A senior Mississippi State aquaculture scientist is receiving a major honor from an international professional society.

Louis R. D'Abramo was presented with a meritorious award recognizing outstanding leadership and dedicated service to the National Shellfisheries Association, which recently held its annual meeting in San Antonio, Texas.

A specialist in crustacean and fish aquaculture and nutritional ecology, D'Abramo is a professor in the university's wildlife and fisheries department and a scientist in the campus-based Mississippi Agricultural and Forestry Experiment Station.

NSA is a professional organization for researchers, industry officials and others dedicated to proper management of the world's shellfish resources. Its more than 1,000 members are spread among the United States, Canada and 18 other nations.

D'Abramo's 23-year MSU career has focused primarily on the development of efficient and environmentally friendly management strategies for alternative species, including freshwater prawns, crayfish and hybrid striped bass. Several dietary regimens for shellfish and finfish that lower feed costs, as well as a better understanding of the nutrition of crustaceans and mollusks, are among the outcomes of his work.

He also played a key role in breakthrough research toward the use of formulated feeds to replace high-cost, labor-intensive live feeds in the culture of larval fish and shrimp. His work in this area has been praised by peers as a significant step in overcoming a major limitation to the growth of global commercial aquaculture.

A much-in-demand speaker on sustainable aquaculture and feeding practices, and the nutritional physiology of marine and freshwater aquaculture species, D'Abramo holds the faculty honor of John Grisham Master Teacher. He also is a longtime member and former two-term vice president of the Robert Holland Faculty Senate.

He received a bachelor's degree from Assumption College in Worcester, Mass., and a master's and doctorate from Yale University.