Institute of Aquaculture

After a BSc in Applied Biology and Pure and Applied Chemistry from the University of Wales Institute of Science and Technology (UWIST), Cardiff and a PhD in fish nutrition from the University of Aston in Birminham, I came to the "Unit of Aquatic Pathobiology" at Stirling University (later to become the Institute of Aquaculture) as a short-term postdoctoral research fellow working on tilapia nutrition for the Overseas Development Administration (now the Department for International Development, DfID). My early work was principally concerned with protein:energy ratios and essential amino acid requirements of tilapias although this rapidly expanded to encompass many apects of fish nutrition which centre on use of low-cost, locally available, ingredients that could be used in aquaculture feeds, especially for tropical freshwater food fish (tilapias, carps and catfishes). I have had research students working on a range of fish (salmon, trout, wolffish, cod, carp, tilapia, catfish, gilthead seabream), crustacea (penaeid shrimp, macrobrachium) and even crocodilians and on nutritional topics ranging from larval rearing, through ascorbic acid nutrition, to use of in-feed enzymes and effects of feeding regime. Most recently my research interests are in the toxic and antinutritional factors present in plant feedstuffs (particularly those of tropical origin) and the environmental impacts of feeding in aquaculture. I am also a founding Editor of the Blackwells journal Aquaculture Nutrition.

In my "learning and teaching" roles I have been Vice Dean (Learning and Teaching) in the Faculty of Natural Sciences and am presently Divisional Director of Learning and Teaching as well as Chief Examiner and director of our undergraduate programmes.