AUT - Staff
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Staff
EARTH & OCEANIC SCIENCES RESEARCH INSTITUTE
Len Gillman - Head of Applied Science
Len Gillman is the acting head of EOS until a new director is appointed.
Kat joined AUT in 2003 as a PhD student, fresh from the United States. She completed her studies through EOS in 2008, following which she was appointed as a Research Fellow to the Institute, and subsequently as a lecturer within the School of Interdisciplinary Studies.
Kat's research field is in the taxonomy and systematics of cephalopods. Her doctoral research entailed a global revision of the systematics of the then poorly known hooked-squids of the family Onychoteuthidae.
Presently Kat is revising the systematics of southern ocean representatives of the squid family Brachioteuthidae – a revision that includes several new distribution records of these otherwise poorly known squids from New Zealand waters, and as is the norm in taxonomy, description of new species. Kat teaches at an undergraduate level, as a supervisor to postgraduates undertaking systematic research on cephalopods within the Institute, and is heavily involved in several aspects of the Institute's commercial research and documentaries.
Severine joined AUT in 2004 as an undergraduate, then commenced her Master of Applied Sciences through EOS in 2006, graduating in 2008.
Severine's current role within the Institute is as a Research Assistant. She is involved with all aspects of our field work, boating, is a fully qualified Scientific Diver, and is extensively involved with our sea-bed sample collection and habitat mapping programme, with the processing of samples and identification of species therein, and with data analyses.
Severine's Masters research examined the influence of biogenic substrata on species richness and abundance in sea-bed communities off the Noises group of Islands in Hauraki Gulf. She is likely to continue with this research at a doctoral level in the not-too-distant future.
Clara joined AUT in 2004 as an undergraduate, then commenced her Master of Applied Sciences through EOS in 2007, graduating in 2009, and commencing her PhD with us in 2010.
Clara is also a part-time Research Assistant within the Institute, and is involved with all aspects of our sample collection, processing, species identification and data analyses.
Clara's area of expertise is in determination of patterns in the distribution of benthic marine assemblages of species, and the processes that affect these patterns. For her Masters she exhaustively surveyed the sea bed beneath one farm off eastern Waiheke Island, Hauraki Gulf, and throughout the eastern Waiheke Island region.
SCHOOL OF APPLIED SCIENCES
Within the School of Applied Sciences at AUT there are many staff with whom we interact on a regular basis. To list them all would not be appropriate here, but those with whom we currently co-supervise under- and postgraduate research, or otherwise collaborate on environmental and aquaculture research projects include:
Associate Professor Andrea C. Alfaro
Andrea is a Senior Lecturer in Marine Ecology and Aquaculture, and also supervises postgraduate students in Marine and Freshwater Ecology, having served many years with the EOS Institute.
Andrea's research interests focus on mangrove and estuarine ecology, and aquaculture; she has extensive experience with ecology, culture and settlement cues for the the New Zealand green-lipped mussel, Perna canaliculus, but her interests extend well beyond this, and she also has extensive experience with trophic and terrestrial ecology, community-ecosystem dynamics, and species-habitat ecology in New Zealand and Fiji.
Andrea has supervised many of the School of Applied Sciences postgraduates through to completion, and teaches at both under- and postgraduate levels within the School.
Andrea can be found in WL Block, Room 109, within the EOS compound.
After joining AUT as an EOS staff member, Emma began working for the School of Applied Sciences as a Research Officer, overseeing all of our SCUBA and boating activities. In addition to this Emma works tirelessly on her research on cetaceans.
In 2007 Emma completed her BAppSc(Hons), with her dissertation reporting the diet of pygmy sperm whales that had stranded on New Zealand shores. She has subsequently published many papers on the diets of toothed (teuthophagous) whales that have stranded or been caught as fisheries bycatch in New Zealand waters, but has focussed on the most frequently stranding species, long-finned pilot and beaked whales; she is also researching the diets of Hector's and Maui's dolphins.
Emma is currently pursuing her PhD on cetacean biology and conservation, focussing on the ecology and life history of the long-finned pilot whale, Globicephala melas, although her expertise extends to many other cetacean species that occur in New Zealand waters. Emma can be found in WL Block, Room 110B, within the EOS compound.
John’s major research interest is the study of biofilms, with particular reference to the food and dairy processing industries. John is also co-director of the Biotechnology Research Institute, a second Research Institute affiliated with the School of Applied Sciences.
