The competition saw six students from universities across Scotland present their doctorate studies into aspect of aquaculture research.
The award sponsored by the pharmaceutical company Novartis was won by Marie Smedley for her research into the use of nutrition as a tool to improve the performance in triploid Atlantic salmon in freshwater and seawater production.
The competition that opened the conference session at the exhibition and conference in Scotland saw:
- Mark Braceland from the University of Glasgow discuss the effect of pathological damage of pancreas disease (PD) on the serum proteome of Atlantic Salmon (Slamo salar)
- Rodrigo Belmonte da Silva from the University of Aberdeen discuss Saprolegnia: a parasite specialised in overcoming the fish immune system
- Jose Gustavo Ramirez-Paredes from the University of Stirling discuss the isolation and characterisation of Franciscella noatunenis orientalis and its elevation to the rank of specie in Europe as F.Orientalis comb.
- Christine Rolin from the University of Aberdeen discuss Biosecurity in integrated multi-trophic aquaculture: Susceptibility of blue mussels to amoebic gill disease
- Marie Smedley from the University of Stirling discuss Nutrition as a tool to improve performance in Triploid Atlantic Salmon (Salmo Salar) in freshwater and seawater production
- Po-Tsang Lee from the University of Aberdeen discuss the identification and characterisation of toll-like receptors in Atlantic salmon: a route to develop new vaccines.
Chairman of the awards and one of the judges Dr Tim Rees said: “This is the future generation of aquaculture trying to solve some of our problems.”
And Dr Neil Robertson from Novatis added: “We are looking for innovation and we are looking for passion in the presentations.”
The prize for the winner is a trip to the Novartis research and development centre on Prince Edward Island in Canada.
