The Undergraduate Environmental Health Study Program at Universitas Dian Nuswantoro (Udinus) introduced the students to Entomology competence and the world of Biotechnology, two branches of biological science that cover the genetic engineering of microorganisms and insects.
The event featured two competent speakers, one of those speakers was AKBP Bowo Nurcahyo S.Si, M. Biotech served as the Head of the Narcotics Forensics Sector from the Central Java Police Department. The other speaker was the Leader of Assaphami Semarang, Tribowo Lukito, SE. The topics of that event revolved around Biotechnology and DNA. Both of those topics are knowledge that may be relevant to the advancement of life sciences.
On that occasion, AKBP Bowo Nurcahyo S.Si, M.Biotech explained that Biotechnology is all about utilizing biological agents which were used and engineered so that humans could achieve their goals. One of the benefits of Biotechnology was environmental improvement. Nowadays, Biotechnology is used in many sectors or fields, particularly in the forensics sector.
“Biotechnology is utilized for many forensics purposes, such as blood retrieval and examination, fingerprint checking, and even DNA analyzing. The police department always relies on Biotechnology to identify victims. It has truly been a helpful technology to mankind,” he said.
The head of the Environmental Health Study Program at Udinus, Dr. Drs. Slamet Isworo M. Kes shared that the Environmental Health Major had a plan to identify remediation processes involving particular organisms at the moment. That was a step to improve the environment. Therefore, the students should be provided with related knowledge.
The students were given a lecture about Biotechnology and Entomology in the form of a public lecture that took place on the 3rd floor of E Building Udinus, Semarang. The lecture was attended by hundreds of students from the Faculty of Health Science at Udinus.
“Molecular Genetics is essential to improve the environment with the help of microorganisms. Identifying the bacteria types may help the management to be more effective,” he said.
In his interview session, Slamet explained that practitioners from the related sector were crucial to developing Entomology within the Environmental Health Major at Udinus. That would later turn into a collaboration with Indonesian Pest Control Companies Association (Asosiasi Perusahaan Pengendalian Hama Indonesia, Assphami), an active organization in the Entomology sector. He hoped that the collaboration might improve the students’ opportunities to gain knowledge.
“Having practitioners from the private sector is important. Otherwise, the regulations would be more difficult as the practitioners become more developed,” Slamet said. (Humas Udinus/Ika. Foto: Humas Udinus)