This all might sound far removed from a lot of the research that EOS is involved in, but it is not. John is actively involved in co-supervision of environmental postgraduate students, especially in the discipline of aquaculture, and directly with EOS in the supervision of new undergraduates now examining the biological and pathological effects of cetacean (whale) burial in beaches (research programmes that have developed from earlier postgraduate research). Science these days benefits from a multi-disciplinary approach, and we share John's hands-on philosophy in his microbiological research in our environmental research. There will be plenty of opportunity there to expand our collaboration with both John, and with the Biotechnology Research Institute.
And Prof John, aka JB, is also a jolly nice and bright fellow, and the sparkles in his eyes brighten even the most dull of days!
Barbara's research focuses on Marine Protected Areas in Australia and New Zealand, and her interests are in modelling patterns of commercial and recreational use of marine protected areas using a combination of social, biological and physical survey data and spatial analysis techniques in GIS-based decision support systems.
Barbara has extensive government and non-government working experience for agencies dealing with marine conservation. She also oversees the WWF Mauis Dolphin education and awareness programme. She originally was appointed through EOS, but is now full-time with the School of Applied Sciences.
Barbara teaches many under- and postgraduate papers in marine ecology and GIS, and is heavily involved in supervision of postgraduate students. Barbara can be found in WL Block, Room 110B, within the EOS compound.
Len is a Senior Lecturer at AUT, and Head of the School of Applied Sciences. His research interests are diverse, focussing on evolutionary and terrestrial ecology, particularly forest ecology, terrestrial flora and fauna, environmental law, resource management, and the patterns of and processes that determine species richness and their relationships with productivity and rates of micro-evolution.
Len's current research evaluates the influence of population size and energy on micro-evolution rates in mammals and birds.
Len is involved in supervision of postgraduates in aspects of terrestrial ecology and conservation, and rates of speciation relative to various environmental gradients, and teaches many of the School of Applied Sciences post- and undergraduate papers.
Len can be found in the Applied Sciences offices on the 3rd floor of S Block.
Dr John Robertson
John is Programme Leader for Chemistry in the School of Applied Sciences. He teaches a variety of papers, mostly dealing with organic and analytical chemistry. His current research is focussed on cleaning pesticide-contaminated soils using low-tech milling.
John has been extensively involved with EOS through our Centre of Cetacean Research, particularly on a project that examines the effects of cetacean burial in beach sediments.
We have also worked closely on other projects that have examined the concentrations of heavy metals in sediments, and in fish fillet tissues throughout both Hauraki Gulf and Manukau Harbour, east and west of Auckland.
John has supervised many postgraduate student theses at AUT, and co-supervised several through the EOS Institute. We look forward to ongoing collaborative research together.
Armagan is a lecturer within the School of Applied Sciences; he teaches many undergraduate papers in Ecology & Evolution, Form and Function of plants and animals, and Biodiversity.
Armagan has worked extensively in the Solomon Islands since 1999, first completing his Masters there through the University of Otago on the ecology of serranids (grouper) fish, and more recently completing his PhD through James Cook University in Australia, on the population dynamics of scarids (parrotfishes).
In addition to fish ecology Armagan is interested in the status of fisheries from commercial, artisanal, and ethnographic perspectives, and on the role of marine reserves as conservation or management tools. The Institute is also working with Armagan on several commercial contracts that deal with fish biology and habitat usage. Armagan is based in WL Block, Room 106, within the EOS compound.
Lindsey is the Head of the School of Interdisciplinary Studies, and is now based on the Akoranga campus, North Shore.
Lindsey's research interests are in seaweed utilisation, both by humans and by marine herbivores. In terms of human seaweed utilisation he is interested in seaweed farming, and in understanding and limiting the environmental impacts of such aquaculture activities. To examine plant-herbivore interactions he is combining aspects of plant nutritional composition and predator diet choice and digestive physiology.
Lindsey currently supervises several postgraduate students in Freshwater Ecology, fish ecology, and phycology.
SCHOOL OF COMPUTING AND MATHEMATICAL SCIENCES
Faculty of Design and Creative Technologies
Shoba is a lecturer in the School of Computing and Mathematical Sciences, Faculty of Design and Creative Technologies at AUT. She has worked with the EOS Institute since 2003, bringing to it her skills in computer programing, and database design and development. This recently culminated in our online release of the Monalisa Biodiversity database, which she continues to research in order to improve functionality and data-mining capabilities.
Shoba has co-supervised EOS postgraduates, and otherwise teaches data and process modelling, physical database design, data warehousing, in addition to supervising her own suite of postgraduates in data modelling, ontology, and IT-related aspects. She is currently working on her own PhD, and is based in WT Block, Room 128.