Dr. Wendy Nelson

Wendy is a phycologist, a scientist specialising in the study of marine macroalgae or rimurimu.  She is a member of the Joint Graduate School in Coastal and Marine Science at the University of Auckland, and a principal scientist at NIWA, based in Wellington. She has also worked at the Ministry of Fisheries dealing with seaweed resource management, and as a botanist at Te Papa Tongarewa conducting research and involved in a wide range of public education programmes. Wendy studied at both the University of Auckland (BSc) and Victoria University of Wellington (BSc Hons) before travelling to Canada for PhD studies at the University of British Columbia. Her research work focuses on the systematics, biogeography, ecology and life histories of seaweeds, with a primary focus on discovery and documentation of the New Zealand flora, and she collaborates with a wide range of colleagues in NZ and overseas. Her field work has taken her from Rangitahua to the New Zealand subantarctic islands, revealing many new species still to be characterised and described.