Dr Cedric Simon
Group Leader & Principal Research Scientist
Contact details:
ST. LUCIA QLD 4067 AUSTRALIA
Biography
Cedric Simon is the Aquaculture Nutrition & Production Systems Group Leader for the Livestock & Aquaculture Program, Ag&F BU. The group consists of 30 staff within four teams: animal nutrition, aquaculture systems, aquatic zootechnics and molecular nutrition. The group major goals are to refine and develop novel diet formulations, culture systems and value-added products to improve the diversity, sustainability and efficiency of current and prospective aquaculture industry. The staff are located at the Bribie Island Research Centre, the Queensland Bioscience Precinct in St Lucia, and the CSIRO Hobart site in Battery Pt, and include nutritionists, feed technologist, physiologist, analytical chemists, molecular biologists, aquarists, fish and shellfish biologists working on various projects nationally and internationally. Staff are actively engaged in other disciplines including aquatic animal health, maturation, larval rearing, breeding, microbial fermentation, microbiome analyses, biofloc, aquaponics, as well as cell-based assays for animal and human nutrition.
As the Principal Research Scientist, Cedric's role is to initiate, lead and contribute to a wide range of research projects which assess, review and analyse impacts of dietary, feeding and culture system changes on aquatic animal production.
His research expertise and interest include the development of sustainable aquafeeds tailored to new candidate species, addressing knowledge and research methodology gaps in invertebrate species such as lobster and shrimp, exploring the capacity for functional additives to improve nutritional health under stress, disease or sub-optimal environment, advancing circular bioeconomy approaches in aquafeed, the development of novel rapid prediction methods to assess feed/ingredient nutritional value, digestibility and crustacean physiological status. He has focused on adapting these research outcomes to industry needs and transferring technology to commercial-scale to enhance innovation and impact. Those activities have been performed on the following core aquaculture species for Australia and SE Asia: Atlantic salmon, barramundi, kingfish, pompano, jade perch, black tiger prawns, spiny lobsters, abalone, whiteleg shrimp and tilapia.
He has lead for the past 6 years the Ridley-CSIRO Alliance project aiming at characterising the nature and function of bioactives in Novacq, determining its commercial application on new candidate species, and developing novel production protocols. In 2022/2023, he is also the Aquaculture component leader for the Graincorp-CSIRO CRC-P project aiming at the development of novel plant protein products for Aquafeeds.
Achievements and Awards
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2016-2017
Top 10 selected Aquacelerator Fellows - CSIRO/WORLDFISH
Blue Economy Challenge & Aquacelerator, DFAT InnovationXchange -
2012-2013
Science and Innovation Awards for Young People in Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry
Department of Agriculture and Water Resources -
2007-2009
The Vice-Chancellor’s Prize for Best Doctoral Thesis
University of Auckland
Professional Areas
Fields of Research
Current Roles
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Project component leader
Development of plant protein products for aquafeed - Graincorp CRC-P -
Project Leader
Ridley Alliance on Novacq and bioactives -
Project member
Ridley CRC-P on nutritional solutions to combat salmon thermal stress -
Project Leader
Fee-for-service aquafeed manufacturing and analysis -
Project member
CAS-CSIRO canola circular economy project -
Project member (past PL)
Advancing Viet Uc Nutrition -
Future Protein Mission support
Aquaculture related initiatives
Academic Qualifications
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2010
PhD in Marine Science
University of Auckland -
2005
Bsc in Aquaculture
James Cook University
Professional Experiences
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2020-ongoing
Group Leader (Nutrition and Production Systems) & Principal Research Scientist
CSIRO -
2018-2020
Group Leader (Nutrition) & Senior Research Scientist
CSIRO -
2015-2018
Team Leader & Senior Research Scientist
CSIRO -
2013-2015
Research Fellow Crustacean Nutrition
University of Tasmania -
2010-2013
Postdoctoral Research Fellow
University of Tasmania -
2009-2010
Senior Technical Officer
University of Tasmania
Grants
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2017-2018
DFAT Blue Economy Challenge
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2015-2022
Various industry clients
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2014-2015
Seafood CRC
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2012-2013
Science and Innovation Award