Alumni

In alphabetical order

Warwick Allen

Warwick was a Software Technician in the AWC but left New Zealand in 2007 to travel overseas. Warwick now works for Motorola in Malaysia.

Michaela Baroni

Michaela was a PhD student with Mike Steel. She completed her study in 2007 and is now lecturing at the University of Romania.

Whitney Bouma

Whitney was an MSc student supervised by Pete Ritchie at Victoria University of Wellington.

Evan Bredeweg

Evan was a Fulbright student supervised by Nicky Nelson in 2009. His research considered the effects of supplementary feeding regimes on population sex ratios of native birds in Karori Sanctuary and seed dispersal by tuatara.

Richard Carter

Richard completed his MSc under the supervision of Pete Lockhart at Massey University in 2005. Richard is now in Canberra.

David Chapple

David was a postdoc in the AWC at Victoria University of Wellington. David is now a Lecturer in the School of Biological Sciences at Monash University, Australia.

Sylvia Chen

Sylvia was a PhD and a postdoc with David Penny at Massey University. Postdoctoral Fellow. In March 2010 Sylvia moved to Otago to start a Post Doctoral position with Chris Brown in the Biochemistry Department. Her new research in Otago involves computational analysis of translocation signals as part of an international collaboration, and then may move to the experimental confirmation of those signals.

Philip Daniel

Philip completed his MSc with Mike Steel and Charles Semple and is now enrolled as a student at the Otago Medical School at the University of Otago.

Michael Dann

Michael was an MSc student with Pete Ritchie at Victoria University of Wellington.

Dee Denver

Dee was a postdoc for a year with David Lambert and Craig Millar at Massey University in Auckland. Dee is now a Faculty staff member at Oregon State University.

Andrew Dodd

Andrew was a postdoc with David Lambert and Craig Millar at Massey University in Auckland. Andrew currently works for a Biotech company in England.

Dawson Dunning

Dawson was a Fulbright student supervised by Nicky Nelson at Victoria University of Wellington. Dawson is continuing his study as a MFA Candidate, Science and Natural History Filmmaking, Montana State University.

Mareike Fischer

Mareike was a PhD students with Mike Steel. She is now a postdoc at Arndt von Haeseler’s bioinformatics group at the Bioinformatics Institute in Vienna

Josephine Fitness

Jo was an MSc student with Mary Morgan-Richards. She completed her qualification in 2009.

Jenna Gallie

Jenna was a PhD student with Paul Rainey at Massey University - Auckland. She completed her studies in 2009.

Paul Gardner

Paul completed his PhD under the guidance of Mike Hendy at Massey University. Following a period as a postdoc in Denmark, Paul is now a Project Leader at the Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute, Cambridge, UK.

Amelia Geary

Amelia was an MSc Student with Nicky Nelson at Victoria University Wellington. She completed her degree in 210 researching "Māori traditional ecological knowledge and muttonbirding on Motungarara Island".

Stephanie Greaves

Stephanie was an Honours students supervised by Pete Ritchie at Victoria University of Wellington.

Stefan Grunewald

Stefan was a postdoc at the University of Canterbury with Mike Steel. Stefan is now a Research Fellow at the CAS-MPG institute for computational biology, Shanghai.

Kelly Hare

Kelly was a PhD student with Charles Daugherty. She is now a postdoc at the University of Otago.

Abby Harrison

Abby, after completing her MSc at Massey University with David Penny, completed a PhD at Oxford University. She is now a postdoc at Oxford.

Klaas Hartmann

Klaas completed his PhD supervised by Mike Steel and is now a scientist at CSIRO in Tasmania.

Jenny Hay

Jenny now holds an Adjunct position in USA, following a postdoc period with David Lambert at Massey University in Auckland.

Joanne Hoare

Jo completed her PhD at Victoria University of Wellington under the guidance of Prof Charles Daugherty and is now a Conservation Scientist at the Department of Conservation in New Zealand.

Wim Hordijk

Wim, after his stint as a postdoc with Mike Steel at the University of Canterbury, is now a postdoc at Fudan University, Shanghai.

