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| Professor Ori Lahav with Sarasota Sister Cities Tel Monde Director Linda Rosenbluth at Museum of Whimsey amongst the “hands of friendship” sculptors |
The Sarasota Sister Cities Association recently organized and hosted an International Conference on “Sustainability through Renewable Energy & Aquaculture” at the University of South Florida-Sarasota/Manatee, Nov 13-15, 2013. Representatives from six of our eight sister cities and from all four area Colleges and Universities gave presentations at the conference. Over 300 people were in attendance.
The theme for Day 1 of the conference was Sustainability Concepts and Practices and in this session Professor Ori Lahav, the Sister City delegate for Tel Mond, Israel, provided an enlightening presentation on “Improving the Quality of Desalinated Seawater”. Dr. Lahav is an Associate Professor of Environmental, Water and Agricultural Engineering at Technion-the Israel Institute of Technology in Haifa, Israel. His research interests focus on water quality and aquacultural engineering. He has received several significant awards for research innovation and academic excellence in this field. Dr. Lahav arrived from Durham, NC where he is currently on sabbatical leave at Duke University.
Professor Lahav was thrilled to be a part of the program and is planning to develop cooperative work with Dr. Kevan Main, the Director of the Mote Marine Laboratory, Aquaculture Facility in Sarasota. Dr. Main’s presentation at the conference was on “Opportunities to Conserve Our Fisheries and Ocean Resources Using Sustainable Aquaculture”. Forty percent of the seafood consumed worldwide is from aquaculture. Water quality is a very important factor for production of healthy seafood from aquaculture and cooperation between these two institutions will provide new insights for future developments in aquaculture.