AQUACULTURAL ENGINEERING SOCIETY - Key Persons
Job Titles:
- Member of the Board of Directors
- Researcher at DTU Aqua
Dr Carlos O. Letelier-Gordo is a researcher at DTU Aqua, Denmark. He works on end-of-pipe treatment of marine and freshwater recirculating aquaculture systems with focus on denitrification, phosphorous removal, biogas production, H2S production, and aquaponics. He is an Aquacultural engineer from Universidad Católica del Norte (UCN) Chile, where he worked at the Applied Aquaculture Engineering unit designing marine culture centers and recirculating marine aquaculture systems. Posteriorly he obtained the M.Sc. Eng. degree in Civil Environmental Engineering at the Technical University of Denmark (DTU). His study line focused on residual resources engineering, participating in the Bioenergy group on biogas production and biological treatment of aquaculture effluent. Subsequently he obtained a Ph.D. degree from DTU Aqua based on his doctoral thesis entitled "Transforming waste into new resources: optimizing sludge hydrolysis to improve nitrogen removal in aquaculture through denitrification.
Job Titles:
- Member of the Board of Directors
- Researcher at the Aquaculture Section
Dr Paula Rojas-Tirado is a researcher at the Aquaculture Section in the Norwegian Institute of Water Research (NIVA). Her main research area is based on recirculating aquaculture systems where she focuses primarily on the monitoring of physico-chemical and microbial water quality and water treatments. She is involved in several industry contracted projects related to micro particles, microbial water quality and H2S monitoring. She graduated as an Aquaculture Engineer at Universidad Católica del Norte (UCN) in Chile and worked as consultant in different aquaculture engineering and research projects. Later she did her MSc. at Technical University of Denmark (DTU) where she focused majorly on water quality and treatments, and in the ecotoxicology on chemotherapeutics agents used in recirculating aquaculture system (RAS). Before starting her PhD, she was part of the starting-up phase of one of the largest RAS facilities in Denmark for full life cycle of salmon on land - Danish Salmon AS. She obtained her PhD in Microbial water quality within RAS at DTU Aqua.
Job Titles:
- Member of the Board of Directors
- Professor of Bioprocess
Dr. David E. Brune is currently serving as Professor of Bioprocess and Bioenergy Engineering, within the Division of Food Sciences and Bioengineering at the University of Missouri at Columbia, Missouri. He previously served as Professor and Endowed Chair of Natural Resource Engineering in the Department of Agricultural and Biological Engineering in the College of Agricultural and Life Sciences, at Clemson University in South Carolina. He is known for his expertise in aquaculture engineering and wastewater treatment system design. He has been involved in aquacultural engineering for over 30 years, conducting research in agriculture and aquaculture waste treatment and the development of integrated water use systems. Dr. Brune has directed an aquacultural engineering program at the University of California at Davis and is involved in research related to large-scale microalgae culture for aquaculture, biofuels and bioproducts, as well as, for environmental remediation. His current research is focused on bioenergy production, aquaculture process design, wastewater treatment and agricultural water quality issues.
Job Titles:
- Member of the Board of Directors
- President of Advanced Aquacultural Technologies, Inc
Dr. Gary E. Miller is the President of Advanced Aquacultural Technologies, Inc. After 8 years in the US Navy, he earned a BS degree from the University of Florida in Forest Resource Conservation. From there, he went to Purdue University and earned a MS and PhD in Fisheries Biology (1985), developing an understanding of wastewater processing and management. His doctoral thesis was a Fortran simulation to demonstrate the impact of varying the efficiencies of processes encountered in the design and operation of an environmentally controlled, recirculating aquacultural systems (RAS) facility.
Job Titles:
- Member of the Board of Directors
Dr. Marlon Greensword is currently working as Math and Engineering Teacher and Coach, Keene High School at Keene Independent School District, Keene, TX. He is an experienced engineering designer specialized in water filtration systems, with proven results in designing bioreactors and water quality control. Published researcher in aquacultural engineering with extensive training in wastewater management and environmental toxicology. Greensword has a Ph.D. degree in Engineering Science, Louisiana State University, Baton Rouge, LA, from December 2017. The dissertation: Rice Hull Bioreactor for Recirculating Aquaculture. He has a M.Sc. degree in Civil & Environmental Engineering from Louisiana State University, Baton Rouge, LA, May 2015 with the Thesis: Life Cycle Analysis of an Airlifted Recirculation Aquaculture Facility, and a second M.Sc. degree in Industrial Engineering & Construction Management, Louisiana State University, Baton Rouge, LA.
