Alec Courtelis Award Recipient 2008:
Felipe Carvalho

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We are proud to announce that graduate student Felipe Carvalho is the recipient of the 2008 Alec Courtelis Award in honor of his academic accomplishments and community service. He was chosen out of nearly 4,000 international graduate students at the University of Florida to receive this top honor. He also won an Outstanding Student Award from the College of Agricultural and Life Sciences based on academics and community involvement as well.

Felipe Carvalho is the Master's student from Brazil in the College of Agricultural and Life Sciences majoring in Fisheries and Aquatic Sciences at the University of Florida. Felipe maintains a 3.64 GPA while working on his research project, assessment and movement of pelagic sharks in the South Atlantic Ocean. Felipe has presented fourteen oral presentations and twenty-one posters at international, national, and regional meetings. In the spring of 2008, he won the best poster award for his presentation at the Annual Meeting of the Florida Chapter of the American Fisheries Society. In addition to his numerous presentations, Felipe has published papers in such journals as the Bulletin of Marine Science and the Brazilian Journal Of Oceanography. Felipe currently has three peer-reviewed journal articles in press and another five journal articles already published. He has served as a scientific expert for Brazil at the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) and the International Commission of the Conservation of Atlantic Tunas (ICCAT). He currently serves as the Vice-President of Student's United in the Research of Fisheries (SURF) as well as being enrolled in the Tropical Conservation and Development (TCD) Program at UF. Felipe also has a strong commitment to being active in his professional societies. He is a member of the Brazilian Society for the Study of Elasmobranchs, the Brazilian Association of Oceanography, the Brazilian Society of Zoology, and the Brazilian Society of Junior Researchers of the National Council for Scientific and Technological Development, the American Elasmobranch Society, and the American Fisheries Society. Felipe has been previously awarded a one year Special Training Program Fellowship with the Brazilian government as well as two years with the Scientific Initiation Fellowship of the National Council of Science and Technology. Remarkably, Felipe finds time to volunteer, as well as to participate in intramural sports. He currently volunteers with the Child Life Program at Shands, the Multiple Sclerosis Association at the YMCA, and the 4-H Camp in Bronson, Florida.

Co-Advisor Dr. Debra Murie, Award Recipient Felipe Carvalho, and Co-Advisor George Burgess at the Fourteeenth Annual International Student Academic Awards Ceremony (University of Florida)

Award Recipient Felipe Carvalho at the Fourteeenth Annual International Student Academic Awards Ceremony (University of Florida)

The Alec Courtelis Award is given annually to three outstanding international graduate students. The award was first given at the 1996 International Student Awards Ceremony by Louise Courtelis in honor of her late husband, Alec Courtelis, a well-known financier and former Chairman of the Board of Regents. A wall plaque bearing the name of the award recipients and the year it was awarded is located at the University of Florida International Center.