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Dr Cedric Simon

Group Leader & Principal Research Scientist

https://people.csiro.au/s/c/cedric-simon

Contact details:

BIOSCIENCE PREC 306 CARMODY RD
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

  • 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

Current Roles

  • 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

  • 2010

    PhD in Marine Science
    University of Auckland

  • 2005

    Bsc in Aquaculture
    James Cook University

Professional Experiences

  • 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

  • 2017-2018

    DFAT Blue Economy Challenge

  • 2015-2022

    Various industry clients

  • 2014-2015

    Seafood CRC

  • 2012-2013

    Science and Innovation Award

Publications