IULTCS announces research grant winners
The International Union of Leather Technologists and Chemists Societies (IULTCS) has named Hon Wei Ng, a research assistant the New Zealand Leather and Shoe Research Association (LASRA) as the winner of its Young Leather Scientist Grant for basic research for 2021.
Mr Ng won the prize of €1,500 for a project entitled ‘Study on Molecular Level Collagen Structure Changes of Enzymatic Depilation Using X-Ray Scattering’. This project has as its main objective evaluating the performance of a novel environmental isolate for enzymatic depilation of hides.
At the same time, IULTCS announced that Caroline Borges Agustini from the Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul (UFRGS) in Porto Alegre, Brazil, is the winner of the Young Leather Scientist Grant for sustainability, sponsored by Leather Naturally. She wins €1,000.
Ms Agustini’s winning project has the title ‘Hydrocarbon Release During the Biodegradation of Solid Waste from Tanneries’. It involves investigating the best methods for using tannery waste to generate biogas.
The chair of the selection committee, Dr Michael Meyer, said both project proposals showed a high level of technical knowledge and demonstrated the competitiveness of research activity in the leather industry.
