Select Page

School of Medical Sciences

Keep up to date with all the latest news and information from the School of Medical Sciences.

Message from the Head of School

Kia ora koutou

Welcome to our School of Medical Sciences (SMS) Newsletter which has become the place where we acknowledge and record the successes of our staff and students. These various successes whether they are big or small represent the different parts of the academic and career journeys of the staff and students who together form one of the biggest and most successful Schools at Waipapa Taumata Rau: The University of Auckland.

The range of academic disciplines across the School and the excellence of the research we conduct is driven by the research led teaching performed by the academic Departments that make up SMS. Furthermore, this concentration of research activity has allowed the School to host the establishment of a number of research centers that allow us to collaborate more widely with colleagues from outside the School. I want to publicly thank Paul Donaldson for his 12 years at the helm of our school, which has allowed us to be in this position.

I invite you to read about our current and archived successes to gain some insight into the talented individuals that make up SMS and how their individual achievements are contributing to the overall success of the School.

I recognise that this is a transition period with changes in several key leadership positions within the School that may be unsettling for many of us as we bed into new roles and ask for your support to all of those new leaders and encourage you to consider how you could improve service and leadership roles.

Nga mihi

Malcolm

PhD success

PhD success

Congratulations to Thalia Babbage, Department of Physiology for successfully defending her PhD thesis.

Staff outstanding achievements

Staff outstanding achievements

Congratulations to Dr Marie-Louise Ward, and Dr Amelia Power from the Department of Physiology for their outstanding achievements.

Staff achievement

Staff achievement

Congratulations to Dr Alyona Oryshchuk, Research Fellow in the Department of Molecular Medicine and Pathology, on receiving the Cancer Society Emerging Researcher Award.

MBIE Endeavour research program grant

MBIE Endeavour research program grant

From left: Dr Haruna Suzuki-Kerr, Dr Michel Neeff, Associate Professor Philip Bird and Professor Peter Thorne  Congratulations! Professor Peter Thorne and the team from the Department of Physiology have won an 8.1M research grant for a 5 year project from the 2024...

Grants success

Grants success

Please join me in congratulating Dr Igor Felippe and Dr Audrys Pauza for receiving NZ Heart Foundation Fellowships and project grants and to Dr Carol Bussey for obtaining a Heart Foundation project grant.

High Impact paper

High Impact paper

Dr Wilson Pan, in collaboration with researchers from the Department of Physiology published a pivotal study in ‘Investigative Ophthalmology & Visual Science’.

New staff

New staff

A warm welcome to Lisa Cotton, Professional Teaching Fellow in Mammography from the Department of Anatomy and Medical Imaging.