The Seafood Industry Research Fund (SIRF) is always happy to see its research grant recipients thriving in the field. Dr. Kevin E. Mis Solval, a recent grant recipient, and his team recently presented preliminary findings at the July Institute of Food Technologists (IFT) conference in Chicago.
Mis Solval and his graduate research assistant, Joinul Islam, have been working on bioplastic production from seafood byproducts. Their aim is to determine the feasibility of producing sustainable bioplastics from underutilized collagen-rich and chitin-rich seafood by-products from shrimp, catfish, and jellyfish.
Presenting at IFT allowed them to introduce their methods and results in a succinct poster and connect with industry members.
“For me, [it’s about] going out there, getting in contact with the general public, with our funding agencies, reaching out to my scientific community and kind of spreading this new knowledge that we have generated,” Mis Solval said. “Going to IFT is one of the platforms that allows me to do that.”
There are still goals Mis Solval is working toward in the study. Presenting at IFT helped lead these next steps.
“The idea was to engage with other scientists at the conference to gather ideas like how we can improve the quality of these bioplastics, how we can improve mechanical properties, thermal properties, and the degradation properties of these materials,” Mis Solval said. “By doing that, we also wanted to identify what would be the best applications for this type of biomaterials that we are developing.”
It will be exciting to continue to watch where Mis Solval and his team go next!
By Maia LeClair, SIRF Intern