STONEVILLE, Miss. -- The president of the World Aquaculture Society is the latest in a long line of Mississippi State University connections to this organization.

MSU Extension Service aquaculture professor Jimmy Avery was elected president of the organization at its annual convention earlier this year and will serve until June 2020.

Based at the MSU Delta Research and Extension Center in Stoneville, Avery has served as the MSU Extension aquaculture specialist since 1999. He is also the director of the U.S. Department of Agriculture Southern Regional Aquaculture Center.

Established in 1969, the World Aquaculture Society promotes educational, scientific and technological developments of aquaculture worldwide. The organization has more than 3,000 members in nearly 100 countries, with chapters in the U.S. and Korea, as well as Latin American-Caribbean, African and Asian-Pacific regions. 

Former society presidents include Louis D’Abramo, who was an aquaculture biologist with the Mississippi Agricultural and Forestry Experiment Station and dean of the MSU Graduate School until his retirement in 2013. Former MSU graduate students Bill Daniels and Jim Tidwell also served as president. D’Abramo and former MSU faculty members Craig Tucker and John Hargreaves currently serve as fellows of the organization.

“MSU has a tradition of service to the World Aquaculture Society, and I am honored to be asked to serve,” Avery said. “This is the pinnacle of my professional service, and I look forward to continuing the organization’s commitment to science, technology, education and information exchange.

Avery previously served as president-elect, a member of the World Aquaculture Society Board of Directors and president of the organization’s U.S. chapter.