The Professor of Zoology at the ULPGC and member of the GIA group of the university institute received the award at a ceremony held at the Real Club Víctoria, coinciding with World Oceans Day, ‘for her scientific and informative work on marine ecosystems’, ‘for her role as an outstanding researcher and recognised for her career in the study of sustainable aquaculture’, as well as ‘for her tireless work in the search for food sovereignty’.
The Atlantic Society of Oceanographers (SAO) presented the Oceans 2025 Award, in the individual category, to Marisol Izquierdo, Professor of Zoology at the University of Las Palmas de Gran Canaria (ULPGC) and member of the Aquaculture Research Group (GIA) of the ECOAQUA University Institute, at the Real Club Victoria in Las Palmas de Gran Canaria this Sunday afternoon, 8 June, at the Real Club Victoria in Las Palmas de Gran Canaria.
In this way, the SAO recognises Izquierdo ‘for her scientific and informative work on marine ecosystems’, ‘for her role as an outstanding researcher and recognised for her career in sustainable aquaculture studies’, as well as ‘for her unceasing work in the search for food sovereignty’, says the oceanographic society.
Marisol Izquierdo received this distinction at the ceremony of the 11th edition of the Oceans 2025 Awards which, coinciding with World Oceans Day, is organised by the SAO to ‘recognise the work of individuals, groups, institutions and projects that dedicate their efforts to care for, study and raise awareness of the richness of our seas’.
The researcher Marisol Izquierdo has received today the Oceans 2025 Award in the individual category from Airam Guerra, president of ASO (SAO).
In the words of José Juan Castro, member and founding member of the Atlantic Society of Oceanographers, Izquierdo has ‘an extensive scientific career in which, among many other awards, she has been distinguished as the best researcher in her field at a national level and has been part of a large number of prestigious scientific commissions around the world. Her curriculum in the field of research has enormous merit that we wanted to recognise in this edition of the awards’.
As a result of this extensive career, Marisol Izquierdo is, since 2018, Honorary Life Member of the World Aquaculture Society, being the first Spaniard to obtain this award and the second woman to receive this distinction in its 50-year history.
Professor of Zoology at the ULPGC since 2000, Izquierdo carried out her doctoral thesis research at the Tokyo University of Fisheries (1984-1988), with which she won the Prize for the Best Doctoral Thesis in the Canary Islands (1988). He returned from Japan with the Spanish Ministry of Education and Science's Reincorporation of Doctors programme (1988-1990).
Group photo of all the winners of the Oceans 2025 Awards presented by the SAO.
The researcher has been a full professor at the ULPGC between 1990 and 1999; secretary of the Department of Biology (1992-1994); director of the Aquaculture Research Group (GIA) between 1994 and 2008, a group to which she still belongs and which has been awarded twice as the research group with the highest scientific productivity of the ULPGC (2012 and 2020); director of the International Master in Aquaculture (1997-2004); director of the Doctorate Programme in Aquaculture (1990-2008) with Mention of Quality and Mention of Excellence from the Ministry of Education; director of Science Policy at the ULPGC (2004-2008); director of the Department of Biology at this university (2008-2009); and director of the Canary Islands Institute of Marine Sciences (2009-2011).
Marisol Izquierdo was also director of ECOAQUA between 2016 and 2021, and during her time at the helm of the university institute she received the CAN Science Award in 2018.
She has also been distinguished as an Adoptive Daughter of the City of Las Palmas de Gran Canaria in 2021 and as an Adoptive Daughter of the Island of Gran Canaria in 2024. In addition, she was vice-rector of Research and Transfer of the ULPGC between 2021 and 2024.
Long international career
She has been Visiting Researcher at the Universities of Leiden (The Netherlands), Stirling (UK) and Universidad Austral (Chile) and at the research centres: National Research Council in Halifax (Canada), Hawaii Oceanic Institute (USA) and National Center for Mariculture (Elat, Israel).
From left to right, ECOAQUA researchers Ted Packard (EOMAR), May Gómez, director of the EOMAR group, Airam Guerra (president of SAO), Marisol Izquierdo, from the GIA group, Ricardo Haroun, director of ECOAQUA, and Inmaculada González, director of the TOTMA group.
She obtained the recognition of the ULPGC Research Career in 2020. She is a Corresponding Member of the Royal Academy of Medicine (2011); vice-chair of the Fish Sub-committee of the International Union of Nutritional Sciences (2006-2014) to which she has belonged since 1997; chair of this sub-committee (2014-2018); member of the Steering Committee of the European Aquaculture Technological and Innovation Platform (EATIP) (2019) and of the Advisory Committee of the World Aquaculture Society (2018). She has also been advisor to the director of the Spanish Institute of Oceanography (2019).
She has participated in more than 100 research projects with competitive public funding, both from the European Union, the Spanish Government, the Canarian Government and other international institutions, and in 40 contracts with companies in the pharmacological and agri-food sectors. She has participated in the development of teaching plans in universities in several European, African and American countries. She has more than 290 publications in scientific journals (H index of 66, Scopus, 2024), 12 book chapters, several reviews and more than 40 doctoral theses supervised.
In addition, she has given more than 35 invited lectures at international scientific conferences, participated in several scientific committees of international symposia and editorial committees of scientific journals. Finally, she has participated in several development cooperation projects and was coordinator of CASA, African Centre for Aquaculture Studies, a partner of Aquaculture Without Frontiers Spain, based at the university institute ECOAQUA.
The Oceans Awards, which were presented by the president of the association, Airam Guerra Marrero, are an initiative that ‘seeks to give visibility to good practices, inspiring trajectories and concrete actions in favour of marine life and sustainability. Year after year, the award winners remind us that the ocean needs active voices, whether from science, education or social action’.
In addition to Marisol Izquierdo, the winners were the Asociación Canarias 1500 Km de Costa, in the collective or NGO category, the Consejería de Educación y Juventud del Cabildo Insular de Gran Canaria, in the company or institution category, and the ZEConsciente project, in the education category.
With these awards, the Atlantic Society of Oceanographers does not only want to ‘reward, but also to inspire other people, groups and companies to work towards promoting the study of the oceans and the protection of the ecosystems and biodiversity that the seas sustain’.