Welcome
We hope you will find this site informative, up to date, relevant, and that it will answer all your questions regarding the AWC and its activities. If you have any questions please relay these through the persons listed on the Contact Page.
The function of this front page is to highlight up coming initiatives, bring to your attention to things of which we are proud and to generally provide a snapshot of activities that are about to take place. It is our intention to update this front page regularly.
 Research: DNA suggests Moa once flew
New research indicates the moa may not always have been flightless.
The research, by Professor David Penny, Elizabeth Crimp and Gillian Gibb of the Allan Wilson Centre for Molecular Ecology and Evolution, has found that moa were closely related to the tinamou, a breed of South American birds.
Although moa are extinct, it is possible to sequence their DNA from well-preserved bones.
Tinamou, of which there are about 47 species, are the only members of the group that can fly, though only poorly. They are found throughout central and southern America.
“It now appears more likely that the ancestor of the moa flew, or was blown, to New Zealand via Antarctica before it froze over,” Professor Penny says. “There are well over 100 cases of birds becoming flightless on Pacific islands because of the absence of mammal predators.”
“We did some more DNA sequencing from kiwi and also new analysis of the data set for the ratites,” she says. “The re-analysis shows that the ratites probably lost flight independently of each other, rather than the ancestor of all ratites being large and flightless, as traditionally thought.
“We’ve known for about 15 years that kiwi possibly flew to New Zealand – escaping from Australia – but no one realised that moa may have too.”
Centre welcomes new Centre Manager
Wendy Newport-Smith has been apponted the new Centre Manager effective 18 January 2010. Wendy has come to Massey from Queen Elizabeth College in Palmerston North where she was Director of Adult Continuing Education (Night School). She is currently undertaking an Executive MBA through Massey University, with one paper remaining in order to complete the qualification in June 2010.
Yet another student wins an Award
 The Centre is churning out good students and we are very pleased to share the news that Robin Atherton was awarded top prize at the Institute of Molecular BioSciences, Massey University, student symposium. Robin's talk was titled "Incipient domestication in New Zealand: a molecular study of karaka (Corynocarpus laevigatus)". It was about using novel genetic marker techniques as well as Māori oral histories to elucidate the translocation history of karaka.
Welcome to new AWC Principal Investigators
The Director of the AWC is pleased to announce that seven AWC Associate Investigators have been invited to become Principal Investigators in the AWC. They are
David Bryant,
Thomas Buckley,
Alexei Drummond,
Nigel French, Nicola Nelson,
Charles Semple and
Jon Waters.
The invitation followed a review of applications by the AWC Research Committee and is part of an ongoing process of development of the Investigator pool. All the new Principal Investigators bring both strong research credentials and also a history of supporting the wider aspects of AWC work. Congratulations to all, and we look forward to their playing even larger roles in the work of the AWC in the future.
 Ngā Pae o te Māramatanga and the Allan Wilson Centre Predoctoral Internship Programme
We are pleased to announce a new internship programme jointly sponsored by the Allan Wilson Centre and the Māori centre of research excellence, Ngā Pae o te Māramatanga. The programme is intended to provide an introductory research experience for Māori and Indigenous students interested in pursuing doctoral degrees within the fields of molecular ecology, evolution, genetics, and their mathematical and computing applications, and will facilitate a pathway to scholarship by building motivation to take up doctoral research.
For more information read here.
PhD student wins "Best Student Talk" Award
 Beata Faller, a PhD student with Mike Steel and Charles Semple at the University of Canterbury, has won the best student talk award at the Australasian Conference on Combinatorial Mathematics and Combinatorial Computing (ACCMCC) held in Newcastle, Australia,
7-11 December, 2009. Beata was one of two winners from 22 entries. The title of the talk was "Maximum-weight k-cardinality arborescence in vertex-weighted digraphs, with an application in conservation biology".
The aims of the prize are to foster student interest and involvement in the ACCMCC conferences and to encourage good presentation of student talks.
Awards for 'Collapsing Creation'
 The Allan Wilson Centre is proud to be associated with "Collapsing Creation" a play that has won three awards. "Collapsing Creation" was commissioned by the AWC and had it's inaugural performance on 12 February 2009 at the BioEd 2009 Conference hosted by the AWC
The play, about the struggles and genius of Charles Darwin, scooped the Wellington playwright an awards trifecta.
Arthur Meek's Collapsing Creation picked up the Peter Harcourt award for outstanding new playwright of the year, at the Chapman Tripp Theatre Awards in Wellington last night. It also won outstanding New Zealand play of the year, and the Chapman Tripp award for best production.
For more info read here.
|
