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Meryl Williams has worked for nearly 40 years in Australian and international fisheries, aquaculture, aquatic resource conservation and agricultural research and development. Currently, she is focusing on research and advocacy on women and gender in aquaculture and fisheries, and information and science for fair and responsible fish production for food security and nutrition. She is presently the Vice Chair of the Scientific Advisory Committee of the International Seafood Sustainability Foundation and a member of the board of Aquaculture without Frontiers (Australia). Among previous positions, she was the Chair of the Commission of the Australian Centre for International Agricultural Research, vice-chair of the Scientific and Technical Advisory Committee of the Global Environment Facility (GEF-STAP), member of the following: Governing Board of the Institute for Crop Research in the Semi-Arid Tropics (ICRISAT), Scientific Steering Committee of the Census of Marine Life, Pew Marine Fellows Advisory Committee, founding Board of the Australian Fisheries Management Authority, Australian Maritime College Council, and Chair of the Australian Ballast Water Management Advisory Council. In recent years, she has led a number of key international evaluation teams including: evaluating the World Bank fishery program, and FAO’s support for the implementation of the Code of Conduct for Responsible Fisheries. She was formerly Director General of the WorldFish Center (1994-2004), during which time she concentrated the focus of WorldFish on eradicating poverty, improving people’s nutrition, and reducing pressure on the environment. She was previously the Director of the Australian Institute of Marine Science, Executive Director of the Bureau of Rural Sciences, tuna fisheries statistician at the Secretariat for the Pacific Community and fisheries biologist in the Queensland state government service. She was elected a Fellow of the Academy of Science, Technology and Engineering (ATSE) in 1993 and awarded an Australian Centenary Medal in 2003. In 2004, the Asian Fisheries Society (AFS) elected her as an Honorary Life Member. For AFS, she initiated the long running series of global symposia on women/gender in fisheries and aquaculture and maintains the related global website Genderaquafish.org. She is leading the AFS project to develop an online information system for Asia-Pacific fisheries and aquaculture, called AsiaPacific-FishWatch. Educated at the University of Queensland and James Cook University, in 2010, she was named an ‘Outstanding Alumnus’ of James Cook University, Australia. In 2015, the Crawford Fund awarded her the Crawford Medal in recognition of her contributions to international agricultural research.
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