Professor Brett Glencross

Honorary Professor

Institute of Aquaculture Pathfoot Building, University of Stirling, Stirling, FK9 4LA

Professor Brett Glencross

Contact details

About me

Dr Brett Glencross is the Professor for Aquaculture Nutrition at the Institute of Aquaculture at the University of Stirling. He commenced this role in January 2016.

Prior to joining the University of Stirling he was the Technical Manager with the Aqua-Feed Division of Ridley, Australia’s largest provider of animal nutrition solutions and products. Prior to joining Ridley he was the Senior Principal Research Scientist for Aquaculture Feed Technologies research at the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO) in Australia from 2009 to 2015.

He has Honours and Masters Degrees in Biochemistry from the University of Western Australia and a PhD in Animal Nutrition from the University of Queensland. 

Over the past 20 years he has worked in Australia, Cambodia, Canada, China, France, Japan, Norway, Saudi Arabia, Scotland, Thailand and Vietnam. He has led two major international development (ODA) projects from 2002 to 2015 in Vietnam and Cambodia. He has also worked closely with several major international aquaculture feed companies throughout Australia, Asia and Europe.

He was an editor for the journal Aquaculture Nutrition from 2008-2016. He was also a board director for the Asia-Pacific chapter of the World Aquaculture Society from 2013 - 2016. Additionally he is presently Chair of the Scientific Committee of the International Society for Fish Nutrition and Feeding (ISFNF), and was Chair of the Organising Committee for the 2014 ISFNF Conference held in Australia. 

As the scientist that led the development and commercialisation of the microbial bioactive ingredient Novacq™ at CSIRO he and his team were awarded that organisations’ prestigious Impact from Science Medal. In recognition of his contributions to the Australian prawn and barramundi farming sectors Professor Glencross was awarded the Industry Research and Innovation Award in 2012.

Professor Glencross is widely recognised as one of the world's leading scientists in the field of raw material (ingredient) evaluation, with regular reviews and papers published on this topic. In addition to this specialisation, he has a broad research background that includes many aspects of nutrition for aquaculture species. The five key areas he works in can be summarised as;

  1. Development and evaluation of raw materials (e.g. the quality assessment of global fishmeals, single-cell protein resources and novel oils for use in Atlantic salmon feeds). Current projects he leads on this area include:

    • FishMeal Qualities (FMQ): Understanding the variation in quality drivers of global fishmeal supplies.
    • MicroPro: Improving quality characteristics of Single-Cell-Protein (SCP; microbial) resources for use in Atlantic salmon diets.

  2. Refining the knowledge on essential amino acid and fatty acid requirements in fish and shrimp (e.g. defining omega-3 fatty acid requirements in Atlantic salmon, shrimp and marine fish). Current projects he leads on this area include:

    • OptiHealth: Optimising the health of Atlantic salmon through optimal omega-3 application.
    • ProtoROOS: Protonutrition, resilience, oxygen and omega-3's in Atlantic salmon nutrition.
    • BCAASM: Branched-chain amino acid metabolism in Atlantic salmon.

  3. Use of nutritional modelling strategies to better understand a holistic approach to diet design and management (e.g. development of mathematical models that optimise dietary protein, amino acid and energy specifications for various species). Current projects he leads on this area include:

    • SalmoFCE: Modelling the optimal nutritional requirements of King salmon.

  4. Examining the interactions between environment and nutrition (e.g. the impact that hypoxia has on nutrient and energy demands in fish). Current projects he leads on this area include:

    • ProtoROOS: Protonutrition, resilience, oxygen and omega-3's in Atlantic salmon nutrition.
    • HIFTOR: Exploring interactions between hypoxia inducible factor (HIF) and mechanistic target of rapamycin (mTOR) in regulation of appetite by rainbow trout during hypoxia.

  5. Assessment of nutrition x health interactions, including the development of functional feeds for animal health (this area encompasses several of the other projects already mentioned). Current projects he leads on this area include:

    • OptiHealth: Optimising the health of Atlantic salmon through optimal omega-3 application.
    • ProtoROOS: Protonutrition, resilience, oxygen and omega-3's in Atlantic salmon nutrition.
    • MicroPro: Improving quality characteristics of Single-Cell-Protein (SCP; microbial) resources for use in Atlantic salmon diets.