Meet Rashid Sumaila, Professor, University of British Columbia

Professor Rashid Sumaila is a University Killam Professor and Canada Research Chair (Tier 1) in Interdisciplinary Ocean and Fisheries Economics at the Institute for the Oceans and Fisheries, and the School of Public Policy and Global Affairs, University of British Columbia.

He specializes in bioeconomics, marine ecosystem valuation and the analysis of global issues such as fisheries subsidies, illegal fishing, climate change and oil spills. Sumaila is one of the most internationally recognized interdisciplinary ocean and fisheries economist, and one of the world’s most innovative researchers on the future of the oceans, integrating the social, economic and fisheries sciences to build novel pathways towards sustainable ocean and fisheries. Sumaila has won several prestigious awards, including the 2022 Tyler Prize for Environmental Achievement and the RSC Miroslaw Romanowski Medal for Scientific Work Relating to Environmental Problems; 2021 SSHRC Impact Award, Partnership Category; and the 2017 Volvo Environment Prize. He was inducted into the Fellowship of the Royal Society of Canada in 2019, and named a AAAS Fellow in 2023. Sumaila received his Ph.D. (Economics) from the University of Bergen and his B.Sc. (Quantity Surveying) from the Ahmadu Bello University. Finally, he served on the NASEM Committee on Quantifying US Contribution to Ocean Plastic Pollution.