Job Titles:
- CEO
- Member of the Board of Directors
Job Titles:
- Member of the Board of Directors
Farshad Shishehchian is the CEO & President/Founder of Blue Aqua International Group with a global presence in 14 countries. More than 28 years of dynamic, hands-on experience in the world's top aquaculture producing countries. Managing aquaculture farms and hatcheries in different locations. Dr Farshad were the President of the World Aquaculture Society, Asia Pacific Chapter (2013-2016). He has dynamic, hand-on experience in managing farms and hatcheries and networking over 28 years. He is the inventor of the highly commended MixotrophicTM System- a super intensive shrimp/fish farming system (Patented in over 8 countries) and Multi Species Super-Intensive Zero Waste, Green RAS (Pending for Patent). In the meantime, Dr. Farshad Shishehchian is the Founder & President of the Asian Aquaculture Network (AAN), established as a regional professional network of communication, knowledge and sharing practical technical information about aquaculture. The primary focus is on promoting sustainable development and profitable practices of aquaculture in Asia. AAN is a networking platform providing the updated information and emerging news about aquaculture, communicating and affiliating with research institutions and universities to collaborate on practical research, educational and technological development, information exchange and student exchange program etc.
Job Titles:
- Member of the Board of Directors
He has a professional title as Aquacultural Engineer from Universidad Catolica del Norte (1994, Chile) and a PhD in Biological and Agricultural Engineering from the University of California at Davis (2004, USA). Currently, Dr. Merino is a professor in the Aquaculture Department of the Universidad Católica del Norte, Chile. He became involved in aquaculture in 1992 and focused on land-based operations, design, and management. Dr. Merino has published about 25 peer-reviewed papers and more than 80 Congress and Workshops interventions in recirculating seawater aquaculture systems for abalone, scallops, and marine finfish. Dr. Merino has served the Aquacultural Engineering Society (AES) since 1996, first as a BOD member, second performed as AES President during the year 2010, and lastly as AES Chairman Award Committee. He has participated with oral presentations, session chair, and workshop speaker at several aquaculture conferences representing AES and counting more than 40 presentations. Recently Dr. Merino has become an entrepreneur starting his aquaponics facility to grow rainbow trout, freshwater shrimp, and several veggies.
Job Titles:
- Administrative Assistant
- Member of the Board of Directors
Job Titles:
- Member of the Board of Directors
Joseph Tetreault Director Joseph Tetreault earned his M.Sc. in Agricultural Sciences from the University of New Hampshire (UNH) in Durham, NH as part of the Agricultural Engineering program. His research at UNH focused on the development of microbial bioreactors for the treatment of recirculating aquaculture system (RAS) effluent and the adoption of a RAS-based unit process approach for optimizing the aquaponics industry. He is currently a co-principal investigator of a new aquaponics-based research program in the Environmental Sciences Program at Harrisburg University of Science and Technology (HU) in Harrisburg, PA. Current research projects include the development of a nutrient mineralization and organic carbon removal treatment system to allow the re-use of RAS effluent as a hydroponic crop fertilizer, the characterization of RAS nutrient production for determining optimal crop growth, and producing a model to calculate fish and crop growth rates in aquaponic systems utilizing a RAS-based unit process design. Current research funding includes NASA and collaborations with local producers and retailers. In addition to research initiatives, Joseph also contributes to the expansion of academic programming related to controlled environment agriculture, actively engages with community partners, and provides authentic experiential learning opportunities for HU undergraduate students.
