Executive

EXEC MEMBER PROFILES

Mike Taylor mw.taylor@auckland.ac.nz
Mike is an Associate Professor at the School of Biological Sciences, University of Auckland. Mike completed his PhD in marine microbiology at the University of New South Wales in 2004 before undertaking post-doctoral research at the University of Vienna. He began his faculty position at the University of Auckland in 2007, with his research focusing on interactions between animal (including human) hosts and their associated microbial communities. Mike’s human microbiome research encompasses both the gut (type 2 diabetes and autism spectrum disorder) and the airway (chronic sinus disease, paediatric lung disease). Other host organisms under study include marine sponges and the critically endangered kakapo. Understanding which microbes are associated with which hosts – and why – is central to his research. Mike is Co-Convenor of the New Zealand Microbial Ecology Consortium, and Board Member of the International Society for Microbial Ecology.

Helen Withers helen.withers@mpi.govt.nz
Helen is currently a Senior Advisor (Microbiology) in the Science Risk Assessment Team which is part of the Biosecurity Science, Food Science and Risk Assessment Directorate, Regulation and Assurance Branch at the Ministry of Primary Industries (MPI). Helen completed her undergraduate studies in food microbiology at the Department of Microbiology and Genetics at Massey University before heading to the UK. She gained her PhD in Molecular Biology at the Department of Genetics, Cambridge University, studying plasmid stability and the role of site specific recombination in that process. From there she moved to Uppsala University in Sweden, where she was a post doctoral researcher investigating the role of regulatory RNA in the control DNA replication. After 5 years in Sweden she returned to the UK to take up a Medical Research Council (MRC) Career Development Fellowship at Nottingham University to study bacterial communication (quorum sensing) and its impact on the control of the bacterial cell cycle, particularly DNA regulation. She returned to New Zealand in 2003 as a lecturer in the Department of Molecular Medicine and Pathology at Auckland University; and after a few years moved to AgResearch at Ruakura and then on to the Hopkirk Research Centre in Palmerston North as a Senior Scientist. Here, Helen’s research focussed on food safety and in particular on shiga-toxin producing Escherichia coli (STEC) and their association with cattle. In 2013, she moved to MPI and continues to support the food sector, particularly the meat industry.

Nick Heng Nicholas.Heng@otago.ac.nz
Nick is currently a senior lecturer in oral biology and oral health in the Faculty of Dentistry at the University of Otago. Graduating in 1998 with a PhD in (gut) microbiology from Otago, he moved up in the microbiological world by conducting post-doctoral research in rumen microbiology at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, U.S.A., and then oral microbiology at the University of Otago School of Dentistry. Nick’s research focuses on microbial genomics, specialising in next-generation DNA sequencing and bioinformatics. His other research interests include the biology, and subsequent development, of antimicrobial proteins (bacteriocins) targeting pathogens of humans and other animals.

Richard Cannon richard.cannon@otago.ac.nz
Richard is Professor of Molecular Microbiology at the University of Otago School of Dentistry. He undertook his biochemistry and microbiology training at the University of Cambridge, UK. His main research interest is in oral yeast: how they colonise the oral cavity; how they cause disease; and ways of preventing them causing disease. Richard’s particular research interests focus on the human pathogen Candida albicans, which causes both oral candidosis and life-threatening disseminated disease. He uses molecular approaches to determine how C. albicans adheres in the mouth, what makes it pathogenic, how it becomes resistant to antifungal drugs, and how its drug resistance can be overcome. Richard also uses baker’s yeast, Saccharomyces cerevisiae as a tool to investigate fungal membrane protein structure and function.

Syrie Hermans mher626@aucklanduni.ac.nz
Syrie Hermans is a PhD candidate at the School of Biological Sciences, University of Auckland. Her research focusses on the patterns and processes that shape the bacterial communities across the New Zealand landscape. In particular she researches the impact human land use has on soil bacteria, and how these bacterial communities can be used to indicate the health of our soil environments.

John Brooks foodmicrobiologist.007@gmail.com
John graduated from London University with BSc (Hons) in microbiology and then worked on development of a process for single cell protein production at ICI, Billingham, UK. He conducted PhD research on the fundamental aspects of growth of bacteria on single-carbon compounds at Sydney University, Australia. John took a position as lecturer in food microbiology at Massey University in 1977 and remained there until 2007, undertaking research on various aspects of food microbiology and food safety, specialising in dairy biofilms. In 2005 he was appointed Honorary Professor at Hong Kong University and spent two periods of six months writing and conducting research on preservatives extracted from traditional Chinese herbs. He then returned to New Zealand as Professor of Food Microbiology at AUT, and continued research on biofilms in the food industry, in aquaculture and in medicine. Since 1981, John has provided advice and conducted on-site investigations for over 50 companies on aspects of food safety and industrial microbiology, both in New Zealand and overseas.

Sara Burgess S.Burgess1@massey.ac.nz
Sara Burgess is a Post-Doctoral Research Fellow in the Molecular Epidemiology and Public Health Laboratory (mEpiLab) at Massey University. Her main research focus is on understanding how antimicrobial resistant Enterobacteriaceae and their resistance determinants spread between humans, animals and the environment. She is a member of the ICSP sub-committee on the taxonomy of the Bacillaceae family as well as the NZ-China Dairy Quality and Safety Expert Steering Group. Previously Sara worked for the Fonterra Co-operative Group where her research focussed on understanding how biofilms formed within dairy manufacturing plants.

Stephen On stephen.on@lincoln.ac.nz
Stephen On is the Associate Professor of Food Microbiology, and Associate Dean of Research, at Lincoln University in New Zealand, where he is responsible for under- and postgraduate programmes in microbial food safety and biotechnology. Stephen has previously worked in Government research organisations in New Zealand, Denmark and the UK. Stephen’s research interests have been fuelled by a keen interest in microbial taxonomy, and thereby improved diagnostics (for identification and subtyping, using both phenotypic and molecular methods) for emerging (and emerged!) pathogens of humans (notably foodborne) and animals. These interests are now expanding to microbial aspects of production and spoilage of wine, with the aim of enhancing a vibrant $1.7 B industry. He is Chairman of the ICSP (International) sub-committee on the taxonomy of Campylobacter and related bacteria, and convened the biannual International conference on these organisms in Rotorua, New Zealand in 2015. He has contributed to various expert advisory groups at the request of the World Health Organisation, Ministry for Primary Industries and the World Bank-sponsored Global Food Safety Partnership. He has published over 140 papers thus far, and has received three awards* for his contributions to the field.

*2001: WH Pierce Memorial Prize from the UK Society of Applied Microbiology “for an outstanding contribution to bacteriology”.
2014: New Zealand Business Events Award presented by Rt Hon Minister Steven Joyce for securing the 18th International Workshop on Campylobacter, Helicobacter and Related Organisms (CHRO 2015) for New Zealand.
2017: New Zealand Microbiological Society Distinguished Orator Award “in recognition of outstanding contributions to microbiology in New Zealand”.

Eddie Smolinski Eddie.Smolinski@fonterra.com
Eddie is a process microbiologist within the Fonterra Co-operative Group based at the South Island site Clandeboye. Microbiology career began as a Medical Scientist researching Community Heath disease within the Pilbara and Kimberly regions of Western Australian. Current focus aligned to process anomalies associated with facultative thermophiles and biofilm development.

Executive Committee