Prof. Mohan Joseph Modayil is a Planner cum Scientist with more than 50 years of experience in research, planning and development related to marine resource management and HRD. He holds Ph.D. and D.Sc. on marine fisheries and had obtained post doctoral experience from Centre for Applied Marine Sciences, Menai Bridge, United Kingdom.
He has field experience from the West Indies to Middle East, Malaysia, Thailand, the Philippines and India in the areas of coastal development, food security, livelihood enhancement, human resource and aquaculture. He has coordinated many developmental projects funded by Official Development Assistance (ODA), Department for International Development (DFID) UK, International Development Research Centre (IDRC) Canada, Iran Fisheries Research and Training Organization (IFRTO) Iran and the Asian Fisheries Society, Malaysia.
He was instrumental to develop the open sea cage aquaculture sector in India which gained momentum instantaneously and led to the formulation of open water mariculture policy in the country. His professional engagements also include officiating the prestigious positions like Professor & Head, Department of Fisheries Resource Management in College of Fisheries, Mangalore, Director of Central Marine Fisheries Research Institute, Principal Investigator of many National and International projects with an outlay of many million USD and Member of Agricultural Scientists Recruitment Board, Govt. of India, New Delhi. He has been an independent Adviser & Consultant to many Governmental and Non Governmental Organizations. Prof. Mohan has served as Chairman/Member of several National Committees of global significance and authored over 100 publications, including papers, reports and books. He has been conferred with several awards, honours and recognitions from various organizations including the highest honour of the Asian Fisheries Society. He has traveled over 24 countries on various assignments. Currently, he is an International Development Consultant and Honorary Senior Adviser to the Government of Andhra Pradesh in India.
He acts as the Chief Mentor and Senior Consultant for almost every domain that SOL has interest in.