Global leadership for NZ growth and development scientists

Media Release
Monday 6 May 2013

Global leadership promised to NZ growth and development scientists

Gravida: National Centre for Growth and Development has developed an ‘International College’ of celebrated global experts who will provide leadership to all its members working on cutting edge research in reproduction, pregnancy, growth and development.

The International College will convene every two years to address critical issues for New Zealand in the area of growth and development, such as obesity – drawing on the experiences that their own countries are facing. Each International College member has also committed to assisting with peer review of Gravida members’ funding applications and projects. Crucially, they will mentor Gravida’s PhD students and postdoctoral fellows – providing them with vital opportunities to undertake career-enhancing international work experience.

The move to develop an international ‘thought leadership’ group is a first for New Zealand’s CoREs (Centres of Research Excellence), and the group will be convened by Gravida Founding Director Distinguished Professor Sir Peter Gluckman.

“The calibre of each of the college’s members is a ringing endorsement of the way New Zealand research in early life development is respected,” says Sir Peter. “New Zealand science is already being translated into clinical practice around the world – for example, the discovery Sir Graham Liggins made about steroids assisting the development of babies’ lungs is widely used around the world.

“Gravida’s International College will now help take New Zealand’s influence and reputation in these crucial scientific areas to the next level. They can help plug our next generations of scientists into global developments and help ensure our research is disseminated widely and talked about in the highest circles internationally. We’re really going to be able to optimise New Zealand’s investment in growth and development science with their support.”

The full list of 30 college members is below. One of the key members has also agreed to become Gravida’s international patron – famous UK fertility scientist and broadcaster Professor Lord Winston.

International College members have already started mentoring Gravida’s young researchers – and the college will convene in New Zealand for the first time in June 2014.

Gravida Director Professor Phil Baker says the college members were incredibly enthusiastic about joining the new initiative when he approached them and explained the collaborative, cross-discipline model Gravida’s CoRE operates in. “Many comment to me that they haven’t seen such a measureable, successful model in any other country,” Prof Baker says. “It’s allowing us to overachieve for our size. They can see that our model is likely to bring new science to the fore faster and have it applied to practice and improving health and prosperity straight away. They’re really excited to be actively involved and working with our scientists one on one.”

Gravida’s members are drawn from across New Zealand’s universities, institutions, agricultural research centres, hospitals, medical schools, farm sites and labs. Their united mission is to find out what factors influence early life development and have implications for the future health and wellbeing of generations to come.

Gravida’s executive and board are all NZ scientific and clinical leaders (see here) and Gravida also has an esteemed Scientific Advisory Board (see here) who’s role is to oversee Gravida’s strategic scientific direction.

Gravida’s new International College is:

Professor Lord Robert Winston - Emeritus Professor of Fertility Studies
Imperial College London, UK

Professor Gillian Bentley – Professor in Health, Health Sciences, Medical Anthropology, Centre for Integrated Health Care Research
University of Durham, UK

Dr Graham Burdge – Institute of Developmental Sciences, Southampton General Hospital; Editor-in-Chief of Nutrition Research Reviews; editorial board member of both the British Journal of Nutrition and Proceedings of the Nutrition Society; Reader in Human Nutrition, School of Medicine
The University of Southampton, UK

Dr Patrick Catalano – Director, Center for Reproductive Health
Metrohealth Medical Center (primary, secondary and emergency care network in Ohio), USA

Prof Marilyn Cipolla – Department of Neurological Sciences, College of Medicine
University of Vermont, USA

Prof Sandra Davidge – Department of Physiology
University of Alberta, Canada

Prof Anne Ferguson-Smith – Department of Physiology, Development and Neuroscience
University of Cambridge, UK

Prof Yechiel Friedlander – Department of Social Medicine, School of Public Health
The Hebrew University – Hadassah School of Public Health, Israel