Anu Idicula

Anu was a postdoc in the AWC in 2002 alongside David Penny of Massey Universit. Anu now works in South Africa.

Simon Joly

Simon completed his postdoc with Pete Lockhart of Massey University in 2008. Simon is now back in Montreal, Canada.

David Lambert

David was an investigator in the AWC at the time of its formation. David left the AWC mid-2008 to take up an appointment at Griffiths University in Australia.

Hayley Lawrence

Hayley completed her PhD at Massey University in Auckland under the supervision of David Lambert and Craig Millar. Hayley is now a FoRST-funded postdoc at Landcare Research in New Zealand.

Carlos Lehnebach

Carlos, supervised by Pete Lockhart, graduated with his PhD in 2008. Carlos now works at Te Papa in Wellington, New Zealand.

Libby Liggins

Libby completed her MSc on "Phylogeography of the common skink (Oligosoma nigriplantare)" with Dave Chapple, and has started her PhD at the University of Queensland, studying population connectivity of Indo-Pacific coral reef fish using biophysical modeling and molecular tools.

Simoene Linz

Simoene, previously a PhD student with Charles Semple at the University of Canterbury, is now a postdoc at UC Davis.

Katie Marske

Katies was a PhD student with Thomas Buckley at Landcare Research - Auckland researching "Comparative phylogeography of the New Zealand forest beetle". Katie completed her PhD in 2010.

James Matheson

James completed his studies under the supervision of Mike Hendy at Massey University. James now works for the New Zealand Treasury.

Erik Matsen

Erik spent a short postdoctoral period with Mike Steel at the University of Canterbury. Erik now works in a cancer research institute in Seattle.

Angela McGaughran

Angela was awarded her PhD in 2009 for a thesis on the "Determination of the Unique Evolutionary Patterns that Prevail in the Antarctic" under the supervision of David Penny and Barbara Holland. Angela is accepted a postdoc position in Tuebingen.

Katie McKenzie

Katie completed her MSc on "Returning tuatara to the New Zealand mainland" with Nicky Nelson, and is now Environmental Protection Officer with Environment Canterbury.

Heidi Meudt

Heidi left her postdoc position with Pete Lockhart and Massey University for a position at Te Papa, Wellington, New Zealand.

Kim Miller

Kim completed her PhD with Nicky Nelson at Victoria University of Wellington in 2009, and is now a postdoc at Monash University in Australia.

Jennifer Moore

Jen, previously a PhD student with Charles Daugherty and Nicky Nelson of Victoria University of Wellington is now a postdoc at the University of Alaska Southeast.

Shay O’Neill

Shay completed his MSc on "Phylogeography of southern New Zealand: implications of Pliocene and Pleistocene processes and evolutionary concordance across independent loci" with Peter Ritchie and Thomas Buckley, and is now a Research Scientist with CoDa Therapeutics in Auckland (based at Auckland University)

Rissa Ota

Rissa finished her postdoctoral period with David Penny at Massey University in 2004. She now works for the Department of Statistics in Wellington.

Leon Perrie

Leon completed a postdoc period with Pete Lockhart at Massey University. He is now works for Te Papa in Wellington.

Matt Phillips

Matt findihed his PhD in Evolutuionary Biology (on Mammals) with David Penny in 2004. He is now ARC Postdoctoral Fellow at ANU, Australia. Most of his research has been concerned with reconstructing the evolutionary history of mammals

Anthony Poole

Ant was a student and postdoc with david Penny at Massey University, Plamertson North. Ant is now at the University of Canterbury with research interests in the early evolution of cells; origin and evolution of Eukaryotes; horizontal gene transfer.

Mort Piripi

Mort completed his MSc in 2008 supervised by Pete Lockhart. Mort is now working in the US.

Renae Pratt

Renae finished her PhD at Massey University supervised by David Penny, in 2009. Renae is now a postdoc at ANU in Canberra.

Jeanine Refsnider

Jeanine was a Fulbright student supervised by Nicky Nelson at Victoria University of Wellington. Jeanine is doing her PhD  in the Ecology and Evolutionary Biology Graduate Program at the Deptartment of Ecology, Evolution, and Organismal Biology at Iowa State University.

