SEAMEO BIOTROP recently awarded thesis support grants for 2011 to six PhD Indonesian students through the DIPA fund from the Government of Indonesia.

In general, the awarding of thesis research grants aims to increase the number of qualified human resources in higher learning institutions and government agencies where the grantees are affiliated with the expectation that they would contribute to the development of Indonesia in the area of tropical biology and natural resources management. 

The specific objectives are as follows:

1. To  produce quality research outputs related to tropical biology that would have direct application to address development concerns of Indonesia;
2. To provide PhD students the opportunity to work and be mentored by SEAMEO BIOTROP scientists on specific research areas that are mutually of interest to the them, their institutions, and the Centre;
3. To maximize the use of facilities and equipments available at SEAMEO BIOTROP for the grantees’ research; and
4. To produce quality research papers for publication.

The grantees and their respective home institutions and research topics are as follows:

1. Mr.  A.E. Zainal Hasan
   Home Institution:  Institut Pertanian Bogor
   Topic: Nano propolis (Trigona spp) as Anti Cancer Materials

2. Ms. Arida Sulisowati
   Home Institution:  Institut Pertanian Bogor
   Topic: Vegetative Propagation, Genetic Analysis and Wood Anatomy of Leaked Resin Pinus Candidates to Produce Good Quality and Sufficient Quantity of Resin

3. Ms. Rima Herlina Setiawati Siburian
   Home Institution:  State University of Papua
   Topic:  Expression of Responsive Genes for Fusarium sp in Agarwood Aquilaria microcarpa

4. Mr. Alfan Gunawan Ahmad
   Home Institution:  North Sumatra University
   Topic:  Selection of Drought Tolerant Pinus merkusii strain Tapanuli Using Microsatellite Markers as Adaptation Strategy to Climate Change

5. Mr. Syamsul B. Agus
   Home Institution:  Institut Pertanian Bogor
   Topic:  Assessment of  Seagrass Optical Properties and Resilience as Affected by Climate Change and Anthropogenic Factors in the Seribu Islands

6. Ms. Deby Arifiani
   Home Institution:  University of Indonesia
   Topic:  Phylogenetic Relationships of Endiandra (Lauraceae) inferred from ITS Sequences


Except for Ms. Arifiani who is pursuing her PhD degrees at University of Indonesia, the rest of the grantees are graduate students at the Institut Pertanian Bogor.

The grantees are expected to finish their respective researches in November 2011 and have their defense in December 2011 to earn their degrees.