Shared Achievement through Teaching, Mentoring and Giving
Cyr Couturier is an Aquaculture Scientist and the Chair of Aquaculture Programs at the Marine Institute. His areas of research have included enhanced farm production, environmental management and aquaculture interactions. He has held numerous positions on volunteer boards, both academic and socioeconomic related to sustainable rural and economic development across Canada.
Cyr has received recognition for his contributions to education, research and development in sustainable aquaculture from provincial, regional and national organizations, including the Aquaculture Association of Canada Lifetime Achievement Award in 2014.
The impact of Cyr’s career has extended far beyond Canada, through his international development work where he has assisted and supported hundreds of seafood farmers around the globe, teaching sustainable aquaculture practices to advance their livelihoods and wellbeing, and that of their families and communities. Back at home in St. John’s, as accomplished as his career has been, Cyr would be the first to consider his greatest achievement to be his connection with his students and their successes. He has mentored and supported hundreds of post-graduate students (diploma, MSc, PhD), junior and high school, and adult learners over a full range of fisheries, aquaculture, and environmental science programs.
In addition to his dedication in the classroom and the impact his mentoring has made to his students, Cyr has been making another significant commitment to his aquaculture students at the Institute. He has been financially helping students for well over 20 years and formally through Marine Institute Employee Giving payroll deductions since 2004, when he established the Sustainable Aquaculture Scholarship at the Institute. MI students from around the world - from Port au Port East, Newfoundland to Novara, Italy; to Fukushima, Japan to Makassar, Indonesia - have shared in being recognized for their successes and supported in pursuing their careers through Cyr’s teaching, mentorship and scholarship donations.
This March at MI’s Scholarships and Awards ceremony the 30th student will receive this recognition, and as Cyr, the Aquaculture Programs and indeed the entire Institute share in celebrating this milestone, the scholarship has fittingly been renamed the Cyr Couturier Sustainable Aquaculture Scholarship
Pictured is Cyr Couturier (front, right) with MI graduate student (MSc Aquaculture) Siti Darajat (front, left), sampling ocean plastic reduction trials with seaweed farmers in Indonesia, together striving to improve livelihoods and reduce impacts on the environment.
