Dr James Fisher has been appointed Associate Professor in the Department of Physiology. James is a human physiologist with a research interest in cardiovascular and respiratory system regulation, and has broad experience of working with healthy and patient volunteer populations (e.g. high blood pressure, heart failure, atrial fibrillation).
Prior to arriving in Auckland, he was based at the University of Birmingham UK in the College of Life and Environmental Sciences. Here he worked in close collaboration with clinicians, animal neuroscientists/physiologists and exercise scientists based in the UK and abroad (Denmark, Brazil, USA, Japan, Switzerland) on projects funded by the British Heart Foundation, Arthritis Research UK, Royal Society and the Medical Research Council.
James undertook British Heart Foundation and American Heart Association funded postdoctoral training in the UK, Denmark and USA, following his PhD conducted at the University of Birmingham UK. He is the recipient of several international awards, including the New Investigator Award from the American Physiological Society (Neural Control & Autonomic Regulation section), and is a reviewing editor for Experimental Physiology and American Journal of Physiology – Heart and Circulatory Physiology. His appointment opens up new opportunities for collaboration and translational work by University and hospital-based scientists. More information can be found here
Dr Catherine Han is a practising clinical medical oncologist and a clinical researcher with a special interest in personalised cancer treatments, cancer genomics, early phase clinical trials and neuro-oncology including neurological complications of cancer therapies. She was awarded a Health Research Council of New Zealand (HRC) Clinical Research Training Fellowship in 2012, which supported her study towards a PhD degree in clinical pharmacology. Her research work on oxaliplatin-induced neurotoxicity won the Overall Excellence in Health Research top award for the ADHB in 2014 and the Fred Fastier Trust prize at the Australasian Society of Clinical and Experimental Pharmacologists and Toxicologists annual meeting in 2013. Since 2015, she has continued her research work as the Sir Owen Glenn Clinical Research Fellowship in the Auckland Cancer Society Research Centre, and she undertook a one-year visiting fellowship at the Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard University in 2016-2017. For her PhD work, she was awarded the Brett Roche Memorial Award at the 2018 Cancer Society annual meeting. She now continues her clinical academic development with her new permanent role as a Senior Lecturer in the Department of Pharmacology and Clinical Pharmacology.
Tracey Pieterse has been appointed as a Professional Teaching fellow in the department of Anatomy and Medical Imaging. Tracey worked as a Diagnostic Medical Imaging Technologist for six years before training as a radiation therapist in 2003. In 2006, she joined the University of Johannesburg, South Africa, to pursue a career in medical imaging education. After completing her Master’s Degree in 2013, Tracey decided to register for a Doctoral Degree which she is currently working towards completing. Her thesis is titled “A model to facilitate critical thinking of radiography students”.
Tracey joined the University of Auckland in 2019 to assist with the implementation of the Undergraduate Medical Imaging programme. She has a passion for medical imaging education, and her research areas include critical thinking and problem solving in medical imaging.
Tracey Pieterse Dr James Fisher Dr Catherine Han