Maria Célia Portella

Maria Célia Portella has been an Associate Professor at the Sao Paulo State University (UNESP) and at the Aquaculture Center of UNESP since 2004. Her education includes PhD at the Federal University of Sao Carlos in 1995 and post-doctoral degree from the Aquaculture Center in 2002. She has been involved with the World Aquaculture Society (WAS) and the Latin American and Caribbean Chapter of WAS (LACC) for many years, as a member of the Boards and as President of both societies. She also served in several WAS and LACC Committees and organized four Latin American and Caribbean (LACQUA) conferences. Her professional history includes 16 years serving as scientist at Fisheries Institute, Brazil, and active international collaboration in the Americas, Africa and Europe. Her primary duties are research and education, but extension activities are also part of her routine.

From 2006 to 2011, she was Host Country Principal Investigator in projects of the Aquaculture & Fishery Collaborative Research Support Program (CRSP/USAID/USA), and from 2013-2018 she served as Co-coordinator of the LAC Regional Center of Excellence (AquaFish Innovation Lab/USAID). She served as coordinator of the Advisory Committee on Aquaculture and Fisheries of the National Council for Scientific and Technological Development (CNPq) of the Ministry of Science, Technology and Innovation in Brazil and currently is a member of the pool of experts for the development of the FAO Sustainable Aquaculture Guidelines (SAG/FAO). She has authored around 50 articles and book chapters, teaches disciplines of Fish Larviculture and Aquaponics, and advises students in these fields of research.