Hannah Riden

Hannah enrolled for her PhD with Pete Lockhart but cut her studies short to become an artist of note in the Akaro region of New Zealand.

Allan Rodrigo

Allan was a Principal Investigator in the AWC at the time of its formation in 2002. Allen left the AWC in July 2009 to take on the role as Director of NESCent: The National Evolutionary Synthesis Center, Duke University, North Carolina, www.nescent.org.

Scott Roy

Scott spent a postdoctoral period with David Penny at Massey University in Palmerston North. Scott is now at NHI, Bethesda, Maryland, USA.

Sankar Sankarasubramanian

Sankar followed his postdoc with David Lambert and Craig Millar at Massey University in Auckland with a postdoc at Griffith University, Australia.

Anna Santure

Anna is currently a postdoc at the University of Sheffield. Anna completed her PhD at the University of Otago with Hamish Spencer.

Klaus Schliep

Klaus finished his PhD in 2009 under the guidance of Mike Hendy. Klaus is now a postdoc at l’Universite de Pierre et Marie Curie in Paris, France.

Liat Shavit

Liat completed her PhD in June 2009, supervised by Barbara Holland and Mike Hendy. Liat s now a postdoc in Bill Martin's lab at the University of Dusseldorf.

Bastiaan Star

Bastiaan completed his PhD with Hamish Spencer at the University of Otago in 2008 and is now a postdoc at the University of Oslo.

Cielle Stephens

Cielle was an MSc student with Nicky Nelson at Victoria University of Wellington. Cielle went on to became a ranger with the Greater Wellington Regional Council.

Mark Stevens

Mark moved in 2008 from a FoRST postdoc with David Penny at Massey University in Palmerston North to a position at the Adelaide Museum.

Rick Stoffels

Rick finished his postdoc with Hamish Spencer at the University of Otago in 2008 and is now a Researcher at the Murray-Darling Freshwater Research Centre in Australia.

Alice Storey

Alice completed her PhD supervised by Lisa Matisoo-Smith of the University of Auckland in 2008. Alice is now on a tenure track lectureship at UNE, Australia.

Siva Swaminathan

Siva completed his postdoc with David Lambert at Massey University in Auckland in 2006 and now holds a staff position at EPTRI in India.

Marianna Terezow

Marianna completed her MSc on "Circadian and ontogenetic changes in activity and anti-predator responses of captive juvenile tuatara (Sphenodon spp.)" with Nicky Nelson at VUW, and is now a palaeontology technician at GNS Science in Lower Hutt.

Bhalchandra Thatte

Bhalchandra, previously a postdoc with Mike Hendy at Massey University in Palmerston North, is now a postdoc fellow at Oxford University.

Tobias Thierer

Tobias worked towards his MSc with Mike Steel at the University of Canterbury. Tobias now works for GOOGLE in Australia.

Meredith Trotter

Meredith was a PhD student with Hamish Spencer at the University of Otago. She is now a postdoc at the University of Arizona.

Joanna Wilson

Joanna was an MSc student with Nicky Nelson until 2010 at Victoria University Wellington researching "Resource competition on North Brother Island - effects on Sphenodon gunther".

Laura Woerner

Laura was an MSc studenets supervised by Nicky Nelson who completed her qualification in 2009. Lauara's work looked at the competition for space and food in tuatara head-starting facilities

Kevin Woo

Kevin completed his MSc on "Acquisition of a learned operant and critical flicker-fusion rate in the tuatara (Sphenodon spp.)" with Nicky Nelson, went on to a PhD at Macquarie University in Sydney, and is now in a post-doc position at Southwestern University, Georgetown, Texas.

Michael Woodhams

Michael completed two periods as a postdoc alongside Mike Hendy at Massey University and is now a Research Fellow at the University of Sydney.

Alexey Yanchukov

Alexey left his position as a postdoc with Hamish Spencer at the University of Otago in 2009 and is now a Postdoc at the University of California in Santa Barbara.