Search James Cook Fellowship awards 1996–2017

Public Summary: The offshore continental area of New Zealand that we claim sovereignty over is about 18 times greater than the portion of New Zealand that is above sea level. Although much of this offshore continental crust remains unexplored, new data have become available in the past decade from government sponsored seismic acquisition, global compilation of earthquake travel time data, and satellite gravity data. The project will build a research group in Wellington to compile and interpret some of these data with the two-fold goal of making new discoveries on global tectonics, and interpreting structure and tectonics within new frontier areas of the New Zealand continent.

Public Summary: I propose to study the composition of the bottom-dwelling foraminiferal faunas (microscopic shelled protozoa) of the deep-sea off the east coast of New Zealand and attempt to determine what factors (e.g. water depth, salinity, temperature, oxygen, biological productivity) are chiefly responsible for producing their distribution patterns. I intend to use these results to help unravel the evolution of deep ocean circulation in this globally important area over the last 20-30 million years, by studying the changes in fossil foraminiferal faunas through time in a suite of samples to be cored by an international Ocean Drilling Program cruise in mid 1998.

Public Summary: As reductionist biomedical science succeeds in elucidating ever more detail, a mathematical modelling framework will become increasingly important to cope with this explosion of data and to relate integrated whole organ function to both clinically observed phenomena and to the underlying biophysical mechanisms. The work proposed herein will develop a detailed anatomically and biophysically based modelling framework of the gastrointestinal system. The resulting integration of anatomical, physiological and biophysical properties will serve as a tool to link functional understanding to clinical diagnosis and treatment of the gastrointestinal system.

Public Summary: The Modern Evolutionary Synthesis is the corner stone of biology. Its formulation took place during a time when understanding of the connection between genotype and phenotype (development) was not only in its infancy, but was difficult to reconcile with the Darwinian view of gradual evolution. Accordingly, development was left out of the Modern Synthesis. Significant recent advances in knowledge -- many due to my research group - has bolstered the case for an Extended Synthesis which incorporates development. With this, wide-ranging and profound advances will be possible along with new insights and applications. My internationally recognized work on the genetic basis of evolution in model bacterial populations has produced the first mechanistic insight into the role of development as a causal process in evolution. From this frontier position I propose an ambitious programme that will deliver key insight into the detailed workings of genetic evolution essential for the emergence of a richer and more predictive theory of evolution.

Public Summary: Simple sequence DNA or microsatellites are a common class of nuclear DNA widely used in studies of medicine, forensics and evolution. Understanding the mutational and evolutionary processes underlying this class of DNA is therefore of fundamental importance. The catacombs of ancient Egypt offer the remarkable prospect of using large numbers of mummified Sacred Ibis preserved there, to study the evolution of simple sequence DNA. Because Sacred Ibis are still widespread in Africa, we can compare microsatellite DNA loci from a large sample of ancient and modern Ibis and thereby test hypotheses about the processes that underlie microsatellite DNA change.

Public Summary: The project inquires into the imperatives, trajectories, and social outcomes of the knowledge-based economy that is politically favoured in the advanced industrialised countries. Developed principally from a classical sociological vantage point, the project crosses disciplinary fields in education, economics, management and industrial relations in order to understand and address social problems arising from current economic, industrial and educational activity. Heightened uncertainty in labour market capacities and dynamics, altered regulation regimes, and increased marketisation of education stimulate dilemmas for persons, civic communities and societies. The research will be disseminated through scientific articles and a substantive book.

Public Summary: The wine industry is among the most regulated in the world. This research uses the experience of different types of enterprise in different natural environments to analyse their evolution under the legal and socio-juridical systems of different territories. The experience of these individual enterprises is set within the structure of the industry as a whole in each territory. The research proceeds by interviewing key individuals in a selection of enterprises in France (initially Burgundy) and New Zealand and uses the industry level statistics to establish the evolution of the industries. The evolution of this enterprise is interpreted within the local and international regulatory frameworks, notably the systems of geographic indications or appellations that have emerged in every winemaking country. Different regulatory systems across a wider range of countries are themselves also an object of the research.

Public Summary: The health of the mammalian egg relies upon a close relationship with its adjacent support cells. By developing new methodologies to measure signals from the egg and responses from support cells, my aim is to apply these, in collaborative research programmes, to assess the effects of addictive drugs, environmental contaminants, and nutritional factors on egg quality and whether the destruction of eggs early in their development leads to uncontrolled growth of support cells and ovarian cancer. The objectives of this research are to elucidate the roles of environmental and life-style factors on fertility outcomes.

Public Summary: The programme aims to develop new strategies to characterise and treat the very earliest stages of cancer. Many very early cancers have undergone changes to their genetic structure that can potentially be reversed using carefully selected drugs. My initial goal is to develop a chemoprevention strategy to reverse or prevent the early stages of stomach cancer. The research will lead directly to clinical trials for people at greatest risk of this disease. This emphasis on early intervention provides the greatest opportunity to achieve a cost-effective decrease in New Zealand’s cancer burden.

Public Summary: The cerebellum is an important part of the brain in humans and other vertebrates that plays a major role in the sophistication, elegance and athleticism of animal movement. Our hypothesis is that the cerebellum evolved from other similar (cerebellum-like) structures found in the hind brain of primitive vertebrate groups, including sharks. We have discovered the function and mode-of- action (functional algorithm) of one of these structures which now allows us to explore the developmental mechanisms underlying the evolution of cerebellum from cerebellum-like, and the extent to which both structures share the same functional algorithm. This research will provide new insight into cerebellar function in health and disease, and provide a potential candidate for technologies that can be applied in robotics.