Saludes from the Philippines among the new graduates of the Nagoya University Asian Satellite Campuses Institute

Los Baños, Laguna---  Dr. Thelma Almendral Saludes, Senior Science Research Specialist  and Officer-in-Charge of the Philippine Carabao Center (PCC) branch at the University of the Philippines Los Baños (UPLB) was among the five doctoral students from three Graduate Schools of Nagoya University (NU) who graduated in a virtual ceremony held on 27 September 2021. Dr. Saludes pursued her doctorate degree in Agriculture Science under the hybrid program called Nagoya University Transnational Doctoral Programs for Leading Professionals in Asian Countries implemented through the NU Asian Satellite Campus-Philippines based at UPLB Graduate School.   

Congratulatory messages were delivered by Prof. Akira Fujimaki, Vice President for Education and Overseas Students, Prof. Kazuhito Kawakita, Vice President for Internnational Affairs, Planning, Evaluation and Institutional Research, Prof. Akira Yamauchi, Director of NU Asian Satellite Campuses Institute; Prof. Satoru Tsuchikawa, Dean of Graduate School of Bioagricultural Sciences, Prof. Nobuyuki Hamajima, Designated Professor of Graduate School of Medicine, and Prof. Aya Okada, Dean, Graduate School of International Development.

The virtual graduation ceremony was preceded by the presentation of research outputs of the graduates from three NU graduate schools, namely: Bioagricultural Sciences, Medicine, and International Development based in the different NU satellite campuses located in the Philippines, Laos and Cambodia.

Dr. Saludes conducted her doctoral research project titled, “Developing Smallholder Dairy Buffalo Farm Productivity through Improvement of Nutrition, Body Condition, and Milk Production in South Luzon, Philippines.”  The project was composed of four studies:  1)Bayesian Analysis of Factors Influencing Productivity of Smallholder Dairy Buffalo Farmers in South Luzon, Philippines, 2) The Relationship of Body Condition Scores to Milk Production in Dairy Buffaloes in PCC at UPLB; 3) Effect of Fertilizatin on Dry Matter Yield, Nutrition Composition, and In Sacco Degradation of Sweet Sorghum (Sorghum bicolor (L.)Moench and Mombasa Guinea Grass (Panicum maximum Jacq. Cv. ‘Mombasa’, and 4) Comparative Effects of Feeding Mombasa Guinea Grass and Sweet Sorghum to Buffalo Milk Yield and Composition.

Funds for Dr. Saludes’ scholarship and research project were provided by Nagoya University, the Southeast Asian Regional Center for Graduate Study and Research in Agriculture (SEARCA), and Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA). 

Dr. Saludes was supervised by Dr. Hironobu Takeshita, Chief Academic Adviser at Nagoya University, Dr. Jose Arceo N. Bautista of UPLB Dairy Training and Research Institute; and Dr. Arnel Del Barrio, UPLB professor and former executive director of PCC. 


                       Dr. Thelma Almendral Saludes
 
-article contributed by Editha C. Cedicol