Prof. Amir Sagi receives Lifetime Achievement Award
Prof. Amir Sagi receives Lifetime Achievement Award in University Transformation from the ACEEU Asia-Pacific Triple E Awards
In an era of academic boycotts of Israel, Prof. Amir Sagi has done something rather startling. He has won a Lifetime Achievement Award in University Transformation from the ACEEU Asia-Pacific Triple E Awards. The award ceremony took place last week in Kuala Lumpur Malaysia, which does not have diplomatic relations with Israel.
Ben-Gurion University of the Negev's Prof. Amir Sagi is at the forefront of his field. His research into the biological manipulation of prawns has spawned multiple successful startups and commercial ventures. He and his students' techniques represent a gamechanger for the prawn industry by vastly increasing the edible supply. The production of monosex prawns has significant advantages with respect to yield. Prof. Sagi has discovered how to produce only female or only male prawns generation after generation.
As the global population increases and food sources dwindle, sustainable protein sources are becoming ever more critical. Land mammals take up too much land and resources, whereas aquatic animals take up much fewer. Therefore, Prof. Sagi's research will become ever more important in a world coping with climate change.
"When I first started the study of sex switching in prawns, many of the experts admitted that there was probably a nice scientific story here but nothing practical. In the following years, my students and I researched the topic extensively. There were ups and downs, but eventually there were more and more indications that we could control the sex of prawns. When we moved to field testing it in aquaculture, it also succeeded. I will never forget meeting with the farmers in the Mekong Delta in Vietnam and watching them increase their production and their profits thanks to our breakthroughs.
In Senegal, we were moved to realize we could use male prawns as a sustainable biological control against snails carrying Schistosomiasis (Bilharzia) - something we had not originally considered when developing all male prawns.
Aside from the international scientific recognition, meeting people in Vietnam and Senegal have been some of the finest moments of my career. By demanding rigorous scientific excellence in research, we were able to meet with many people at all levels of society in various countries to help them implement our research," says Prof. Sagi.
Prof. Sagi explains his career that focuses on scientific excellence in the service of real-world needs.
"The main lesson I have learned over more than 30 years is the responsibility to build bridges between state-of-the-art academic excellence that seeks to be the most innovative to the real world of farming, entrepreneurship and industry. To do that, we academics must train students from every level of society and hold them to the highest academic and scientific standards. By doing so, we extend the boundaries of academic influence to social, agricultural, and industrial activities. It is so important to get out of the ivory tower and into the field: to be part of a diverse team and learn how to work across varied cultures and countries. While doing so, we should never be afraid of testing the latest scientific techniques in the field and adopting them as necessary," he concludes.