Job Titles:
- Engineer
- Member of the Board of Directors
- President of the Board of Directors
Dr. Badiola is an agronomy engineer. She got her M.Sc. in the Institute of Aquaculture at the University of Stirling and completed her industry-based Ph.D. in AZTI, a marine and food research institute located in the Basque Country. She carried out feasibility studies for marine species (cod and salmon) to be reared in Recirculating Aquaculture Systems (RAS) in her region; she studied the social, economic, environmental, and technological aspects of RAS. As part of her studies, she developed an integrated methodology for RAS environmental and monetary assessment improvement. Her expertise is conducting energy audits, Life Cycle Assessments, and systems` sustainability global assessments. Lately, she has obtained her Project Management title at ESDEN Business School. She was the Students National coordinator of the European Aquaculture Society for several years and worked as an external researcher for the Monterey Bay Aquarium's Seafood Watch program. Currently, she is the vice president of her consultancy company together with Paul Hundley called HTH equipment & engineering llc and have worked for nearly 2 years as Project Leader and RAS specialist in Alpha Aqua A/S where she has been the project and on-site manager of the first RAS salmon farm built in Spain.
Job Titles:
- Member of the Board of Directors
Mark Schumann studied biology from 2004 to 2010 with a focus in fish ecology and limnology and holds a diploma degree from the University of Konstanz in Baden-Württemberg, Germany. His research at the Fisheries Research Station of Baden-Württemberg in Langenargen, where he has worked since 2010, is focused on impact of feed composition on aquaculture effluents, which is also topic of his doctoral theses. Further research fields are suspended solids in recirculating aquaculture systems and fish welfare. He is in charge of running and developing the research RAS facilities and leads the aquaculture team.
Job Titles:
- Member of the Board of Directors
Mr. Marc Sorensen began practicing in the aquaculture industry in 2006, after receiving his bachelor's degree in mechanical engineering from the University of New Brunswick. Marc began his career engineering equipment for aquaculture systems. With mentoring, by 2009 he was engineering complete RAS systems. Today, Marc has excellent working relationships with several large RAS system suppliers, various technology suppliers, research institutions and global producers. He enjoys applying his experience, and learning from others, to successfully execute projects. Marc joined the aquaculture engineering society in 2009 and is now seeking the opportunity to contribute to the society that helped enable his career.
Job Titles:
- Member of the Board of Directors
- Consultant at Multiconsult Norway
Ragnhild Olsen Fossmark is a consultant at Multiconsult Norway, within the section for water and wastewater process engineering. She works with optimization, design, and dimensioning of water treatment processes in recirculating aquaculture systems (RAS), and municipal drinking water and wastewater treatment plants. She has a Ph.D. from the Norwegian University of Science and Technology in hydraulic engineering and biotechnology. Her Ph.D. was mainly focused on microbial water quality, nitrification at different salinities and particle removal in RAS for Atlantic salmon smolt and post-smolt production.
Job Titles:
- Member of the Board of Directors
- Researcher at DTU Aqua
Sanni Aalto is a researcher at DTU Aqua, Denmark. She works with different aspects for aquaculture microbiology, including end-of-pipe nutrient removal, biofilters, processes (e.g., nitrification, denitrification, H2S production), and greenhouse gases in marine and freshwater recirculating aquaculture systems. She has a Ph.D. degree from University of Jyväskylä, Finland in Aquatic Sciences. After her Ph.D., she was a post-doctoral research fellow and group leader at the University of Jyväskylä and Eastern Finland, focusing on the microbiolofy of wastewater treatment plants, wetlands and aquaculture systems.
Job Titles:
- Member of the Board of Directors
- Secretary
- Treasurer
Dr. Pfeiffer obtained his doctorate degree from Louisiana State University in Engineering Science from the Department of Biological and Agricultural Engineering. Dr. Pfeiffer worked for the USDA as an Agricultural Engineer specializing in aquaculture engineering for over 13 years with a majority of his time spent at the Harbor Branch Oceanographic Institute in Fort Pierce, FL. While with USDA he specialized in design and research of recirculating aquaculture systems, effluent management, and energy and water conservation for RAS designs. Project funding for the USDA research was terminated in 2011 and Dr. Pfeiffer then worked with the Foreign Agricultural Service branch of USDA as an Agricultural Advisor in Afghanistan. He was stationed in Afghanistan for over a year and his main focus was water resource development and conservation. Upon his return in 2013 he began working for Aquaculture System Technology. He is the Research Director for the Engineering department at AST and also assists in system design for the initial phases of a project. Dr. Pfeiffer has been a long-time member of AES (18 yrs) and has served as its Secretary/Treasurer from 2006 until 2012. He currently serves on the editorial board of the Aquaculture Engineering journal.