People

Professor Neil Gemmell

Neil Gemmell is the AgResearch Chair in Reproduction and Genomics at the 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 Leicester 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.

Neil's main interest these days is in developing the activities of the CRG to create new opportunities for the staff and students residing within and beyond its walls. However, he maintains an active research programme with research spanning sexual differentiation in fish, cryptic female choice, sperm competition, and microsatellite evolution. Currently he maintains research labs in both the CRG at Invermay and the Department of Anatomy and Structural Biology at the University of Otago.