At the opening ceremony of the Aquaculture Europe 2021 event in Funchal, Madeira, the European Aquaculture Society gave its Distinguished Service Award to Professor Gavin Burnell of the University College, Cork, Ireland, for his commitment and contributions to the objectives and activities of the Society. AE2021 was attended by more than 1,400 participants from 57 countries.

Herve Migaud, EAS President 2020-2022 introduced and presented the award.

Back in 1990, Gavin Burnell joined the EAS Board and was the National representative for Ireland. He remained on the Board right up to 2004, including two mandates as EAS Secretary. Here he is holding the EAS sign with the 2002-2004 Board of Directors under President Michael New (back row, centre).
After that long period of overseeing the activities of EAS, he came back to the Board in 2016 as President-elect and was our President from 2018 to 2020.

For the last 20 years, he has also been the Editor-in-chief of our journal, Aquaculture International and without his leadership, the journal would not have seen the excellent development that we have witnessed.

Even beyond official retirement from the University College Cork, that passion for aquaculture remains and he is as busy as ever, giving his time without counting to help EAS and support our community of members.

He has been the EAS Board representative on Organising Committees of several Aquaculture Europe events, including as Programme co-chair and also as Steering Committee chair for Cork (that could not finally take place in Ireland), and is our representative on the SC for AE2022 in Rimini.
As he presented the award, Herve added that he was personally very pleased to make the presentation and that “Gavin is one of those special persons that continues to give without counting to further the objectives of EAS and expand our community”. He is shown here with President Herve Migaud.

The EAS Distinguished Service Award
The EAS award for Distinguished Services is destined for individuals that have devoted very significant effort and time to the development of EAS and its objectives. The Award for Distinguished Services has only been presented four times in the 40-year history of EAS. The first time was to Prof. Guido Persoone, who was one of the “founding fathers” of EAS, its President from 1980 to 1982 and its Treasurer for 6 years. The second awardee was Prof. Niels de Pauw, EAS secretary for 4 years. More recently, it was presented to Yves Harache (in 2014) and Selina Stead (2016) for their very long service on the Board of Directors and as Presidents, and to Margriet Drouillon (2018) for her impact as EAS Treasurer from 2012 to 2018.