Atshaya Sundararajan

Atshaya is a Blue Economy Cooperative Research Centre PhD student currently based at the Institute for Marine and Antarctic Studies, University of Tasmania, Australia.

Her doctoral research focuses on understanding the cumulative impact of temperature and dissolved oxygen on the production biology of Tasmanian salmon. Her work is undertaken as part of the Blue Economy funded project, “Experimental Platform for Aquaculture Production.”

Her interest in aquaculture stems from her bachelor’s degree in fisheries science from India, followed by her master’s research on fish nutrition and feed technology, where she worked on the development of functional feed additives for aquafeed.

She enjoys talking about her research with both technical and non-technical experts. To reach more people and to show what it feels like to be a woman in aquaculture, she started a creator Instagram account, atshu_narrates, where she documents her research journey—breaking down academic jargon into bite-sized information through simplified science videos and helping others with PhD applications.

She is also an active member of the Women in Seafood Australasia organisation, which works to create visibility and amplify the voices of women in the Australian seafood sector.