Members of the Food Proteins and Bioproducts Lab received honours including (L to R) Zainab Husain, Thilini Dissanayake, Nandika Bandara and Harshani Nadeeshani.
University of Manitoba shines at 2025 AOCS Awards
The University of Manitoba’s Department of Food and Human Nutritional Sciences was well-represented at the 2025 American Oil Chemists’ Society (AOCS) Awards Banquet, held during the AOCS Annual Meeting and Expo in Portland, OR in late April.
Members of the Food Proteins and Bioproducts Lab demonstrated excellence in the fields of fats, oils, proteins, and nutritional sciences with a strong showing across several categories which were open to nominees from around the world.
Dr. Nandika Bandara received one of society’s highest honors: the 2025 AOCS Young Scientist Research Award. Sponsored by the International Food Science Centre A/S, this award celebrates a young scientist who has made a significant and substantial research contribution in an AOCS-related field.
Graduate student Harshani Nadeeshani was awarded the 2025 Thomas H. Smouse Memorial Scholarship, which supports outstanding research by graduate students in AOCS-relevant disciplines. Remarkably, this marks the second consecutive year that one of Dr. Bandara’s trainees has earned this global distinction — Thilini Dissanayake received the same scholarship in 2024.
Thilini’s achievements continued in 2025, as she was named a recipient of the AOCS Honour Student Award, recognizing her exceptional academic performance, research, and professional development in the field of fats, oils, and proteins. She was also a finalist in the Protein and Co-products Division graduate student oral competition.
Additionally, graduate student Zainab Husain earned second place in the Protein and Coproducts Division graduate poster competition.
Both Harshani and Thilini had the opportunity to co-chair technical sessions at the annual meeting. As the co-chairs of the AOCS Student Common Interest Group, Zainab and Harshani organized a student lightning talk competition, which was a great success.
The team’s accomplishments underscore the university’s leadership in food science research and the high caliber of mentorship and scholarship within the department.
