I grew up in a small farming village in the middle of the North Island of NZ. My dad worked in the local general store. I became interested in biology as a small child and always thought I would be a scientist. On completion of my PhD at Victoria University, I moved to what was then called the Physics and Engineering Laboratory in Lower Hutt as a specialist electron microscopist and one of the only biologists in an organisation of chemists, physicists and engineers! I moved to VUW in 2002 firstly as a senior research fellow then as an academic staff member.

Ecophysiology, toxic freshwater cyanobacteria, Antarctic algae, marine ecology, electron microscopy, light microscopy Climate change biology – Ecophysiological effects of pH, temperature, UVB, and salinity on organisms in Antarctic coastal marine ecosystems The growth and toxin production of cyanobacteria in river systems Light and electron microscopy remain a strong interest although I don't do much of this now.