Research Award Recipient 2003: Dr. Tillmann Benfey

Dr. Benfey is a professor of Biology at the University of New Brunswick in Fredericton, where he teaches courses in animal physiology, environmental biology and aquaculture. Originally from Montreal, he completed his BSc in Marine Biology at McGill University in 1981 followed by a MSc in Biology from Memorial University in 1984 and a PhD in Zoology from the University of British Columbia in 1988. With funding from a NATO Science Fellowship, he then spent a year at the MAFF Fisheries Laboratory in Lowestoft (UK) before taking up his current faculty position at UNB in 1989. His research programme, sustained largely through the efforts of numerous graduate students, focuses on developing effective methods for producing sterile and single-sex populations of fish for aquaculture. This research programme has benefited from extensive collaboration with DFO, NRC and the aquaculture industry. In addition to his duties as a faculty member at UNB, Dr. Benfey is an Associate Editor for the North American Journal of Aquaculture and is on the Editorial Advisory Board for Aquaculture. He has served on the Boards of Directors of the Aquaculture Association of Canada (1995-97), the Huntsman Marine Sciences Centre (1998-2002) and the AquaNet Network of Centres of Excellence (2001-2003). He has also served on the National Biotechnology Advisory Committee for Industry Canada (1995-97) as well as numerous advisory committees for the Atlantic Salmon Federation, the NB Department of Fisheries and Aquaculture and the NB Broodstock Development Program.