Director of
the Macquarie University Biotechnology Research Institute, Peter
Bergquist was
appointed to the Marsden Fund Council in
May 2003.
Professor Bergquist was awarded his PhD by the University of
Auckland and subsequently did post-doctoral research at Harvard
University, Oxford University and Yale University. He was appointed to
the then new Department of Microbiology (later Cellular and Molecular
Biology) at the University of Auckland, who awarded him the degree of
DSc in 1989. He has been Visiting Professor at the University of
Melbourne and New York University Medical School. He was Assistant Vice
Chancellor (Research) at the University of Auckland from 1986 to 1994
and Deputy Vice Chancellor (Research) at Macquarie University-Sydney
from 1994 to 2002. He is presently Emeritus Professor of Molecular
Genetics and Honorary Professor of Molecular Medicine in the Department
of Molecular Medicine & Pathology, University of Auckland
Medical School, Adjunct Professor in the Department of Biological
Sciences, Waikato University in addition to his duties as Director of
the Macquarie University Biotechnology Research Institute. He was
elected to the fellowship of the Royal Society of New Zealand in 1974.
Professor Bergquist's research interests include cloning and
expressing genes from extremophile culturable and unculturable
bacteria; in vitro enzyme
evolution; high-level recombinant enzyme
expression in filamentous fungi and yeasts and synthetic gene
construction and expression.
Professor Margaret Brimble
|
Professor Margaret
Brimble graduated from the University of Auckland in
1982 with a Masters degree in chemistry and
was awarded a Commonwealth Scholarship to study in the United Kingdom. She pursued graduate studies at Southampton University
and gained her PhD in 1986. She then took up
her initial academic appointment at Massey University.
After periods at the University of California, Berkeley and the University of Sydney, she returned to the University of Auckland in
1999 to take up the Chair in Organic and
Medicinal Chemistry. She has been awarded the Easterfield Medal, the
Hamilton
Prize, the Federation of Asian Chemical Societies Distinguished Young
Chemist
Award, the Novartis biennial chemistry lectureship for 2004 and the UK
Royal Society
Rosalind Franklin lectureship. In 2004 she was appointed a Member of
the New
Zealand Order of Merit for services to science and was also awarded a
James
Cook Research Fellowship. She is a Fellow of the Royal Society of New
Zealand,
the Royal Society of Chemistry UK and the Royal Australian Chemical
Institute,
and has been President of the International Society of Heterocyclic
Chemistry.
In 2007, she was named as the Asia-Pacific Laureate in the L’Oréal-UNESCO
Women in Science Awards. Her research interests include the synthesis
of
natural products containing bis-spiroacetal ring systems, the synthesis
of
pyranonaphthoquinone antibiotics, the synthesis of complex shellfish
toxins
containing spiroimines, the synthesis of alkaloids and peptidomimetics
for the
treatment of neurodegenerative disorders, and the synthesis of
glycopeptides as
components for cancer vaccines. She is also Head of Medicinal Chemistry
for
Neuren Pharmaceuticals Ltd, one of New Zealand’s first biotechnology companies.
Head of the Psychology Department at the University of Otago, Professor
Harlene Hayne was appointed to the Marsden Fund Council in January of
2006.
Professor Hayne completed her Masters (1985) and PhD (1988) at Rutgers
University and received postdoctoral training at Princeton University
(1988-1992). She was appointed as a lecturer in the Psychology
Department at the University of Otago in 1992 and was awarded a
Personal Chair in Psychology in 2002. Professor Hayne's primary
research interest is memory development in infants, children, and
adults. Her empirical research has had a significant
international impact in the field of developmental psychobiology. Her
research findings on the development of memory, in particular, have
influenced the direction of research in other laboratories around the
world. Professor Hayne has also been an effective research leader and
an ambassador for science. She continues to make a concerted
effort to disseminate research findings to members of the general
public, including parents, teachers, clinicians, lawyers, and
judges. She serves on the editorial boards of Psychological
Review, Developmental Psychology, Infant Behavior and Development,
Infancy, and the Journal of Experimental Child Psychology.
Professor Hayne is a Fellow of the Royal Society of New Zealand and a
member of the Academy Council of the Royal Society of New Zealand.
Professor
Peter Hunter
Prof Hunter completed an engineering degree in 1971 in Theoretical and
Applied Mechanics at The University of Auckland, a Master of
Engineering degree in 1972 (Auckland) on solving the equations of
arterial blood flow, and a DPhil in physiology at the University of
Oxford in 1975 on finite element modeling of ventricular mechanics. His
major research interests since then have been modelling many aspects of
the human body using specially developed computational algorithms and
an approach which incorporates detailed anatomical and microstructural
measurements and material properties into the continuum models. The
interrelated electrical, mechanical and biochemical functions of the
heart, for example, have been modelled in the first ‘physiome’ model of
an organ. As the current co-Chair of the Physiome Committee of the
International Union of Physiological Sciences, he is helping to lead
the international Physiome Project which aims to use computational
methods for understanding the integrated physiological function of the
body in terms of the structure and function of tissues, cells and
proteins. He is currently Director of the Bioengineering Institute at
The University of Auckland, Director of Computational Physiology at
Oxford University, and holds honorary or visiting professorships at
Oxford University, Osaka University and the University of Queensland.
