Conference 2025 Rotorua Speakers
Plenary Speakers
David Hayman (Animal-Microbe Interactions)
David is an epizootic epidemiologist at Massey University, Palmerston North, where he is holds the Percival Carmine Chair in Epidemiology and Public Health and Professor of Infectious Disease Ecology. He is also co-Director of the Molecular Epidemiology and Public Health Laboratory (mEpiLab), and his research focus is on human infectious disease and microbial transmission, and includes the identification of transmissions between wild and domestic animals and humans and pathogen reservoirs.
Anna-Louise Reysenbach (Microbial Ecology & Evolution)
Anna-Louise is an extremophile microbiologist at Portland State University, USA, where she is an emeritus professor. Anna-Louise is one of the foremost experts on deep-sea vent microbiology and high temperature terrestrial hot springs (including those in NZ). Her extensive research in this area includes the discovery and cultivation of novel thermophilic archaea, the ecology of hydrothermal and geothermal systems, and global patterns in hydrothermal vent biodiversity.
Carolina Tropini (Human and Medical Microbiology)
Carolina is a human gut microbiologist and Assistant Professor at the University of British Columbia, where she is also a Paul Allen Distinguished Investigator, a Johnson & Johnson Women in STEM2D Scholar in the field of Engineering, a CIFAR Fellow in the Human & the Microbiome Program and a Michael Smith Foundation for Health Research Scholar. Carolina’s research investigates the microbial response to perturbations during disease, such as inflammatory bowel disease, and the spatial organisation of microorganisms in the gut.
Alistair McTaggart (Eukaryotes)
Alistair is a mycologist and co-founder of Psymbiotika Lab in Australia. His research focuses understanding the diversity, identification, and evolution of fungi; in particular Psilocybe ‘magic mushrooms’ species where he was one of the first researchers to study their domestication and genomic breeding.
Invited Speakers
Steve Flint (Food Microbiology/Safety)
Steve started his career as a veterinary pharmaceutical microbiologist, developing vaccines for farm animals. This lead to specialist research in the area of Leptospira. Steve then moved to the dairy industry, working at the New Zealand Dairy Research Institute (now Fonterra Research Institute), where he worked as a research microbiologist, solving microbiological contamination issues in dairy manufacturing plant. It was there that Steve developed his interest in biofilms which became a specialist area of research that continues today in his role at Massey University. He really enjoys teaching along with his passion for science. He continues to develop his research in the fascinating world of biofilms (the origin of most microbial problems in food) and dairy microbiology. His research team always consists of a large number of PhD students investigating various aspects of food microbiology, biofilm development and control. Steve has been a long standing member of the NZMS and served as president from 2012-2015.
Augusto Barbosa (Human Microbiology and Parasitology)
Augusto is a biomedical researcher on parasitology with a strong background on molecular genetics and microbiology. His research aims to decipher microbe-host interactions in the human genital tract, particularly the influence of vaginal microbial communities on women’s reproductive health. He has lead the investigation into the interactions between the parasitic protozoal pathogen Trichomonas vaginalis and the associated microbiome. His research is also interested on the basic genetics of this human pathogen, as a model for understanding the early evolution of eukaryotes and developing tools for genetic manipulation. Recently, he has developed CRISPR/Cas9 tools for genome modification of this protozoan achieving a series of gene knockouts.
Jemma Geoghegan (Animal-Microbe Interactions and Virology)
Jemma is an evolutionary biologist and virologist with a strong research focus on emerging infectious disease. Her research focuses on determining the fundamental patterns and processes of viral evolution, ecology and emergence. This involves using metagenomics to reveal the diversity, structure and evolution of the virosphere; examining the evolution of major viral infections; and developing new analytical and computational approaches to analyse aspects of the virus evolution.
Nikki Freed (Bioinformatics)
Previously, Nikki was Senior Lecturer in Genetics at Massey University, New Zealand. She worked at Novartis Pharmaceuticals as a Principal Scientist in biologics production in Basel, Switzerland. She completed her post-doctoral work at the University of Basel, Switzerland and obtained her PhD at ETH Zurich in Switzerland. Nikki worked as a contractor for the U.S. Navy, developing molecular diagnostics for respiratory pathogens and did her BSc and MSc at the University of California, San Diego (UCSD). Currently, Nikki is the Lead technologist at Auckland Genomics, the University of Auckland core genomics facility.
Robin MacDiarmid (Virology)
Robin is a Principal Scientist at Plant & Food Research (PFR) and an Associate Professor at The University of Auckland. She co-leads the Plant Pathogen Environment Group (Bioprotection portfolio, PFR) that delivers plant pathology expertise and research to the horticulture sectors to deliver customised research to meet client needs. Her research specialty is viruses and viroids. These organisms complete their replication cycle in an intimate manner that cannot be separated from their host (plant or fungus) and may greatly influence the host’s phenotype. With support from group members, Robin teaches undergraduate students and supervises post-graduate students with focus on projects that have impact on the horticulture sectors. With a passion for sailing old wooden boats she can be found not breaking the nautical speed limits in her gaff-rigged ketch in the Bay of Islands where she lives.
Christine Voisey (Plant-Microbe Interactions)
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