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Norwegian University fellow’s yeast feed research wins Nutreco’s top prize

Agboola Jeleel Opeyemi was crown this year’s winner of Nutreco’s Young Researchers’ Prize for his research, “Can fish grow on trees? Yeast as future feed ingredient.”

Opeyemi is a research fellow of Animal and Aquacultural Science at the Norwegian University of Life Sciences studying the nutritional potential of yeasts produced from wood sugars as sustainable fish feeds. He was presented with a cheque for €12,000 (about US$11,675) as first prize.

Nutreco’s Young Researchers’ Prize challenged PhD students and first- and second-year post-doctorate researchers to put forward innovative ideas that could contribute to Nutreco’s overarching purpose of Feeding the Future. This year, the program received 37 applications from around the world.

“Having my research recognised in such a way reassures me that I’m making a proactive and meaningful contribution towards feeding our growing population more sustainably,” said Opeyami during an awards ceremony on Oct. 11 in Amsterdam. “I’m looking forward to using the prize money to further my aquaculture research as well as dedicating some time to my own personal and professional development.”

The second-place cash prize of €8,000 (about US$ 7,780) was given to Chiara Guidi from the University of Ghent, Belgium for her research tackling anti-microbial resistance through production and use of Chitooligosaccharides that target pathogens in the guts of weaning piglets, improving their immunity and growth, whilst preventing illness and reducing the need for antibiotics.

The third-place winner is Giulio Giagnoni from Aarhus University in Denmark. He received €5,000 (about US$4,864) for his research project on identifying climate-efficient phenotypes of dairy cows and reduce methane emissions by amending their diets.

Group photo with the 2022 winners of Nutreco’s Young Researchers’ Prize. (Photo: Nutreco)