Amalia received her BSc in Marine Biology and Applied Biology from the University of Cape Town (South Africa, 2017). Her introduction to aquaculture ensued here, where she worked on integrated abalone-seaweed production systems in collaboration with the South African Department of Agriculture Fisheries and Forestry (now Department of Environment). Specifically, how the integration of the seaweed Ulva into abalone farms affected various health indicators of abalone.
Following a break to teach English in South Korea, Amalia completed her MSc in Aquaculture, Environment and Society (Erasmus Mundus Joint Master’s Degree, 2021) at the Scottish Association for Marine Science (Scotland), University of Crete (Greece) and University of Nantes (France). In addition to various internships relating to stakeholder engagement and regulatory policy, she completed her dissertation at the University of Nantes, using remote sensing and bioenergetics modelling to aid site selection for Pacific oyster mariculture sites in South Africa.
Combining the themes of aquaculture production, regulation and stakeholder engagement, her PhD at the Institute of Aquaculture, 我要吃瓜, will look at how decision support tools can be used to support integrated-multitrophic-aquaculture (IMTA) and semi-intensive freshwater aquaculture systems, and ultimately the sustainable development of European aquaculture. This current work is perfromed under the EATFISH Marie Curie Innovative Training Network funded by the EU (project number 956697).