Dr Craig Lawrence leads the Department of Fisheries research involving freshwater species. He has over 25 years of experience in aquaculture and aquatic biology research, and over 15 years’ experience managing the largest freshwater research facility and hatchery in WA with an annual production of over 750,000 fish per year.
Dr Lawrence was one of the first students in Australia to complete postgraduate education in aquaculture and one of only a handful of Australians to be accepted into the prestigious University of Stirling’s Master of Science in Aquaculture program by advanced coursework and research. He is the only Australian to be awarded the University’s External Examiner’s Prize and was in the top one per cent of graduates from the course.
Dr Lawrence has been involved in a broad range of aquaculture research projects involving national and international partners. He has been invited to visit research and production facilities in UK, Europe, USA, Middle East, Japan and Southeast Asia.
Dr Lawrence has been awarded over $7 million in external research grants, supervised over 20 postgraduate students and published over 50 significant aquatic biology and aquaculture research papers across a broad field including reproduction, nutrition, strain selection, translocation, experimental design, conservation biology, production systems, husbandry, selective breeding, biological control and species distribution.
For his research he has received the Government of Western Australia’s Premier’s Award for Innovation and a High Commendation for Services to Regional and Remote Communities. Dr Lawrence has been a Chartered Biologist since 1992 and was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Biology in 2014.
In addition to leading the Department of Fisheries freshwater research activities, Dr Lawrence is an Adjunct Associate Professor at the University of Western Australia, where he supervises and trains postgraduate students to be the leading aquaculture and aquatic biology researchers, educators, policy makers and industry leaders of the future.
Dr Craig Lawrence PhD
Principal Research Scientist, Biodiversity and Biosecurity
T: (08) 9203 0111
E: craig.lawrence@fish.wa.gov.au