Professor Hamish G. Spencer  

BSc(Hons), MSc (Dist), PhD, FRSNZ

Professor & Head of Department of Zoology, University of Otago

Research interests

• The maintenance of genetic variation in populations

• The population genetics of genomic imprinting

• Population-genetic models of maternal selection

• New Zealand molluscs

• History of eugenics

• Applications of phylogenetics to New Zealand taxa

• Population-genetic theory for frequency-dependent selection

• Phenotypic plasticity

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Biography

Professor Hamish Spencer is a professor in the Department of Zoology at Otago and a principal investigator in two Centres of Research Excellence. Author of over 100 publications, his research covers aspects of evolutionary biology from theoretical population genetics and phenotypic plasticity to the phylogenetics of molluscs and the biogeography of kelp. His recent work on the interaction of genetics and society concerns the laws and attitudes surrounding first-cousin marriage and appeared in the December 2009 issue of PLoS Biology, generating worldwide media attention.

Contact details

Department of Zoology

University of Otago

P.O. Box 56

Dunedin 9054, New Zealand

Email ; Phone +64 3 4797981