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Unilever Research Prize for Wageningen Master’s Student
Wageningen student Yuaxu (Yuuko) Xue is one of this year’s winners of the annual Unilever Research Prizes. Yuuko received the prestigious prize for her master’s thesis in which she developed self-learning and deep learning models for predicting the properties of gilthead sea bream. Thanks to the use of algorithms, the fish will no longer be hurt during research.
Yuuko was awarded the prize, which included an amount of €2,500, on Thursday 26 November. The Wageningen winner, who has now completed her Animal Sciences study programme, told Resource that she did not know that she had been nominated: “I received an email that said that I’d won and I thought: ‘They’ve made a mistake.’ Seeing as my name is often misspelled, this seemed to be the most logical explanation.”
High-quality thesis
Each year, thirteen Dutch university students are nominated for the award. Yuuko was nominated from Wageningen University & Research (WUR) by a five-member jury consisting of Arnold Bregt (chairman), Tiny van Boekel, Mirjam Kabel, Menno Kasteleijn and Nynke Post Uiterweer (secretary). According to the explanation given in the recommendation letter, the jury chose Yuuko’s thesis “because her work is a major step towards ‘automated phenotyping’ in aquaculture.” The jury went on to say that “the thesis is of high quality, clear and is original from both a methodological and conceptual perspective.”
Contribution to SDGs
Each year, Unilever asks Dutch universities to nominate their best candidate, who is a student whose graduation thesis has contributed to one or more of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). The aim of these SDGs is to contribute to solving some of today’s major problems, such as poverty, hunger, responsible consumption & production and the negative effects of climate change.
Everyone can contribute to less food waste
This year, the November ceremony’s festive programme had to be broadcast via a live stream. A number of speakers made sure that the content of the ceremony was authentic. One of them was Sanne Stroosnijder, who is the programme manager of Food Loss & Waste Prevention at WUR. In her presentation via the live stream, she emphasized how everyone can contribute to minimising food waste and spillage:
"On a global scale, around one third of all food is lost or wasted between the farm and the plate. This waste accounts for one quarter of all water used in agriculture each year and requires a land mass greater than the size of China, contributing to loss of ecosystems and biodiversity. Food loss and waste accounts for approximately 8% of annual greenhouse gas emissions and costs the global economy approximately $940 billion. A challenge of this magnitude and complexity requires a food systems approach that involves bold actions and brilliant solutions. On the bright side: every single one of us can make a difference. I will highlight how you can make the necessary changes happen."