She is the first Spaniard to receive this award in its 50 years of history and the second woman highlighted by the WAS.
Marisol Izquierdo, director of the University Institute ECOAQUA of the University of Las Palmas de Gran Canaria (ULPGC), has been named Honorary Life Member of 2018 of the World Aquaculture Society (WAS).
She is the first Spaniard to receive this award and the second woman to be highlighted in the 50 year history of the WAS Honorary Life Member, as this recognition is originally known, and has been awarded to Izquierdo, who has been a member of this society since 1988, as "an award for his outstanding work and contribution to aquaculture science and development at the local, regional and global levels", as specified by the WAS Honours and Awards Committee, through one of its members, Professor Abdel-Fattah El-Sayed, Professor in the Department of Oceanography at Alexandria University (Egypt).
The president of WAS, Maria Celia Portella, researcher at the Aquaculture Centre of the Sao Paulo State University (Brazil), highlighted how she has "closely followed Marisol Izquierdo's career for many years", so she is "especially happy" that she has been granted this recognition, established in 1969, "even more so being a woman", since of the total of 54 outstanding life members in the history of these awards of the World Aquaculture Society only two women have been distinguished.
Izquierdo's research has resulted in 260 articles in scientific journals, more than 40 invited lectures at international scientific conferences and around 300 presentations at congresses. In addition, the award recognizes his active contribution to Aquaculture Education, organizing and teaching in the Doctorate Program in Aquaculture (established in 1990 and with Mention of Quality and Mention of Excellence from the Ministry of Education of Spain) and the International Master in Aquaculture (established in 1997), having also participated in courses for international organizations such as FAO and CIHEAM.
In addition, he has trained in aquaculture in more than 2,000 students from 25 different countries and has directly supervised the doctoral thesis of more than 30 candidates.