WWW.WAS.ORG • WORLD AQUACULTURE • SEPTEMBER 2014 15 training many of our industry and aquaculture science staff. His work has been instrumental in advancing viable and sustainable aquaculture in many countries. He has consulted for a large number of companies and individuals in Australia, Norway, Russia, Korea, Japan and Thailand. Tom recently retired from his academic career and is now the Director of Aquaculture Systems Engineering for Pentair Aquatic Eco-Systems where he continues to work toward the improvement of land-based grow-out systems and the promotion of engineering solutions to aquaculture problems. Tom has also been a strong servant to and advocate of WAS. He has been a member of WAS for over 25 years. He served two terms as Secretary and as Vice-President and President. In addition he has run workshops and donated the proceeds to support the Asian-Pacific Chapter of WAS and has served on many WAS conference committees and organized, chaired and presented in multiple WAS conference sessions, acting as a major drawcard for RAS-related sessions for well over a decade. Nigel Preston Nigel Preston has had a long and distinguished career with one of Australia’s premier research organizations, CSIRO. At the time of the award, Nigel was the Acting Director of CSIRO’s Food Futures Flagship, which has as its goal the transformation of the international competitiveness of Australian agrifood. In a subsequent re-organization, Nigel has now returned to a role more specifically focused on aquaculture as the leader of the Aquaculture Program of the new Agriculture Flagship. This continues a longterm engagement with Australia’s aquaculture industry during which Nigel has had a major impact on this sector. Nigel’s research experience and interests include marine biology and ecology, biotechnology and the development and application of advanced genetics and nutritional technologies to enhance the productivity, sustainability and market quality of plant, livestock and aquaculture industries. Over the past 25 years, he has led a number of multidisciplinary research teams that have contributed to the economic and environmental sustainability of aquaculture industries in Australia and several other countries, including Vietnam, China, Indonesia, Saudi Arabia, Mexico and Brazil. These teams have always worked in close partnership with industry, including Atlantic salmon, oyster, abalone, prawn and aquafeed sectors. The research advances achieved via these partnerships include world-record yields of Australian stocks of black tiger prawns, enhanced growth and resistance to disease in Atlantic salmon, the development of elite stocks of abalone and improved economic performance of Pacific oysters. More recently Nigel and his research team, together with industry partners, have perfected a bioactive prawn feed additive (NovacqTM). Farmed prawns fed with NovacqTM grow on average 30 per cent faster, are healthier and can be produced with no wild harvest marine products in their diet. Nigel’s work has always focused on the development of knowledge and technology to enable commercial aquaculture to achieve an effective balance between economic benefits and conserving ecosystems. In Australia, he led a seven-year study of prawn-pond ecosystems, their ecological impacts on downstream environments and the development of cost-effective effluent treatment systems, an extensive study that has been widely published. His impact stretches well beyond Australia’s shores. A recent study of environmental and economic sustainability of rice-shrimp farming in the Mekong Delta in Vietnam, led by Nigel, enabled the sustainable expansion of rice-shrimp farming delivering economic benefits estimated at US$330 million per annum. Nigel is the author or co-author of 82 peer reviewed papers, 3 patents, and numerous other publications. He has also been recognized as a Fellow of the Queensland Academy of Arts and Sciences and is the recipient of the 2010 Australian Prawn Farmers Association Award and the 2014 prize for the Environment, Agriculture and Food category in the Australian Innovation Challenge. Nigel is a regular attendee at WAS conferences across the world and has organized several conference sessions and is a regular keynote speaker in shrimp genetics fora. — Graham Mair, Chair, WAS Honors and Awards Committee (2013-14) collaborations with research institutes in New Zealand and abroad. Poster Presentation Awards Keng-Ming Wu’s poster titled “Evaluation of using microwave treatments to sterilize marine microalgae cultural media” received the first place award for poster presentations. Keng-Ming Wu received his B.E. degree in June of 2013 from the department of Bio-industrial Mechatronics Engineering at the National Chung Hsing University, Taiwan, and is now working on a Master’s degree within the same program under the mentorship of Professor ChungChyi Yu. His research in the field of aquaculture engineering is focused on microalgae cultivation and developing a microwave system to sterilize microalgae culture media. In the future, he plans to continue research on live food production within the field of aquaculture. Student Awards, continued from page 13 Yu-An Ma was awarded the second place award for his presentation titled “Effects of light quality change on the density, lipid and eicosapentaenoic acid production of the marine microalgae Nannochloropsis oculata.” He received a B.E. degree in electrical engineering from the National Kaohsiung University of Applied Sciences, Taiwan, in 2007, and a M.E. degree in Bioindustrial Mechatronics Engineering from the National Chung Hsing University, Taiwan, in 2009. Yu-An is currently working on a Ph.D. under the guidance of Chung-Chyi Yu. His research interests are focused on the automated cultivation of live aquaculture feeds, which includes microalgae and rotifer cultivation, via the development of biosensor, bio-processing design, and integrated control systems. After completing his degree he plans to continue working on live food production through research within the field of aquaculture engineering.
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy MjExNDY=