An Inspiring Story! Prof Aziz’s Story as IPB University’s Youngest Professor, 17 Publications in a Year
Prof Dr-Ing Aziz Boing Sitanggang, MSc, STP, a lecturer at IPB University’s Faculty of Agricultural Technology (Fateta) was officially inaugurated as a Professor in June 2023 at the age of 36 years and 9 months. This makes him the youngest professor of IPB University.
The professor, who completed his doctoral education at Technische Universitat Berlin in the field of Chemical and Process Engineering, said that the professor title he obtained was the result of the design of Prof Slamet Budijanto, who is currently the dean of Fateta IPB University as well as his mentor.
“Prof Slamet Budijanto made me realise that there was an opportunity to become a professor. He saw my potential and publications so far. Hence, becoming a professor is a path that we create, something that we prepare and must be strategised, not a red carpet that others have prepared for us,” he said.
IPB University’s youngest professor focuses his research on food process engineering, more specifically on functional food engineering. He explains that he combines a lot of his process engineering knowledge with the production process of functional food ingredients.
“Functional food is currently becoming a trend. Now, people no longer just consume food to fulfil their calorie needs, but they also want the benefits and positive impacts of the food they consume,” he explained.
Furthermore, he produces bioactive peptides, which are small protein fragments consisting of 2 to 20 amino acids and have certain functionalities for the body, for example as antioxidants, blood pressure regulating components and so on. He also emphasised that what is developed is the technology to produce the ingredient, not the functional food.
Prof Aziz Boing Sitanggang has published 52 Scopus-indexed articles. In his publications, he acts as the main author or sometimes as corresponding author. He admitted that in one year he can produce 10-15 publications, with a maximum of 17 publications. He added that the data he obtained in the publication was data from his research in the laboratory, so it could not be obtained in a short time.
The graduate from Taiwan said that a high level of commitment was needed to achieve his title. There are demands for the number of publications that must be achieved per year, not to mention that he has to race against time in fulfilling these demands.
“Many people think it’s easy for me to become a young professor. In fact, the rules that I passed to become a professor are the same rules that apply to other people too. Perhaps what many people don’t understand is that there are things I had to sacrifice to achieve this title,” he said.
As a message to students who want to continue their careers in academia, Prof Aziz said never stop dreaming and do not hesitate to change. Because basically the things that have been passed are just stages of life. He also advised to dare to get out of the comfort zone to be able to explore their potential as much as possible. (Fatin/Rz) (IAAS/RUM)
