14 SEPTEMBER 2014 • WORLD AQUACULTURE • WWW.WAS.ORG At World Aquaculture Adelaide 2014, WAS President Michael Schwarz presented three new Society Fellows: Wagner Valenti (Brazil), Tom Losordo (USA) and Nigel Preston (Australia). The Fellows Award is presented to WAS members who have made significant contributions to the development of aquaculture as researchers, educators, entrepreneurs, or as extension, outreach or development professionals, as recognized by their peers. The WAS Fellows Program is a relatively new initiative of the Society, started in 2011, with nine Fellows awarded to date. A current list of WAS Fellows can be found on the WAS website. The award recognizes impactful achievement of individuals as members of the Society. The Fellows program is differentiated from the Honorary Life Award in that the latter can and often is awarded to non-members and generally recognizes careerlong accomplishments and services to aquaculture. Fellows are expected to provide additional leadership for the Society to act as ambassadors for WAS and work with the Society’s current and past Presidents to assist in its growth and development. Fellows of the World Aquaculture Society serve as distinguished colleagues to whom the World Aquaculture Society and its members can look for guidance as global aquaculture evolves. Wagner Valenti Wagner Valenti, from Brazil, is currently a senior research scientist at the Aquaculture Center and Associate Professor in the School of Marine Biology and Coastal Management at São Paulo State University, where he conducts research focused on the development and promotion of sustainable and integrated aquaculture. He has forged his reputation working on the biology and culture of Macrobrachium species and has co-authored two of the principal texts on farming the freshwater prawn, published in 2000 and 2010. He has led a distinguished career as a productive academic, always with a view to conducting industry-relevant research. More recently Wagner has led a multi-institutional research network to develop production technologies for wild Amazonian species of Macrobrachium that has resulted in adoption of the species for aquaculture in a number of Brazilian farms. He is also leading another initiative to develop sustainability indicators for application in Brazilian aquaculture. Wagner has authored or edited nine books and authored 19 book chapters and well over 100 other publications. He has also served as editor for several high-profile journals in the field including his current role, since 1999, as an Associate Editor of the Journal of the World Aquaculture Society. As an active researcher Wagner has not neglected the teaching side of academic life, having managed both Ph.D. and Masters programs in aquaculture and directly supervised many graduate students. Over many years Wagner has given freely and enthusiastically of his time in support of WAS, having served as a Director and Vice-President. He has sat on various committees including leading roles in the development of WAS conferences in Brazil, France, Hawaii and Italy. While Wagner has been a strong supporter of the Society’s Latin America and Caribbean Chapter, he is a regular attendee at WAS conferences around the world and has chaired many conference sessions. Tom Losordo Tom Losordo has made a major contribution to aquaculture as one of the world’s foremost experts in recirculating aquaculture systems (RAS). Tom combines a strong academic background with excellent communication skills and the rare ability to translate his research into commercially-successful systems. Tom has worked in the field of aquaculture for more than 38 years. For most of his career he was a Professor at North Carolina State University, involved in teaching, research and extension of aquaculture engineering. He was a founding member and director of the Aquacultural Engineering Society and has earned an international reputation for his understanding of land-based freshwater and saltwater production systems and his capacity to teach the fundamentals of system operation, economics and design. He has thus been in strong demand internationally and has worked there extensively, promoting aquaculture, recirculating aquaculture systems and rigorous scientific analysis of different systems and methods. He has toured the world delivering workshops and short courses on recirculating systems, presenting the results of unbiased comparisons between different systems and providing his workshop participants with a framework for effective economic evaluation. Tom is particularly well known in Australia where he spent a 6-month sabbatical in 2001 and where he has presented his RAS workshop almost annually since, covering much of the country and Three New WAS Fellows Presented in Adelaide (CONTINUED ON NEXT PAGE) Wagner Valenti Tom Losordo Nigel Preston
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