MARS Africa sponsored a number of SA Food Science and Technology students to attend IUFoST. Roxanne Rolando caught up with a few after their experience and these were their impressions of this world class food congress.
Ennet Moholisa, Second year MSC Agric, University of Free State
I visited the exhibition and I met and spoke with various recruiting agents to find out more about potential employers and what they want. Many presentations inspired me with new ideas and the plenary sessions gave me the confidence to present in front of a large audience. I felt much more integrated with both people from academia and business people from industry and learned that the two cannot be separated. I also attended the student leadership workshop and Wiley-Blackwell Workshop where I learnt the whole process of publishing and how to get published in international journals. Attending IUFoST 2010 helped me to enlarge my network and I have learnt that research doesn’t end at university.
Joseph Anyango, Doctoral student, University of Pretoria
The congress was truly global in terms of the topics covered and representation. It was noteworthy to see food scientists throughout the world gathering to discuss a common agenda on food. It was encouraging to listen to and read about solutions that fellow food scientists and/or technologists have lined up as arsenals to stem food insecurity, food safety and environmental degradation. I had the opportunity of meeting a number of experienced scientists in my area of interest, among them Peter Belton, (University of East Anglia, UK), and Bruce Hamaker (Purdue University, USA). I was also able get sneak peeks at current studies my peers are doing, which is important to avoid expensive redundant research. I liked the emphasis on partnerships between industry and academic/research institutions. The conference was informative and will greatly contribute to my research. I like doing research. In the future I see myself being in an academic environment to disseminate knowledge or a research institute to pursue novel solutions for global food, health and environment problems.
Nokuthula Shongwe, University of Free State
It was such a great honour to be chosen to be part of the 15th World Congress of IUFost. I had the opportunity of meeting with senior world food science technologists, colleagues from different learning institutes around the world and international company representatives. There was a lot of information about the industry that was shared through the presentations as well as the social events. I also had an opportunity to showcase the research I’ve done in a form of a poster presentation. I got an opportunity to network and be exposed to other possible fields in the food world.
Sithuli Mbeje, final year Food Technology, Durban University of Technology
The IUFoST congress was a real eye opener in terms of what the food industry has to offer especially helping to answer: Where do I want to end up as a young and developing food scientist/technologist? I got a chance to meet students from around the world who share the same passion as me. It helped to expand my view in terms of solutions for the projects I'm working on and also to explore new technologies. One of the other highlights of the congress was the leadership course which I attended where I learnt things like the difference between a manager and a leader: ‘A manager does the right things and a leader does things right’. I am doing my Work Integrated Learning (WIL) at Unilever SA and in the upcoming years I see myself leading a research and development centre for a leading company in innovation.
