Nov 25, 2015: The young postdoc from South Africa receives the fellowship from Alexander von Humboldt Foundation for conducting research in the field of quality assurance of fruit and vegetables. 

In the next two years Dr. Oluwafemi Caleb will continue researching in the field of postharvest quality assurance of fruit and vegetables. In particular, he will address the question of how sensor technology can be integrated in the food packagings in order to obtain early indications of spoilage of foodstuffs. The interdisciplinary challenge is to combine biochemical and food-scientific knowledge with the expertise in surface chemistry and technology. Therefore, Dr. Oluwafemi Caleb will conduct his research not only at the ATB but also at the Fraunhofer IAP in Golm. Both institutes have been cooperating for years.

Dr Oluwafemi Caleb is a qualified scientist from South Africa. He obtained his BSc Hons (Molecular techniques and Microbiology), MSc (Microbiology), PhD (Postharvest Technology and Food Science) degrees from Stellenbosch University (SU), South Africa in 2007, 2010 and 2013, respectively. His PhD research was focused on the development of mathematical models for predicting physiological responses of pomegranate fruit and the application modified atmosphere packaging (MAP) technology towards extending the postharvest quality / shelf life and maintaining microbial safety of pomegranate fruit.

Since the beginning of 2015, the young postdoc from South Africa is already researching at the ATB in the field of postharvest quality assurance of fresh produce. In 2014 he was awarded one of the coveted Leibniz-DAAD Research Fellowships.

At ATB he will be mentored by Dr. Pramod Mahajan from the Horticultural Engineering Department.

The Alexander von Humboldt Foundation grants Georg Forster Research Fellowships to carry out research projects which will contribute to the transfer of knowledge and methods and  in particular, to the further development in their home countries. The Georg Forster Research Fellowship Programme (HERMES) will be co-funded by the Marie Curie Action "Co-funding of regional, national and international programmes" (COFUND) of the European Union.

Oluwafemi Caleb has convinced the jury with his research project. Food security is one of the central problems in many African countries. Technologies that can help to minimize the loss of agricultural products are assessed as very useful. The research work of Oluwafemi Caleb targets this goal.