Executive Director and Professor
Institute of Marine and Environmental Technology, University of Maryland Center for Environmental Science, USA
Russell Hill has served as Director of the Institute of Marine and Environmental Technology (IMET) since 2012. He completed his Ph.D. at the University of Cape Town in 1988 and did postdoctoral studies with Rita Colwell at the Center of Marine Biotechnology (COMB), University of Maryland Biotechnology Institute. He held a faculty position at COMB, then worked for several years at the Australian Institute of Marine Science and returned to COMB where he served as Professor and Associate Director. He is a Fellow of the American Academy of Microbiology and of the Society for Industrial Microbiology and Biotechnology. He has served as President of the Maryland Branch of the American Society for Microbiology and as President of the International Marine Biotechnology Association. He has served as a member of the Editorial Boards of “Applied and Environmental Microbiology”, “Frontiers in Microbiology“, and “Marine Biotechnology”. Russell Hill has published more than 120 research papers on marine microbiology and biotechnology and has an H-index of 58.
Research interests include the biodiversity and functions of marine symbiotic microbes associated with marine invertebrates, particularly sponges. He studies the potential of marine microbes as sources of new drugs. He has an interest in marine microalgae and associated bacteria as a source of biofuel and other products.
Theme: Marine Natural Products and Biofouling
Professor of Aquculture
Director of the Australian Reseach Council (ARC) Research Hub for Advanced Prawn Breeding, ARC Research Hub for Supercharging Tropical Aquaculture Through Genetic Solutions and the Tropical Futures Institute
James Cook University (JCU) Singapore
Professor Jerry is globally known for his work in aquaculture, with his primary area of research focus and expertise in the application of genetic technologies to the improvement of farmed aquatic species. He has worked with over 12 aquaculture species over the last 18 years and over this time has built a large internationally recognised research team which has been instrumental in the development of genetic tools and knowledge to inform selective breeding programs for numerous tropical farmed species. He recently has also built a team in the area of aquatic animal health and established a pathogen testing facility at JCU. Prof Jerry has acquired $41+ million of external funding, the majority linked to industry co-funded projects, and published 150+ scientific articles in the area of aquaculture and genetics.
As a strong advocate for the role aquaculture will play in securing humanity's future protein needs, Prof Jerry is always interested in hearing from people and companies who are seeking to conduct R&D leading to improved efficiencies in aquaculture production. He works with all types of companies from SMEs through to multi-national agribusinesses, as well as government.
Theme: Fisheries and Aquaculture Biotechnology
Senior Research Scientist, Nofima, Norway
Melbourne Enterprise Fellow in Aquaculture, The University of Melbourne
My mission is to develop knowledge that can be applied to solve or help mitigate against some of the world’s largest disease problems for aquaculture, thereby improving the sustainability of worldwide aquaculture.
Twenty-eight years of research experience with the genetic improvement of livestock and aquaculture species with a focus on design of genetic improvement programs, molecular genetics, gene mapping, genomics, epigenetics and genomic selection. Has held positions as the Head of Genetics with the Department of Primary Industries Victoria (8 years), as the Research Leader of Breeding and Genetics at AKVAFORSK (Institute of Aquaculture Research, Norway, 2 years) and as member of the Board of Directors for the Akvaforsk Genetics Centre (2 years). Awarded more than 50 research grants (eg. funded by the EU Commission, Norwegian Research Council, Fisheries Research Development Council Australia etc.). Author and co-author of over 80 journal publications (cited more than 2685 times, h-index 28, i10-index 57) and book chapters.
Theme: Marine Genetics and Biodiversity
Associated Professor of Marine Sciences
Lead of the Marine Conservation and Restoration Research Group
Qatar University, Qatar
Radhouan Ben-Hamadou (PhD and Env. Eng.) is an ecohydrologist and oceanographer with an Aquaculture Engineer and an MSc and a PhD degrees from the Sorbonne Universities (UPMC-Paris 6) in Biological Oceanography. Prior to joining Qatar University, from 2006-2013 he was Research Associate Professor at the Centre of Marine Sciences and Assistant Professor at the University of Algarve. He also acted as Deputy Director of the UNESCO International Centre for Coastal Ecohydrology (UNESCO-ICCE) from 2009 to 2013. He participated in the launching of the EU-ERASMUS-MUNDUS Master on Ecohydrology. He served also as consultant to several companies and governmental agencies in the GCC and Europe. At Qatar University Dr. Ben-Hamadou, was successful in securing since 2013 over 6.3 M$ funding for projects mainly dealing with marine resources sustainability, biodiversity conservation, coral reefs ecology and restoration and impacts of man-made structures on the marine environment. His major R&D project aimed to understand the ecological functioning of offshore oil and gas platforms, their connectivity with natural reefs and their contribution to support local productivity, fisheries and regional biodiversity. Dr. Ben-Hamadou was appointed Head of the Department of Biological and Environmental Sciences (2017-2019) and to the task force to develop Qatar University Research Strategy in 2014, 2016 and 2019. Dr. Ben-Hamadou acted up to 2016 as President of the Arabian Gulf Branch of the SETAC society and is co-founder of the International Society of Ecohydrology (IS-ECOHYD). He was awarded in 2016 the QU-CAS Excellence Research Award. He co-authored 95+ peer-reviewed publications in international journals and books and has supervised 16 M.Sc. and 6 Ph.D. students.
Theme: Marine Ecology
*Due to Covid-19 pandemic, the conference will be virtual.
*Oman's time zone: GMT +4