He is on the scientific advisory boards of a number of Research
Institutes in Europe, USA and the Asia-Pacific region. He is an elected
Fellow of the Royal Society of New Zealand, the World Council for
Biomechanics, the American Institute for Medical and Biological
Engineering, and the International Academy of Medical & Biological
Engineering.
Professor Alison Jones
Professor in the School of Maori Education Te Puna
Wananga, University of Auckland, Alison
Jones was appointed to the Marsden Fund Council in January 2008.
Professor Jones completed a science degree in biology, a Masters degree
in
philosophy of education, and a PhD in sociology of education at the University of Auckland. She was awarded a
personal chair in Education in 2006. Professor Jones was Deputy
Pro-Vice
Chancellor (Equal Opportunities) at the University of Auckland, and in 2004 was
awarded the prestigious Jean Herbison Award for educational research
leadership
in New Zealand. She was a member of
the Royal Society’s panel to award the Centres of Research Excellence
(CoRE).
Professor Jones has taken an interest in educational theory and
politics in a
range of sites. Her Marsden-funded research on the social anxiety about
teachers touching children, for instance, has had significant national
and
international impact on practices and policies related to touch in
schools. Her current Marsden-funded work
is in the
field of Maori-Pakeha educational relationships. Her work in the field
of
indigenous-settler educational relations has attracted international
attention.
She reviews for numerous high-ranking educational journals including Educational Theory and Gender and Education.
Dr
Rupert Sutherland
Rupert
Sutherland is a Principal Scientist at the Institute of
Geological & Nuclear Sciences (GNS) in Lower Hutt. He was
appointed
to the Marsden Fund Council in 2005.
After completing a Natural Sciences degree at Cambridge
University and
working as a petroleum industry consultant in the UK, Rupert moved to
New Zealand in 1991. He completed a PhD in geology and geophysics at
Otago University and moved to Wellington in 1995. Since then, he has
held visiting positions at Oxford University and the California
Institute of Technology.
Rupert’s personal research interests include global
and South
Pacific plate tectonics, and how this creates mountains, earthquakes,
and petroleum basins. He currently leads a public-good research
programme into the impacts of plate tectonics in and around New Zealand.
The Royal Society awarded Rupert the Hamilton Prize in 1995
for his
work on South Pacific plate tectonics. He sits on the editorial boards
of two international journals and chairs the GNS editorial board.
Professor Lydia
Wevers
Professor Lydia Wevers was born in the Netherlands
and emigrated to New Zealand as a small child. Educated at Victoria
University and St. Anne’s College, Oxford, she has taught in
universities in Australia and New Zealand. Since 2001 she has been the
Director of the Stout Research Centre for New Zealand Studies at
Victoria University. In 1998 Professor Wevers was Principal
Investigator
in the Marsden funded History of Print Culture project. She produced
two books from this work, Travelling to New Zealand (OUP, 2000) and
Country of Writing Travel Writing and New Zealand 1809-1900 (AUP,
2002). She has published widely on New Zealand and Australian
literature and cultural history. She is a member of the Interim Council
for the Humanities, the Arts Board, Creative New Zealand (2001-2006),
and the Advisory Committee, Te Ara Online Encyclopaedia of New Zealand.
Professor Wevers is also Chair of the Guardians/Kaitiaki of the
Alexander
Turnbull Library, and was a member of the Performance Based Research
Fund Humanities and Law Panel in 2003.
Dr Diana Martin
Awaiting biography and photo
Professor Roger Morris
Professor Roger Morris is Gilruth
Professor of Animal Health at Massey University and Co-Director of the
Massey
University EpiCentre, a training, research and consultancy centre
dealing with control
of animal disease and diseases of animal origin in man, food safety,
and health
information systems. Also Managing
Director of MorVet Limited, which provides international consultancy
services
on disease control. He was appointed to
the Marsden Fund Council in February 2007.
Professor Morris obtained a BVSc (Hons) degree
from the University of Sydney in 1965, then a Master of
Veterinary Science degree from the University of Melbourne and a PhD
from the University of Reading.
He is a Fellow of the Royal Society of New Zealand, Fellow of the
American College of Epidemiology, Fellow of the Australian College of
Veterinary Scientists, and
Fellow of Food Standards Australia New Zealand.
He was made a Companion of the New Zealand Order of Merit in 2003.
He taught at the University of Melbourne for 11
years, and next spent five
years in Canberra as Assistant Chief Veterinary Officer for
Australia.
He then moved to the United States as a Department Chairman at the
University of Minnesota, and in 1986 was appointed to his
current position.
His
principal research interests are in the epidemiology and control of
diseases such
as BSE and avian influenza; ecological, behavioural and statistical
aspects of
disease; the development of cost-effective disease surveillance
systems; and
disease modelling. He was the inaugural Chairman of the
International Society for Veterinary Epidemiology and Economics from
1979 to
1982, has advised on disease control and animal health research
throughout the
world, and has been extensively involved in global animal health
programmes through
international organisations.
