Jess was a Canadian masters student at the University of Hohenheim, and has completed her master's degree in agriculture in the tropics and subtropics. Currently, she lives in Stuttgart far from her home, Ontario, Canada where she fell in love with the "warm" weather.

Her interest in agriculture started really early, with her growing up on a farm in Lindsay, Ontario. And after completing her bachelor’s degree in environmental science, paired with a passion for helping others and interest in rural development, she knew what she wanted to do: sustainable tropical agriculture. She is currently searching for opportunities post-MSc and is super excited for the future.

This year Jess is both the editor of the Tropentag 2019 team and the team captain. This last comes naturally for her, since she already has experience from her last year, and is looking forward to collaborating with a new, diverse and fun group of people to promote Tropentag to the world.

Meet Sam Oladokun, the young scientist from Nigeria who is changing the way we produce animal protein.


Animal production has been pointed out as the great villain for the environment. If on one hand, reducing meat consumption would decrease GHG emissions, on the other hand changing food habits and dealing with lack of protein are still a challenge.

In the climate change and food insecurity context, finding a way to produce sustainable meat seems to be a better transitional option. The increasing demand, especially from the European market, proves that this can be a way for the future. That is why Sam, as an animal science researcher, is looking for more natural and sustainable ways to produce protein, more specifically from chicken.

If an animal is treated with antibiotics for a prolonged time period, it will get create antibiotic resistance and the required doses of antibiotic will be higher every time. However, if they are treated with "good microbes" (probiotics) the use of antibiotics will decrease, and the products will be a more natural and healthy protein to consume.

And how has he discovered this?

Here three winners of Fiat Panis Award giving their recommendations to who is going to start a PhD study.