Twelve members of the science and research community have been named to the independent expert panel on aquaculture science. They will join Chief Science Advisor Dr Mona Nemer to advise the federal government about how to protect the country’s marine environment for a more responsible and sustainable aquaculture sector. The creation of the independent panel was announced in February and the terms of reference (TOR) on how to advise the Ministers of Science and of Fisheries and Oceans were released a month later. Under the TOR, Nemer was expected to determine panel membership, including international experts. The members are: Dr Julia Baum, associate professor of Biology at the Univ of Victoria; Dr Alejandro Buschmann, professor at the Universidad de Los Lagos and a senior researcher from the Center of Biotechnology and Bioenginering (CeBiB) and i-mar Research Center (i-mar) in Chile; Dr Tony Farrell, professor of Zoology at the Univ of British Columbia (UBC) and a fellow of the Royal Society of Canada; Dr Susanna Fuller, senior program officer at Oceans North; Dr Larry Hammell, interim dean of the UPEI Faculty of Graduate Studies, and professor and associate dean (Graduate Studies and Research) at the Atlantic Veterinary College, Univ of Prince Edward Island; Dr Kjetil Hindar, research director at the Norwegian Institute for Nature Research (NINA) in Trondheim, Norway; Heather Jones, chief executive of the Scottish Aquaculture Innovation Centre (SAIC) in Scotland; Dr Douglas Lipton, senior research scientist for economics at United States NOAA Fisheries (National Marine Fisheries Service); Dr Matt Rise, professor in the Department of Ocean Sciences at Memorial Univ; Dr Sm'hayetsk Teresa Ryan, postdoctoral teaching and research fellow in the Department of Forest and Conservation Sciences, UBC; Dr Sandra Shumway, research professor of Marine Science at the Univ of Connecticut; and Dr Jamey Smith, executive director of the Huntsman Marine Science Centre. Under the TOR, the panel is expected to submit a draft report by July 1 and a final report by September 1. The Department of Fisheries and Oceans said the report will be made available to the public.