Professor Neil Gemmell is the AgResearch Chair in
Reproduction and Genomics athe University of Otago and the inaugural Director
of the Centre for Reproduction and Genomics. He leads the Evolutionary Genomics
group, which blends ecology, population, conservation and evolutionary biology
with recent technological spin-offs from the various genome projects. A
recurring theme in his research is that of reproduction, with past and current
projects spanning mating systems and mate choice sperm function, sex
determination, sex allocation, and inter-sexual genomic conflict. Neil
also has interests in several congruent fields of research, particularly the
evolution of the mitochondrial genome, the evolution of microsatellite DNA, the
evolution of sex determining mechanisms and the processes that lead to
speciation
Neil started his scientific career at VUW where he obtained an Honours degree in Biochemistry. He then undertook a PhD in Genetics at La Trobe University, Australia, where he undertook population and evolutionary genetic research on the enigmatic platypus. He then moved to Cambridge where he undertook postdoctoral research on seal mating systems. A short stint in Leciester working on the chicken genome mapping project followed, after which he moved back to New Zealand to take up a lectureship in Genetics at the University of Canterbury. At Canterbury Neil built a thriving research group that has worked on everything from the pattern of colonisation of marine bioinvasives through to the distribution of microsatellites in the platypus genome.