World Aquaculture Magazine - June 2021

14 JUNE 2021 • WORLD AQUACULTURE • WWW.WA S .ORG work that ultimately played a pivotal role in bringing the industry from a backyard farming effort to a global industry, as it stands today. It’s a privilege and honor for me to continue his legacy of research and service to shrimp industry globally and take it beyond where he left. —Arun Dhar Don was a friend and colleague. Our first joint encounter was working on the revision of WAS Shrimp Pathology Manual in 1997. Don worked with me in Rome for a month, where we had lots of time to talk about aquaculture, shrimp and other things. Then we also used to regularly meet 2-3 times a year in Paris, for many years, when we were members of the OIE Fish Disease Commission. We associated closely for years in our professional capacity and as friends. We will miss him, remember his legacy and cherish good memories in the years to come. —Rohana Subasinghe Don was the third person I met on my first day working at the University of Arizona in 1981. He showed me around the lab and introduced me to the team. Over the next couple of years when I introduced myself to aquaculture people as being fromArizona, their first response was always “Oh, so you work for Don Lightner.” When I would say “No, I work on tilapia”, they immediately lost interest. So, instead I just said yes, and saved the conversation. Over the next 35 years I did have plenty of collaborations with Don on research, guest lecturing in his class and jointly mentoring graduate students. Don’s humble nature, loyalty and giving credit and sharing opportunities with his teamwas returned with many staff working their entire careers with him, often turning down lucrative offers from outside. Don was the epitome of what it means to be a professor and scientist: developing valuable new knowledge, sharing it and training others how to use it. —Kevin Fitzsimmons For Hawaii, he was there at the beginning of shrimp farming with Marine Culture Enterprises, and he and JimBrock worked closely to define the significance of viruses in shrimp culture. He continued to help us through his lab at the University of Arizona, as Specific Pathogen Free broodstock began to emerge as a viable commercial option. SPF shrimp proceeded to grow into the industry it is today for Hawaii, over $20 million in annual sales. Don and his career-long commitment to shrimp aquaculture were instrumental to our successes. — John Corbin My first encounter with Dr. Lightner was in 1998, when I participated in the well-known Shrimp Pathology Short Course held by the Aquaculture Pathology Laboratory. That short time was enough for me to realize the vastness of his knowledge. That realization of the immense knowledge struck me and formed my resolve to pursue a Ph.D. degree in his lab. My mental picture of Dr. Lightner is always of him on the microscope, sitting for long hours looking at shrimp samples sent to UA-APL from all over the world. It was in that way that he discovered numerous novel pathologies that had global impact on the shrimp industry. During the short course, he explained how a shrimp virus (IHHNV) was shaping the future of shrimp farming and it made me realize that Dr. Lightner and his work likewise shaped the shrimp industry worldwide and served as the counterbalance to all these emerging diseases. He has influenced our present knowledge of shrimp diseases that serves as a vital tool on howmanagement strategies are formed. Attesting to this are the numerous books and research articles he published and the diagnostic methods he developed that are being applied worldwide. Due to these same realizations, I found my way back to the laboratory where I can continue to contribute to his legacy. —Luis Fernando Aranguren Caro This photo says everything about him: his dedication, passion, commitment, hard work, quiet and unassuming way of getting about his work and taking care of things hands on. I was in awe of the man who was regarded as the father of shrimp pathology and he was very simple, unassuming and cordial. Don, George Chamberlain and I were once invited to the Philippines to speak at a conference. When we arrived at the Bacolod airport, we found this large banner that welcomed the three great scientists visiting to attend the conference. Later, during the gala dinner, I was given a fewminutes to speak and I narrated a Tamil saying that “the string that is used to tie flowers also gets some of the flower’s smell” and that I was the string enjoying a moment of fame due to the proximity to the two greats. Our aquaculture sector is fortunate to have had more than a few greatest of the greats. People who were deeply committed, utterly passionate, and advanced the sector through sheer hard work. Don’s passing away means we have one less today and he will be dearly missed. —Arul Victor Suresh His life could be best described with one word: dedication. He was the first to get to the lab and the last to leave, day in and day out. He was a humble genius but didn’t want to make any noise. I have seen him being attacked by others, but he did not care and just looked ahead and remained calm. He told me, “Loc, you should not care about what people may say about you. You need to focus on your work and the quality of your service.” I learned discipline, dedication, professionalism and the work ethic from him. He had a great sense of humor. Sometimes, he just stopped by my desk to tell me a joke. He was a very helpful mentor, but at the same time, he was so easygoing to be a friend. I told him about my plan of building a diagnostic lab and a research center in Vietnam and asked him for advice. He said “Loc, this can be your lifetime project, and you have to carefully think about this. This can stick to you the rest of your life.” He didn’t mention his career, but I understood what he said implied that he had been working tirelessly for close to 40 years. His work has been so fundamental for the global shrimp industry. —Loc Tran Don had a knack for finding ways to improve on everything, always pushing for that extra mile. Having finished what I considered to be the final revision to my dissertation, Don suggested an additional chapter to include data from a related study I had just recently completed. This meant long nights analyzing results and writing to meet the fast-approaching graduation date. However, seeing the improvement and completeness of it, once the job was done, gave me an added sense of accomplishment and satisfaction, which would ( C O N T I N U E D O N P A G E 1 9 ) L ightner , continued from page 13