Conference honors UAPB aquaculture professor
Rebecca Lochmann, Ph.D., professor of aquaculture and fisheries at the University of Arkansas at Pine Bluff, recently received the Distinguished Service Award at the Aquaculture America conference in San Antonio.
Hosted by the U.S. Aquaculture Society and its partners, Aquaculture America is the nation’s only major national aquaculture conference and exposition.
According to the USAS, the Distinguished Service Award recognizes an individual who has made outstanding personal contributions to the society and the U.S. aquaculture industry. It emphasizes significant leadership and overall impact in research, education, Extension or industry development in the field of aquaculture.
“Dr. Lochmann has practiced a career of professional service,” said Anita Kelly, Extension professor at Auburn University and immediate past president of the USAS. “Particularly noteworthy contributions include serving as president of both USAS and the World Aquaculture Society. She has regularly presented her work to industry organizations such as Catfish Farmers of Arkansas and the Arkansas Bait and Ornamental Fish Growers Association and has participated in international outreach programs in Brazil, Cuba, Ghana, Indonesia, Panama, Portugal, Peru and Tanzania. She is known for her generosity as a collaborator and seemingly boundless energy as a teacher, adviser, administrator, researcher and colleague.”
From 2015 to 2023, Lochmann served as chair of the UAPB Department of Aquaculture and Fisheries. She also served as director of the UAPB Aquaculture/Fisheries Center of Excellence from 2015 to 2021. She was first hired at UAPB as an assistant professor in 1993 and was promoted to associate professor in 1996.
In 2022, Lochmann was awarded a grant through the U.S. Department of Agriculture Agricultural Research Service’s 1890 Faculty Research Sabbatical Program,which allowed her to conduct a yearlong sabbatical project at the H.K. Dupree Stuttgart National Aquaculture Research Center.
Her research addresses the interaction between nutrition, growth, stress resistance, immune responses and product quality for multiple fish species of commercial importance.
Lochmann is a member of the USAS, World Aquaculture Society, American Fisheries Society, National Aquaculture Association, Catfish Farmers of Arkansas, Arkansas Baitfish and Ornamental Fish Growers Association and the Sigma Xi Scientific Research Honor Society.
Lochmann formerly served as associate editor of the North American Journal of Aquaculture. She has published more than 80 refereed journal articles and 20 Extension publications.
Her honors and awards include being named an Arkansas Research Alliance fellow in 2017, as well as being presented the Catfish Farmers of Arkansas Excellence in Catfish Nutrition Research Award in 2010, Gamma Sigma Delta teaching awards in 2006 and 2007 and the B.D. Mayberry Young Scientist Award in 1997.
The theme for this year’s Aquaculture America conference was “Setting the Table for U.S. Aquaculture” and was attended by more than 2,000 people.
Each day, the conference featured more than 10 concurrent sessions, which addressed all aspects of aquaculture research, production technologies, Extension, education, human dimensions and regulatory issues, Lochmann said. The conference also features the largest aquaculture trade show in the Western Hemisphere.