Research - Past Summer Studentship Projects

Each year the Allan Wilson Centre funds summer studentships taken up during the semester breaks. Each student in requred to prepare a short report on the research they undertake. These reports are listed below.

2009 Summer Students

Genetic Markers for Stick Insects
Student: Victoria Twort
View report

An Introduction and Analysis of the Pure Birth and Birth/Death Speciation Model
Student: Heyang Li (Thomas)
View report

Statistical Graph Algorithms for Population Genetic Inference
Student: Jenny Harlow
View report

Genetic variation in an old population of Light Brown Apple moth
Student: Blair Norwood
View report

Adaptive Diversification of New Zealand Alpine Pachycladon
Student: Stefan Wötzel
View report

Predatory Whelks and their Parasites: evolution in co-dependence or independence?
Student: Cally Hammond-Tooke
View report

Resolving Morphologically and Genetically Crytpic Topshell Species
Student: Romana Salis
View report

 

2008 Summer Students

Geographic Origins of Rafting Kelp
Student: Anna Ashcroft
View report: click here

Monitoring the Success of Translocated Tuatara at Karori Wildlife Sanctuary
Student: Sean Crossland
View report: click here

New Zealand Tree Weta
Student: Christina Rowe
View report: click here

Determining the cryptic phylogeny of topshell snails
Student: Ruth Laurie-Fendall
View report: click here

Grasshopper reproductive behaviour and/or conservation genetics
Student: Eddy Dowle
View report: click here

 

2007 Summer Students

Speciation and Conservation of Endemic Grasshoppers
Student: Aimee Novelle
View report: click here

Stochastic properties of Yule models
Student: Tanja Gernhard
View report: click here

Sacred ibis (Threskiornis aethiopicus) – Modern samples
Student: Robbie Wilson
View report: click here

 

2006 Summer Students

Moa Extinction
Student: Adam Idoine
View report: click here

Genetics of Two Non-classical MHC Genes in Tuatara
Student: Matiu Andrews-Cookson
View report: click here

New Analytical Results for the Speciation Times in Neutral Models
Student: Tanja Gernhard
View report: click here

A phylogeny of the genus Pseudhelops (Tenebrionidae) from the southern islands of New Zealand
Student: Eve Butler
View report: click here

 

2005 Summer Students

Exact number of Hybridization Events
Student: Simone Linz
View report: click here

Phylogeny of New Zealand Skinks
Student: Shay O’Neill
View report: click here

The Breeding System of Nothofagus solandri
Student: Jessie Prebble
View report: click here

Is headstarting a useful tool for conservation of reptiles?
Student: Monica Gruber
View report: click here

Evolution of the Tuatara Tick, Aponomma sphenodonti
Student: Ailis Conrad
View report: click here

Stochastic models for speciation events in phylogenetic trees
Student: Tanja Gernhard
View report: click here

Feline Immunodeficiency Virus is a relative of HIV
Student: Adam Idoine
View report: click here

2004 Summer Students

National Frozen Tissue Collection Management
Student: Karen Britton
View report: click here

Major Histocompatability Complex (MHC) variation in Tuatara
Student: Michael Green
View report: click here

Inter-island genetic variation in the Fiji ground frog (Platymantis vitianus).
Student: Tamara Osborne
View report: click here

Optinisation of Tuatara leukocyte proliferation in purified leukocytes and in whole blood cultures
Student: Shay O’Neill
View report: click here

Use of Commensal Rats as Markers of Human Mobility in Remote Oceania.
Student: Kasey Robb
View report: click here

Use of Commensal Rats as Markers of Human Mobility in Remote Oceania. PART II
Student: Lauren Craig
View report: click here

Science Journalism (includes 8 articles)
Student: Meg Heaslop
View report: click here

 

2003 Summer Students

The Branch and Bound Code
Student: Geoff Cant
View report: click here

Frozen tissue collection management
Student: Catherine Duthie
View report: click here

Evolutionary trees in Tuatara
Student: Steven Chou
View report: click here

Ancient DNA and the rate of evolution for Adelie penguins
Student: Jenna Gallie
View report: click here

Use of commensal rats as markers for human mobility in Oceania
Student: Lauren Craig
View report: click here

Using genetics to Differentiate Limpet Species: Is Notoacmea scapha an ecotype of N. helmsi?
Student: Joanne Connolly
View report: click here

Genetic Diversity in Taro (Colocasia esculenta)
Student: Joy O’Connor
View report: click here

Using Genetics to Evaluate the Distinction between Lepsiella scobina and L. albomarginata
Student: Bettina Greese
View report: click here

Mutation Rates of the Adélie Penguin based on the Mitochondrial Genome.
Student: Monique Jansen van Rensburg
View report: click here

The implementation and testing of new algorithms on Helix, and extension of existing software (Spectronet).
Student: Jevon Wright
View report: click here