Prof Keith Godfrey, Professor of Epidemiology & Human Development at the MRC Lifecourse Epidemiology Unit at the University of Southampton; Director of the Centre for Developmental Origins of Health & Disease; and an Honorary Consultant within Southampton University Hospitals NHS Trust
University of Southampton, UK

Dr Paul Greenwood – Principal Research Scientist in Animal Production Research within Australian Government NSW Department of Primary Industries Livestock Systems; joint appointments at CSIRO Livestock Industries and Beef Industry Centre; and an Adjunct Professor in the School of Environment and Rural Science at the University of New England
Australia

Dr Richard Horton – Editor-in-Chief
The Lancet, London UK

Prof Louise Kenny – Department of Obstetrics and Gynaecology
Cork University Maternity Hospital, Ireland

Prof Mark Kilby, Birmingham Women’s Foundation
NHS Trust, UK

Prof Dr. Berthold Koletzko, Professor of Paediatrics, Consultant Paediatrician, and Head of the Division of Metabolic and Nutritional Medicine, Dr von Hauner Children's Hospital, University of Munich Medical Centre, Germany. Also President-Elect of the European Society of Pediatric Gastroenterology, Hepatology and Nutrition
University of Munich, Germany

Prof Dennis Lo – Associate Dean (Research) of the Faculty of Medicine of Chinese University of Hong Kong;
Director of the Li Ka Shing Institute of Health Sciences

Chinese University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong

Prof Stephen Lye – Department of Obstetrics and Gynaecology, University of Toronto; Assistant Director Samuel Lunenfeld Research Institute; and Vice President Research, Mount Sinai Hospital
Mount Sinai Hospital, Toronto, Canada

Prof Runlin Ma - Institute of Genetics and Developmental Biology,
Chinese Academy of Science, Beijing, China

Prof John Mattick – Executive Director, Garvan Institute of Medical Research; Conjoint Professor in the St Vincent's Clinical School and Visiting Professorial Fellow, School of Biotechnology & Biomolecular Science, University of New South Wales
Garvan Institute, Australia

Prof Les Myatt – Professor and Chairman, University of Texas Health Science Center, San Antonio and a director of The American Board of Obstetrics and Gynaecology and under the Residency Research Committee for Obstetrics and Gynaecology
University of Texas Health Science Center, USA

Prof John Newnham - Head of School/Winthrop Professor, School of Women's and Infants' Health
The University of Western Australia, Australia

Prof Sjurdur Olsen - Adjunct Professor of Nutrition, Department of Nutrition, Harvard School of Public Health. Also a founding member of the Danish National Birth Cohort
Harvard, USA

Dr Richard Saffery - Cancer & Disease Epigenetics, Murdoch Childrens Research Institute
Royal Children's Hospital, Victoria Australia

Prof Robert Saint – Dean of Science, Department of Genetics, University of Melbourne; and standing member of the Australian Prime Minister’s Science Engineering and Innovation Council (PMSEIC)
University of Melbourne, Australia

Prof Colin Sibley – Director of the Maternal and Fetal Health Research Centre in Manchester, one of three Centres in the UK, funded by Tommy's; Head of the Research and Innovation Division at Central Manchester University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust; President, International Federation of Placenta Associations; Editorial Board, Journal of Endocrinology
The University of Manchester, UK

Prof Stephen Stearns – Professor of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology; founding Editor of the Journal of Evolutionary Biology
Yale University, New Haven USA

Dr Andrew Thompson – Department of Agriculture and Food, Western Australian Government and Program Leader, Sheep CRC in Australia
Australia

Assoc Prof Kim Vonnahme – Department of Animal Sciences
North Dakota State University, USA

Dr Jacqueline Wallace – Rowett Institute of Nutrition and Health
University of Aberdeen, UK

Prof Mary Wlodek – Department of Physiology
The University of Melbourne, Australia

Assoc Prof Chong Yap Seng - National University Hospital, Women’s Centre and Principal Investigator of the National Research Foundation Metabolic Translational and Clinical Research Flagship Programme
National University Hospital, Singapore.

ENDS

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