Dr. Michael Tlusty is Associate Professor at the University of Massachusetts Boston. Previously, he was the Director of Ocean Sustainability Science at the New England Aquarium since 1999, where he was developing an aquaculture program that integrates the knowledge skills and abilities of the entire New England Aquarium community. His interest in sustainable aquaculture was formulated prior to his time at the aquarium, when he worked in Newfoundland, Canada to assess the environmental impact of salmon aquaculture, and ultimately to determine environmentally safe production levels. Michael has extended this work within the aquarium, where he helped to develop the Sustainable Seafood Initiative. This was the first NGO program to partner with a commercial major corporation to advise them on ways to improve the sustainability of their seafood purchases. Since that time, Michael has worked on both wild fishery and aquaculture issues, and has also looked at ways to integrate emerging fields to create new metrics to assess the journey toward sustainability. Much of Michael’s work in seafood is working with certification systems to improve them, and has recently published the first theoretical model for how certification can improve seafood production. Michael also conducts research on health, nutrition and disease in crustaceans, and his paper on how omega-3 fatty acids affect neurogenesis has been cited over 100 times. Michael was born near Chicago, Illinois. He has a B.S. in Animal Science from University of Illinois, and a Ph.D. in Biology from Syracuse University.