My academic journey has taken me around the world, from New Zealand to China (lecturer) to Germany (postdoc) to the USA (postdoc) and back to New Zealand.
I started with a PhD at Massey University in New Zealand working with Russell Death, Mike Joy, and Kevin Collier looking at the interaction between productivity and disturbance on structuring stream invertebrate diversity patterns. I followed that up with a job teaching Environmental Management and Marine Studies at Bay of Plenty Polytechnic in Tauranga, New Zealand. I then spent a year at Xi’an Jiaotong-Liverpool University in Suzhou, China lecturing in Environmental Science. I followed that with two years at Senckenberg Research Institute and Natural History Museum in Germany, based in the River Ecology and Conservation Department in the lovely little town of Gelnhausen, where I worked with Peter Haase and Sonja Jaehnig. I then moved to the USA to spend three years at Oregon State University in Corvallis, Oregon working with Dave Lytle. Finally, I managed to land a postdoc with Jason Tylianakis at the University of Canterbury, which I cut short due to receiving a Rutherford Discovery Fellowship (project summary).
Academic appointments
- 2023-Present: Associate Professor at the University of Canterbury, Christchurch, New Zealand.
- 2019-Present: Rutherford Discovery Fellow at the University of Canterbury, Christchurch, New Zealand.
- 2019-2022: Senior Lecturer at the University of Canterbury, Christchurch, New Zealand.
- 2021-Present: Investigator, Bioprotection Aotearoa—a New Zealand Centre of Research Excellence.
- 2019-Present: Investigator, Te Pūnaha Matatini—a New Zealand Centre of Research Excellence for Complex Systems and Networks.
- 2018-2019: Postdoctoral fellow at the University of Canterbury, Christchurch, New Zealand.
- 2015-2018: Postdoctoral scholar at Oregon State University in Corvallis, OR, USA, based in the Department of Integrative Biology.
- 2013-2015: Postdoctoral Researcher at Senckenberg Research Institute and Natural History Museum, Gelnhausen, Germany.
- 2012-2013: Lecturer at Xi’an Jiaotong-Liverpool University in Suzhou, Suzhou, Jiangsu Province, China.
- 2011–2012: Academic Staff Member at Bay of Plenty Polytechnic, Tauranga, New Zealand.
Editorial Boards
Present
Historical
Recent awards
- NZ Prime Minister’s McDiarmid Emerging Scientist Prize (2022)
- University of Canterbury Early and Emerging Career Researcher Award (2020)
- New Zealand Freshwater Sciences Society Early Career Researcher Award (2018)