Rate My Professor Eric Saillant

Eric Saillant is an Associate Professor in the School of Ocean Science and Engineering at the University of Southern Mississippi's Gulf Coast Research Laboratory. He earned a PhD in fish genetics from the École Nationale Supérieure Agronomique de Montpellier in 2000 and a Master's degree from ENSCM Chimie Montpellier in 1995. After completing his doctorate, he worked as a postdoctoral scientist at Texas A&M University in 2001. Saillant joined the University of Southern Mississippi as an Assistant Professor in 2008 and was promoted to Associate Professor in 2014.

Saillant's research specializations include conservation genetics and genomics of marine organisms, particularly marine fishes of the tropical western Atlantic. He develops breeding programs for cultured organisms, studies control of reproduction and hatchery culture of warmwater marine species, and applies genomic and experimental aquaculture approaches. His areas of expertise encompass aquaculture genetics and genomics and breeding programs. Key publications feature "Development and characterization of genomic resources for a non-model marine teleost, the red snapper (Lutjanus campechanus, Lutjanidae): Construction of a high-density linkage map, anchoring of genome contigs and comparative genomic analysis" in PLoS ONE (2020), "Spatial connectivity in an adult-sedentary reef fish with extended pelagic larval phase" in Molecular Ecology (2017), "Environmental Effects on Fish Sex Determination and Differentiation" in Sexual Development (2009), and "Genetic effects on tolerance to acute cold stress in red drum, Sciaenops ocellatus L." in Aquaculture Research (2008). His earlier work on European sea bass addressed sexual growth dimorphism, temperature effects and genotype-temperature interactions on sex determination, and heritability estimates for body weight, contributing foundational knowledge to aquaculture genetics. Saillant maintains professional affiliations with the World Aquaculture Society and the American Fisheries Society. He is fluent in French and proficient in English professionally.