Oceans of Opportunity
by Jackie Elowsky
Resource Magazine,
Published by American Society for Agricultural Engineers

As a boy growing up in Nanjing, China, Jaw-Kai Wang had never heard of an agricultural engineer. But a professor at National Taiwan University changed all that when he made Wang an offer he couldn't refuse. "If you want to save the world, this is where you begin," the professor said. Those words lured Wang into the program at the university where he would later graduate with a bachelor's degree in agricultural engineering. He then relocated to the United States and continued his education at Michigan State University where he earned a master's degree and Ph.D. in agricultural engineering. He is now professor of biosystems engineering at the University of Hawaii. After teaching agricultural machine design for several years, Wang's interests turned from land to water. In the late 1970s, one of his graduate students began a project to study prawns, which are edible crustaceans that resemble shrimp. Wang secured funding to start and maintain an "aquaculture" program at the school. Since then, he has made major breakthroughs in raising shrimp and oysters for mass production and is developing some innovative uses for algae. "We are agricultural engineers," Wang says. "What we do best is to grow things. To produce things from biological systems." By 1989, Wang had developed a way to improve oyster and shrimp production. He designed an aquaculture system for raising shrimp and prawns and soon noticed a water quality problem caused by a buildup of uneaten food and shrimp droppings. He found that he could put algae, which feeds on the wastes, in the water with the shrimp. When the water is clean, the algae is pumped into a separate tank housing oysters. Because the algae floats, Wang designed a fluidized bed to float the oysters on a column of water. The oysters can then eat the algae. This system is patented and a company in Hawaii is using it. Currently, Wang is working toward getting a patent on an antibiotic made from algae. The drug, which kills infection-causing bacteria such as staphylococcus, is being tested on animals and could someday be used against bacteria that has become resistant to existing drugs. Wang says algae has many other uses, including as a food coloring. "People have never bothered much to look at it," he says. "There is nothing but potential here. It's so interesting." Wang predicts that within the next 10 years, jobs in aquaculture will be plentiful as fish production becomes important as a food source. He believes that an agricultural and biological engineering background allows people entering this field to be versatile in these areas. At 65, Wang says "there's never a dull moment" in his career. "You put the puzzle together piece by piece. There will always be a need for production from biological systems." And as for saving the world: "There is still the idealistic part," he says. "To do something useful. To make a contribution. That you should give back to society."

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