National Pingtung University of Science and Technology (NPUST) professor Winton Cheng has been named one of this year’s Top Ten Outstanding Agriculturalists.
As a professor Department of Aquaculture, Winton Cheng conducts research and education on a variety of highly beneficial aquaculture techniques and practices. Some of his focuses include aquatic environments and ecosystem conservation, environments for shrimp cultivation, use of bio-waste for the development of aquatic animal health supplements, and the use of probiotics separated from fermented products as physiological immunomodulators and aquaculture water conditioners. He has created smart technology cultivation systems and other leading technologies that have been very beneficial to fish cultivators. On account of these and the many other contributions he has made, this year Professor Winton Cheng was named among the winners of the prestigious Top 10 Outstanding Agriculturalists Awards.
Professor Cheng is an alumnus of NPUST. After graduating from his studies and completing his military service, he returned to his Alma Mater to provide services while simultaneously studying a PhD at National Taiwan University. He has been conducting research for over 35 years and had fruitful results. His research and development contributions are detailed in the 100 plus papers that he has had published in international journals over his career thus far. He also holds 10 Taiwan patents and has successfully completed 10 technology transfers through industry-academic cooperation projects.
During his time spent serving as the director of his department, Professor Cheng completed many national “firsts”, including establishing the first undergrad through PhD aquaculture program at a technical university, establishing the first aquaculture technology practice farm in the country as well as the first industry-level aquaculture practice farm. At the same time, he established an inter-school academic exchange and industry-academia cooperation hub that trains many aquaculture professionals, managers and researchers every year. He also helped the United Nations conduct an assessment of aquaculture development in Chad, Gambia, Burkina Faso, Indonesia, and Malaysia, thereby also providing an important basis for Taiwan’s foreign relations.
Professor Cheng provided some comments on his work, pointing out that when it comes to questions of food safety, reducing over-use of antibiotics in fish and shrimp cultivation is very important. This is why he has been working on solutions that make use of agricultural biological waste, such as extracted materials from kelp, water hyacinth, banana peels and cocoa pods, in the creation of aquatic animal health care agents. He is also using specific probiotics separated from fermented products for physiological immunomodulators and aquaculture water conditioners. He said that based on the related experiments, it is evident that the methods are beneficial for the physiological and immunological conditions of the aquatic life and can help reduce improper use of antibodies.
NPUST President Chang-Hsien Tai expressed that Professor Cheng’s academics were superb and that he is a very outstanding professional in his field who is using concepts of circular economies in his research and producing results that are closely connected to industry. He is also helping to improve fish heath and consumer safety. Through his classroom work Professor Cheng is transmitting valuable know-how to many other people and in the business world he has made many contributions which are helping improve practices. These are all reasons why he was chosen to be one of the Top Ten Agriculturalists.