Dr. Kenneth Irvine obtained his PhD in 1987 from the University of East Anglia (UK ) working on shallow lake ecology, after which he shifted scales to study ecosystem structure and secondary production of Lake Malawi/Nyasa/Niassa. In 1994 he moved to Trinity College Dublin, Ireland, and spent a decade-and-a-half grappling with the intricacies of policy and ecology to support the implementation of European water policy, while still running and being involved in projects on the African Great Lakes. In 2011 he moved to IHE Delft Institute of Water Education in the Netherlands to head up the Aquatic Ecosystems Group and engage more fully in research and teaching to support capacity development. Recent projects on the Great Lakes includes work on Lake Victoria and local fisheries management.