BIOGRAPHY
	Jurgenne Honculada Primavera is the first Senior Scientist of the Iloilo-based Aquaculture Department of the Southeast Asian Fisheries Development Center (SEAFDEC/AQD). She finished B.S. (cum laude) and M.A. Zoology degrees and a Ph.D. in Marine Science. She joined the Mindanao State University in Marawi City where she taught undergraduate biology and zoology courses for almost 10 years.

Her early studies at SEAFDEC/AQD which she joined in 1975 focused on shrimp culture, in particular broodstock development and pond grow-out systems. Noting negative environmental and socioeconomic impacts of shrimp farming, she was among the first to ring warning bells on the perils of unplanned aquaculture. Hence her shift in research interests to mangrove-friendly aquaculture and the mangrove-penaeid shrimp connection, the latter forming her doctoral thesis. For this body of work, she was conferred a Ph.D. in Science honoris causa by Stockholm University in September 2004. Her citation read: "In cooperation with scientists from Stockholm University she has shown that mangroves are key areas for recruitment of fish and shrimp and that development of conventional shrimp farming may have far reaching negative economic and social implications …[To] create sustainable alternatives she is now doing research on … integrated farming of shrimp, fish, crabs and mangrove." 

Earlier, she was elected to the Swedish Royal Academy on Agriculture and Forestry (2002) and the international honor societies Phi Kappa Phi, Phi Sigma and Pi Gamma Mu. Among other honors, she was given the Dr. Elvira Tan Memorial Award (PCAMRD) for Best Paper in Aquaculture/ Fisheries four times -- in 1988, 1994, 2000 and 2004. The latest feather on her cap is a $150,000 grant from the Pew Fellows Program in Marine Conservation which will fund initiatives to conserve and rehabilitate Philippine mangroves through education and local governance. The critical role of coastal protection provided by mangrove greenbelts, among many other functions, has been highlighted by the horrific tsunami events of December 2004. For winning the Pew grant, Dr. Primavera was commended by the Philippine Congress (House Resolution 38 of 2005) and the Iloilo Provincial Board (Resolution No. 2005-062).
 

Four decades of academic and research experience have produced some 50 scientific articles and review papers in journals and proceedings, and 25 manuals, books, book chapters, technical reports and other publications as senior author, and another 20 papers as co-author. Last year she wrote the well-received Handbook of Mangroves in the Philippines - Panay with colleagues from SEAFDEC/AQD and the University of the Philippines in the Visayas. She has attended ~ 70 national and international conferences and workshops on aquaculture, fisheries, mangroves, and the environment, and done international consultancy work (e.g., UN-FAO/UNDP, Asian Development Bank).

With husband Nick, she has reared four offspring, now all grown up: Yasmin - who holds B.S. and M.S. degrees in Marine Fisheries, Nikos - a budding writer-cum-law student, Karlo - finishing his master's degree in Marine Chemistry at the U.P. Marine Science Institute, and Jorge - joining the U.P. Visayas faculty with an M.S. International Development (International University of Japan). Approaching the end of an active and fruitful career in science, she takes pride in mentoring younger generations of Filipino scientists, and in pushing the frontiers of aquaculture and mangrove research through her studies on the penaeid prawns and shrimps, and on mangroves.