UAPB Professor to Study Aquatic Animal Nutrition in Africa

Dr. Rebecca Lochmann, a professor at the University of Arkansas at Pine Bluff, has been awarded a Fulbright U.S. Scholar Program grant in aquatic animal nutrition to Ghana for the fall 2025 academic year by the U.S. Department of State and the Fulbright Foreign Scholarship Board. 

The Louisiana native teaches primarily aquatic animal nutrition and aquaculture courses at UAPB, aligning with her research area. Her vision for this project started from a grim reality: a lack of institutional funding for critical research. Although Lochmann knew of the tedious and meticulous work of planning this project, nothing deterred her. 

“It was a very intensive process to put the project together,” Lochmann said. “The proposal was due last September, but I started at least six months before that. When we wrote the proposal, we identified bottlenecks in Ghana’s aquaculture industry. One major issue was spawning — the fish weren’t reproducing consistently, and we think it might be a diet problem. So, we’re going to develop different diets for the broodstock, measure egg production, hatch rates, and fry survival, and see if we can improve outcomes.”

Lochmann said she knew she wanted to work with people in Ghana because traditional funding sources had dried up, so she was looking for something to keep the research going. She will be working at Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology in Kumasi, the country’s second-largest city behind Accra, the capital.

“I contacted the people that I knew at KNUST and just said, ‘Let’s talk about common research priorities,’” she said.

The veteran researcher and lecturer will be conducting aquaculture and freshwater-related research during her time overseas. Lochmann said that she’d be doing similar research to her work at UAPB because of the similarities between Ghana and Arkansas. 

“What Arkansas and Ghana have in common is a high level of food insecurity,” Lochmann said, “but fish are very nutrient dense, very high in protein, omega-3 fatty acids and minerals. They are an excellent way to address food insecurity, and Ghana has the second biggest aquaculture industry in sub-Saharan Africa.”

Lochmann says her work will include collaborating with a U.S. host institution based in Ghana, and her work will be an in-depth project of developing feeds for their aquaculture fish using local ingredients to address food insecurity. 

“They want to try not to import stuff,” Lochmann said. “In their case, they have to make sure they’re using things in their fish diets that are not important for human nutrition. There are a lot of challenges, but collectively, we both want to increase our aquaculture industries. We want fish to become a bigger part of addressing food insecurity.”

Sustainability is central to her cause, and Lochmann emphasizes the importance of finding feed ingredients that don’t compete with human nutrition and that avoid further stressing global marine populations. 

“We don’t want to pollute, and we don’t want to wipe out other species just to produce farmed fish,” she said. “Cleaner production, compatible with environmental sustainability, is really the long-term goal.” 

Lochmann hopes her journey also inspires others in Arkansas to consider Fulbright opportunities.

“I think the program is a little underutilized by some campuses in the state,” she said. “There’s plenty of support available, and it really can be a life-changing experience.”

As Lochmann begins her semester abroad, she views the Fulbright grant not only as a personal milestone but as a chance to expand the reach of her life’s work. By connecting Arkansas’ aquaculture expertise with Ghana’s growing industry, she hopes to leave behind research that strengthens food security, builds sustainable practices and fosters collaboration for years to come. 

“This is really about making a difference at a higher level,” she said, “and I know I’ll learn just as much from them as they do from me.”

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