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KEYNOTE SPEAKERS


Mr. Rolf Willmann

Rolf Willmann is Senior Fishery Planning Officer with the Fisheries Department, FAO, Rome, Italy. In 1979, he joined the FAO Bay of Bengal Programme in Chennai, India, as a junior professional. It is here where his “small-scale fisheries” formation took place, not least through the close collaboration with Dr John Kurien and his co-workers in the conduct of a detailed costs and earnings study of traditional and mechanized marine fisheries in Kerala State, India. While moving on to join FAO HQ in 1982, he maintained his close personal and professional interest in Asian fisheries and interacted closely with small-scale fishworker organisations through the aegis of the International Collective in Support of Fishworkers( ICSF). His areas of work include the analysis of economic and social implications of the transition to responsible fisheries; fisheries management policies including the management of shared stocks; integrated environmental and economic accounting; sustainability indicators; and ecolabelling. Currently, he is responsible for the development of guidelines on increasing the contribution of small-scale fisheries to poverty reduction and food security within the technical guidelines series of the Code of Conduct for Responsible Fisheries. Rolf Willmann will give a keynote presentation on “Restoration and Management of Small-Scale Fisheries: Meeting the Challenge”. In it he will argue that small-scale fisheries have a critical role to play in meeting the United Nations Millennium targets of eradicating poverty and combating food insecurity. The challenge is to give back to small-scale fisheries their rightful place as the locus of coastal and inland fisheries development.

 

 

 

Dr. Meryl J. Williams




Dr Williams’ professional interests are in research for development, research management and the role of fish and other living aquatic resources in human lives. Dr. Williams is inaugural Executive Officer of the Future Harvest Alliance Office, formed in 2004 by the 15 international agricultural research centers of the Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research (CGIAR). The Alliance Office has the mission to develop and support the strategic policy work of the research centers and their shared services. Dr Williams was appointed to create this new position following her previous contributions to the centers when she was Director General of the WorldFish Center, one of the CGIAR centers. She served as Director General of WorldFish Center from 1994-2004.  She has a Ph.D. in Zoology and a Masters Degree in Literary Studies (mathematical statistics). She was previously Director of the Australian Institute of Marine Science (AIMS) and was a member of the AIMS Council from 1989 until June 1997. She also served as Executive Director of the former Bureau of Rural Resources in the Department of Primary Industries and Energy, Canberra and worked in fisheries research at the South Pacific Commission and in the Queensland government. She was a member of the first Board of the Australian Fisheries Management Authority and, from 1989 to 1993, was a member of the Council of the Australian Maritime College. In recognition of her contributions to fisheries and marine science in Australia, she was elected a Fellow of the Australian Academy of Technological Sciences and Engineering in 1993 and awarded an Australian Centenary Medal in 2003. In November 1997 she became a member of the FAO Advisory Committee on Fisheries Research and was elected to Chair the Advisory Committee in December 2002. She has published extensively in the scientific and development literature on tropical fisheries and aquaculture.

 


Prof. Hew Choy Leong

Professor Hew Choy Leong is a well-known researcher with highly cited publications in major scientific periodicals such as J. Biological Chemistry, Nature and Aquaculture. His major research focus includes characterization and utilization of fish anti-freeze proteins, transgenic fish development, molecular endocrinology, structural and functional genomics of viral pathogens.His previous appointments includes University of Toronto, The Hospital for Sick Children Toronto and Memorial University of Newfoundland. Professor Hew is the current Head of Department in the Department of Biological Sciences, National University of Singapore, where he continues to promote the importance and potentials of biotechnology as a tool to improve aquaculture and fisheries.

Awards/Honours

  • 1980 -APICS-Fraser Award, Most Outstanding Young Scientist in Atlantic Provinces of Canada
  • 1992 -Outstanding Achievement Award, Chinese Community Centre of Ontario Incorporated
  • 1993 -Achievement Award, Chinese Canadian Institute of Arts & Science, Toronto, Canada
  • 1993 - Merit Award, Education Foundation,† Federation of Chinese Canadian Professionals,† Ontario, Canada

Major Publications (from more than 190 refereed papers)

  • Du N, Liu XY and CL Hew (2003) Ice nucleation inhibition: mechanism of antifreeze by antifreeze protein. J.Biol.Chem.278(38); 36000-36004.
  • Chew FT, Ong SU and CL Hew (2003) SARS coronavirus, viral mimicry, antibody-dependent enhancement of infection, auto immunity and vaccine. Lancet 361: 2081.
  • Huang, C, Zhang, X, Lin Q, Xu X, Hu Z and CL Hew (2002). Proteomic analysis of shrimp white spot syndrome viral proteins and characterization of a novel envelope protein VP466. Mol. & Cell Proteomics (1.3): 223-231.
  • Low WK, Lin Q, Stathakis C, Miao M, Fletcher GL and Hew CL (2001) Isolation and characterization of skin-type, type I antifreeze polypeptides from the longhorn sculpin, M. octodecemspinosus. J. Biol Chem. 276(15): 11582-11589.
  • Miao M, Chan SL, Fletcher GL and Hew CL (2000) The rat ortholog of the presumptive flounder antifreeze enhancer-binding protein is a helicase domain-containing protein. Eur J. Biochem. 267: 7237-7246.
  • Fletcher G, Choy L Hew and Peter L Davies (2001) Antifreeze proteins in teleost fishes. Ann. Rev. Physiology. 63: 359-90.
  • Ewart KV, Li Z, Yang DC, Fletcher GL and CL Hew (1998) The ice-binding site of Atlantic herring antifreeze protein corresponds to the carbohydrate-binding site of C-type lectins. Biochemistry 37: 4080-4085.

 

 

 


Dr. Mahfuzuddin Ahmed

Dr Mahfuzuddin Ahmed is Principal Social Scientist and Program Leader of the Policy Research and Impact Assessment Program of WorldFish Center since 1996.  He is also part of the senior management team of WorldFish that provides strategic directions to the center’s impact assessment and priority setting activities. He also leads the research team responsible for research findings, which contribute to shaping fisheries policies in developing countries.   Dr. Ahmed is currently the President-elect of International Institute for Fisheries Economics and Trade (IIFET). Also, an adjunct associate professor if UPLB, Philippines, Dr. Ahmed is currently scientific adviser to the International Foundation for Science and associate editor of Asian Fisheries Science Journal. He has recently co-authored a book on the future of fish entitled “Fish to 2020-Supply Demand in Changing Markets”. A number of his past research work are regarded as pioneering research on the knowledge and understanding of regional and national issues in fisheries. He conducted a pioneering study on the socioeconomic assessment of the freshwater capture fisheries in Cambodia during his tenure in the Mekong River Commission (MRC) as socioeconomic adviser (1994-1996).  His earlier career began in late 1970s as researcher and economics lecturer at the University of Chittagong (birthplace of “Grameen Bank”). Living in Southeast Asia since mid-1980s he worked for Mekong River Commission, DANIDA and Asian Development Bank as adviser and consultant.  

 

 

 

 

 

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