Representatives from academia, state government, and the shellfish-farming community joined on April 29 to dedicate the new Acuff Center for Aquaculture at the College of William and Mary’s Virginia Institute of Marine Science.

“The Acuff Center will soon be populated with scientists and millions of baby oysters,” said Dr. Bill Walton, Acuff Professor of Marine Science and coordinator of the Shellfish Aquaculture Program at VIMS, during the dedication ceremony. “This beautiful new state-of-the-art facility will allow VIMS to help Virginia’s aquaculture industry solve problems and seize opportunities as well as position VIMS as a global leader in the field of shellfish aquaculture science.”

The center’s name honors A. Marshall Acuff Jr., as well as his late father. Acuff, a managing director at Silvercrest Asset Management LLC in Richmond, has been involved with VIMS for many decades.

A founding member and past president of the VIMS Foundation Board, he also chaired VIMS’s “Fo...