Maria José Ranzani Paiva is a Biologist with a BSc from the University of Brasilia (1972), a PhD in Ecology and Natural Resources from the Federal University of Sao Carlos (1993) and she completed a postdoctoral internship at the University of Porto, Portugal, in 1997, with support from FAPESP. She was Director of the Inland Fisheries Division of the Fisheries Institute (1993 to 1995), editor of the Bulletin of the Fisheries Institute (1996-2001), President of the Brazilian Association of Aquatic Organism Pathologists (ABRAPOA) (1992-1994) and held the position of secretary of the World Aquaculture Society (WAS) for two years. Currently a scientific researcher VI of the Fisheries Institute and Coordinator of the Agricultural Sciences area of FAPESP, she has been a supervisor of the Postgraduate Course in Aquaculture at the Aquaculture Center of Unesp, since 2001 and vice-coordinator of the Postgraduate Program in Aquaculture and Fisheries at the Fisheries Institute, since 2004.