Novus World Aquaculture Society (WAS) Internship programme winner announced

João Manuel Cura Rito from Coimbra, Portugal, has won the Novus World Aquaculture Society (WAS) Internship.

As part of his prize, João, 29, will travel to Vietnam to take part in a four-week internship in summer 2014. João will work with The Novus Aquaculture Research team on a current project being carried out at the Novus Aqua Research Center in Vietnam. The Novus Aqua Research Center is integrally connected to the aqua industry and will allow the intern to learn about and experience aquaculture in Vietnam through interactions with the Novus research and operations teams.

João completed his undergraduate studies at the University of Coimbra with an emphasis in ecology. He continued there completing his masters in the area of estuarine ecology. His research focused on the population dynamics in extreme climate events of a bivalve species present in Mondego estuary, Portugal. After finishing his masters degree, João was hired to participate in grant funded environmental research at a commercial aquaculture company on the coast of Portugal. This exposure to aquaculture catalyzed his interest in the field. An opportunity was presented to continue studies towards a PhD degree in biosciences at the University of Coimbra in biochemistry with a specialty in aquaculture. The work aims to optimise diets for farmed sea-bass through metabolic profiling. The research is grounded in fundamental aspects of biochemistry and metabolism, tools which João has enthusiastically embraced with the goal of bridging nutrition back to principles of aquaculture and ecology.

His internship challenge proposal is entitled “Glycerol as a Novel Feed- stock Supplement for Sparing of Dietary Protein Catabolism and Thus Reducing Feed Cost”. The proposal is described as an evaluation of the feasibility of inclusion of glycerol byproducts from biodiesel production in fish diets with the application of biochemical methods for estimating whether the contribution from glycerol reflects the sparing of gluconeogenic amino acid catabolism.

João is excited about the opportunity to explore Vietnam, meet new people and learn about the aquaculture industry there. He is looking forward to working with Novus scientists. “The chance to exchange ideas with top scientists in the aquaculture research area is something that not all students in the beginning of their PhD have the privilege to do and I am very excited to start this summer!”

João Manuel Cura Rito