Investigators

Mary Morgan-Richards

Steve Trewick

Gillian Gibb

Simon Hills

Recent Fellows & Visitors

Yuta Morii

Amanda Ferreira e Cunha

Jesús Gómez-Zurita

Order of the Phoenix: Graduate Alumni:
Ka haere te pipi aihe, ka noho te tūmū whakarae.
[The drifting pipi goes off, the headland remains fixed]

Caitlin Wheeler MSc
Paleoecological analysis of cyanobacterial blooms in dune lakes Currently freshwater ecologist at Horizons regional council.

Dr David Carmelet
Genomics of toxin resistance in a mammal pest species.

Shogo Yarita MSc
Rat populations genetics and conservation management. Currently field research technician at Massey University.

Charlotte Bridger MSc
Freshwater biodiversity; the endemic mayfly genus Ichthybotus. Currently research assistant with Plant & Food Research

Dr Julien Gaspar
Genomics of flightlessness in rails (Aves: Rallidae).
Currently studying African wild bees, using microbiomics and epigenetics at the Royal Belgian Institute of Natural Sciences,

Dr Mathieu Quenu
Tracking diversity and environmental change in giant land snails. Currently working on Genomic approaches to asymptomatic chronic malaria at Université Montpellier

Dr Suman Sran
Anticoagulant toxins and management of introduced rodents pests. Currently scients at Kiwikare

Dr Kath Walker
Powelliphanta carnivorous snail taxonomy & conservation. At NZ Department of Conservation DoC.

Dr Michael Gemmell
Molecules and fossils marine mollusc speciation patterns.
Senior Scientist at Ministry for Primary Industries

Dr Emily Koot
Climate change and grasshopper biodiversity. Currently Plant & Food Research and Genomics-Aotearoa

Dr Felix Vaux
Evolutionary lineages and the diversity of New Zealand true whelks. Currently marine biosecurity scientist at NIWA.

Dr Briar Taylor Smith
Evolution of diversity: analysis of species and speciation in Hemiandrus ground wētā. Currently reserve manager with the NFRT

Dr Elizabeth Daly
Fine scale population structure through space and time.
Senior Science Manager at Horizons Regional Council.

Dr Jo Fitness
Te Pūtaiao o Tokoriro: taxonomy and diversity of New Zealand cave wētā (OrthopteraL Rhaphidophoridae). Te Rau Whakaueue kaitiaki supervisor at Paraninihi ki Waitōtara

Dr Santhi Bhavanam
Effect of nutrient limitation on the Mediterranean flour moth, Ephestia kuehniella Zeller. Currently Department of Entomology Louisiana State University.

Dr Mariana Bulgarella
Former postdoctoral fellow. Currently at Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa

Dr Cilla Wehi
Former postdoctoral fellow. Associate Professor, Centre for Sustainability, University of Otago

Dr Juan-Carlos Garcia Ramirez
The influence of space and time on the genetic architecture of rail species- Aves Rallidae. Currently Hopkirk Institute, Massey University.

Dr Eddy Dowle
Rates of molecular evolution and gene flow.
Research Fellow at University of Otago. https://eddydowle.com/

Dr Rashmi Kant
Reproductive behaviour and fitness trade-offs in the aphid parasitoid Diaeretiella rapae (Hymenoptera: Aphidiidae). Currently Plant&Food Research, NZ.

Dr Prasad Doddala
Systematics & ecology of Eucolaspis (Coleoptera: Chrysomelidae) and ecolog of Hawke's Bay lineage. Currently Ministry of Primary Industries MPI.

Dr Julia Goldberg
Speciation and phylogeography in the New Zealand archipelago.
Now postdoctoral fellow at Georg-August-University Göttingen, Germany.

Shaun Thompson MSc
Diversity and relationships of Porrholthele and other New Zealand mygalomorph spiders.

Sam King MSc
Diversity and hybirdisation in Naultinus diurnal tree geckos.

Niki Minards MSc:
Physiological ecology of two tree weta species.
Now at University of Otago SEM

Moniqua Nelson-Tunely MSc
Population fragmentation in the small-sclaed skink (Oligosoma microlepis): the consequences of human landscape transformation on a habiatat specialist's distribution, morphology and genetics. Now consultant ecologists with EcoGecko

Benjamin Bridgeman MSc
Wolbachia and New Zealand invertebrates.
Currently PhD in Hopkirk Institute, Massey University.

Louisa Sivyer MSc
Niche-modelling & genetics in Phaulacridium grasshoppers
Currently analytical food technician

Lena Olley MSc
MSc: Spatial partitioning of morphological and genetic variation in the New Zealand falcon (Falco naeseelandiae).

Ashley Murphy BSc Honours
The unique origin and maintenance of a hybrid zone within common gecko, Woodworthia maculata, on the south Wellington coast, New Zealand.
Now PhD candidate at Monash University, Australia.

Melissa Griffin MSc
Wellington tree weta (Hemideina crassidens) diet and the effect of some of their dietary choices. Currently NZ Department of Conservation DoC.

Jo Fitness MSc
Wellington geckos meet Wairarapa geckos: hybirdisation between two genetically and morphologically distinct populations of the New Zealand common gecko complex (Hoplodactylus maculatus).
Then PhD student at Massey University.

Tarsha McKean MSc
Hybridization in North Island tree weta. Now doing PhD working on development of a sheep model for Alzeimer.s Disease research, at University of Auckland.

Robyn Dewhurst MSc
The diet of tree weta: natural and captive folivory preferences of Hemideina crassidens and H. thoracica.

Shelley Langton-Myers BSc Honours
Putting the pieces together; combining genetic techniques to investigate Acanthoxyla's origin. Hybridisation, polyploidy and more). Currently lecturer at EcoQuest Education Foundation

Esta Chappell MSc
Morphology, phylogeography and drumming behaviou of a New Zealand ground weta, Hemiandrus pallitarsis. Then research assistant at Senckenberg Research Insititute, Germany

Gaia O'hara MSc
The lice from four species of rails in New Zealand.

Rheyda Hinlo MSc
Population genetics and conservation of the Philippine crocodile.
Recently National Project Coordinator, Protected Areas & Wildlife Bureau, Philippines.

Renae Pratt PhD
Weta phylogenetics. Recently postdoctoral fellow at Australian National University, working with Marcel Cardillo.

Melissa Jackobson BSc Honours
BSc Honours: tree weta.
Now Environmental Educator for Rotokare Scenic Reserve Trust

Lorraine Cook BSc Honours
Systematics and genetic diversity of New Zealand cave weta (Orthoptera: Rhaphidophoridae)- the genus Gymnoplectron Hutton (1897). Currently NZ Conservation Department DoC.

Tarryn wyman BSc Honours
Tree weta as herbivores and seed dispersers.
Then PhD at University of Canterbury.