morris, USA.