Dr. Villy Christensen
AFS is the world’s oldest and largest organization devoted to advancing fisheries science, and this is the Society’s highest award for scientific achievement. The award is presented for original and outstanding contributions to fisheries and aquatic biology.
Dr. Christensen is one of the most influential fisheries scientists in the world today. He is the principal architect behind Ecopath, and the project leader and core developer of the expanded ecosystem modelling system Ecopath with Ecosim (EwE). The development and support of this approach is among his most outstanding contributions to fisheries science. It has become the most widely used approach for ecosystem-based management, and is freely used by thousands of scientists from throughout the world. The importance of Ecopath was recognized by NOAA in 2009 as one of ten major scientific breakthroughs in the organization’s 200-year history.
Dr. Christensen’s research unit at UBC serves as a central hub for the Ecopath Research and Development Consortium, which has 28 institutional members and for which Dr. Christensen serves as Executive Board Chair. He is highly sought after to lead international training courses and workshops to apply ecosystem approaches to fisheries management all over the world.
Dr. Christensen’s research activities focus on developing integrated assessments of future marine biodiversity and ecosystem service changes. He works in close cooperation with international colleagues, and is an integral part of a comparative modelling initiative (Fisheries and Marine Ecosystem Model Intercomparison Project, Fish-MIP), which supply vetted-model results for future assessments of the UNEP Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) and the Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES—for which he served as coordinating lead author).
“I am honoured to receive the AFS Award of Excellence, and to follow in the footsteps of truly outstanding scientists that have influenced our discipline,” said Dr Christensen. “This recognition is a tribute to all who have worked with Ecopath and with it, ecosystem approaches to fisheries management. These approaches are now being fully operationalized and integrated into management systems, and I am proud to be a cog in that wheel. I would like to thank my colleagues for the cooperation and support that has contributed to this, and also for them recommending me for this prestigious award.”
Dr. Christensen received this award at the AFS’ 150th Annual Meeting on September 24, 2020.
Tags: Awards, Biodiversity, Ecopath, Ecopath with Ecosim (EWE), Faculty, fisheries management, Modelling, Villy Christensen