The Seafood Industry Research Fund is celebrating the winners of the student competitions at the 76th Pacific Fisheries Technologists Annual Conference. The 2026 PFT conference was held in San Pedro, California from Feb. 22 through Feb. 25. The PFT supports the study and advancement of fisheries technology and products created using fishery resources. The conference included one oral and one presentation contest for students to submit their research.
For the oral competition, Celina Garcia from Chapman University was awarded first place for her research titled, “Comparison of DNA Barcoding Approaches to Identify Rockfish (Sebastes spp.) on the Commercial Market.” Garcia studied different mitochondrial gene regions’ effectiveness in identifying rockfish sold in the United States.
Hector Trujillo Ruiz from the University of Sonora won second place for his work titled, “Enhancement of the antiproliferative effect of docetaxel by carotenoids from the by-products of the white shrimp (Penaeus vannamei) in prostate cancer cells.” His study examined the ability of white shrimp byproducts to be used as aids to an anticancer drug.
Two more students from Chapman University took home the top prizes for the poster contest. Gary Maloncon won first place for his work titled, “UVC Inactivation of Listeria monocytogenes in Salmon Juice on Food Contact Surfaces using the Contamination Sanitation Inspection and Disinfection (CSI-D+) Device.” Maloncon’s poster featured his research into the device’s disinfection module on a pathogen that causes foodborne illnesses.
Grace Cho came in second place for her work titled, “Optimization of DNA Extraction for Tuna Species Identification.” Cho researched the effects of decreasing DNA extraction times to increase the accuracy of species identification in canned tuna.
SIRF would like to congratulate all student honorees on their hard work and contributions to the seafood industry.
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