UBC Fisheries Expert First Canadian to Receive $415,000 International Award

Daniel Pauly, a UBC professor and one of the world’s leading fisheries conservation researchers, will be the first Canadian to receive the International Cosmos Prize, awarded by the Expo’90 Foundation of Japan.

Worth 40 million yen (nearly CDN$415,000) and named after the cosmos flower, which was in full bloom during the closing of Expo’90 in Osaka, Japan, the International Cosmos Prize is awarded annually for research excellence that promotes the concept of “The Harmonious Coexistence of Nature and Mankind.”

Pauly, who has been profiled in The New York Times and was named by Scientific American magazine as one of the top 50 contributors to science and technology in 2003, is director of UBC’s Fisheries Centre, an innovator in fisheries science, and a vocal and influential critic of the current fishing practices that deplete the earth’s fish stocks.

He will be honoured at an Oct. 18 award ceremony in Osaka, Japan, following a commemorative lecture. Pauly will also attend a symposium held in his honour and meet with the Crown Prince of Japan and the Ministers of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries; and Land Infrastructure and Transport.

Among Pauly’s major achievements are two of the world’s most important fisheries projects. FishBase is a global database packed with information on more than 28,000 species of fish. Its Web site gets more than 20 million hits a month. Ecopath is an ecosystem-modelling software that predicts how fish populations might respond to various pressures.

Pauly, 59, has authored or co-authored over 500 scientific articles, book chapters and shorter contributions, and authored, or (co-)edited about 30 books and reports. He was elected to the Royal Society of Canada in 2003.

Past recipients of the International Cosmos Prize include biologist Richard Dawkins, Oxford University professor and author of The Selfish Gene and The Blind Watchmaker; Peter Raven, director of the world-renowned Missouri Botanical Garden; and Pulitzer Prize winner Jared Diamond of the University of California, Los Angeles.

Note to editors:

  • Dr. Pauly will be available by telephone from Osaka 1-3pm PDT.
  • Photographs of Dr. Pauly are available at www.publicaffairs.ubc.ca/download
  • High-resolution versions are available upon request.

For information on the International Cosmos Prize and for a detailed biography of Prof. Pauly, visit www.expo-cosmos.or.jp.

-30-