I am ACHUTHANKUTTY and my friends call me ACHU. I was born on 12th December 1947 and spent my formative years in a little village called Chittur in Kerala, the most literate state in India. After completing my graduation in Zoology in 1969, I moved to Ernakulam (Kochi) for my postgraduation in Marine Biology which I successfully completed in 1971. Infact, I was the recipient of Kerala University Merit Scholorship during 1969-71 for my excellence in studies!
A lot of career opportunities came in my way, but I chose to become a scientist in biological oceanography. I joined the National Institute of Ocenography at its Regional Center at Kochi in December 1971 as a Research Fellow and later shifted to its HQ at Goa as a regular scientist in September 1973. Since then I am with NIO in the Biological Ocenography Division at Goa.
Since the beginning of my research career, I have been fascinated with crustaceans, particularly the marine prawns (shrimps) and my work on these economically important animals ultimately led to the award of Ph. D. Degree in Applied Biology from Bombay University in 1984. I have made significant contributions on aspects related to panaeid larval ecology, growth, distribution, species composition, etc. and later took interest in shrimp culture related aspects. I have completed a project on "Juvenile marine prawn resources in the estuaries of Goa" as its leader (1990-93). Presently, I am leading a "National Technology Mission Mode Project on Prawn Culture" (1994-98) funded by the department of Biotechnology, New Delhi. I am also a co-investigator in some other aquaculture related projects, notably "Production of PUFAs by marine organisms and their use in aquaculture diets".
I have also been an active member of the zooplankton team. My contribution has been in areas such as ecology, distribution, production, crustacean larval taxonomy, etc. Our team has made pioneering and extensive studies on neuston composition of epibenthic zooplankton in the coral ecosystem on the Lakshadweep Archipelago. As a participant of the Indo-US project on "Tropic Dynamics", I have undergone training in molecular biology, particularly in the design and development of DNA probes for larval zooplankton in the Institute of marine and Coastal Sciences, New Brunswick (NJ), USA (July-September, 1996). This is a very fascinating and Interesting field and I believe that application of molecular techniques in zooplankton studies will help in unravelling some of the mysteries yet unsolved.
I also had an oportunity to work with some well known French zooplanktonologists while I was on deputation to France under the CSIR-CNRS Exchange Programme (1990). During this visit, not only that I visited some of the important oceanographic Institutes and interacted with a number of scientists, but also invited to present a paper in the 2nd International Pelagic Biogeography at Amsterdam (July 1995).
I am a Life Member of the "Indian Society of Crustacean Biology" and "Society of Biosciences" and an Honorary Member of the "Aquaculture Foundation of India". I am also an executive Member of ISCB since its inception and a Fellow of Society of Biosciences.
I have published about 70 research papers on various aspects of biological oceanography and aquaculture. I am a recognised research guide of Goa University for Ph. D. Degree and presently 2 students are working under my supervision.