Fellowship brings PN biologist home

The Rutherford Foundation of the Royal Society of New Zealand has awarded biologist Dr Gillian Gibb a post-doctoral fellowship.

The fellowship is given to two New Zealanders currently residing overseas who wish to return home to establish their scientific research careers here. These fellowships each include funding of NZ$190,000 over two years, covering research costs and a travel allowance to attend conferences or do collaborative work.

Dr Gibb will return from France to work at Massey University next year.

Foundation chairperson Professor Margaret Brimble says the Rutherford Foundation is pleased to be able to help repatriate these two young scientists “who will contribute to the advancement of knowledge in areas of national importance”.

Dr Gibb is currently in France at the University of Montpellier 2. Her Rutherford Foundation post-doctoral award will be used to investigate the genetic architecture of flightlessness in island birds.

Professor Brimble says the genetics of avian flightlessness is of particular importance in New Zealand as it is an aspect of our native fauna that reflects the nature of New Zealand’s isolation from predatory mammals for so long.

Dr Gibb has expertise in genetic sequencing and bioinformatics – the use of advanced computing to describe the sequences of genes on a large scale, which can compare sequences between individuals or species to gain knowledge about how genes affect traits of living things. She will return to Massey University for her fellowship.

Dr Gibb attended Palmerston North Girls’ High School and studied at Massey’s Manawatu campus. She went on exchange during her undergraduate degree to the University of Montana and has worked in both Australia and France.