Scientific Committee
The Scientific Committee is primarily concerned with adjudicating on applications for Research Grants and on applications from students for Summer Research Scholarships. To cover the breadth of topics submitted, the committee is relatively large to ensure it has representatives from all the major sub-disciplines of medical research.
2026 committee membership
| Chair | Professor Greg Jones, Department of Surgery and Critical Care, Dunedin, 2003- |
| Deputy Chair | Associate Professor Heather Cunliffe, Department of Pathology (co-opted), 2015- |
| Professor Rob Walker | Department of Medicine, Dunedin (co-opted), 1992- |
| Associate Professor Nick Heng | Faculty of Dentistry (co-opted), 2009- |
| Professor Ivan Sammut | Department of Pharmacology and Toxicology (co-opted), 2012- |
| Associate Professor Chris Brown | Department of Biochemistry (co-opted), 2016- |
| Professor Rajesh Katare | Department of Physiology (nominee of Faculty of Biomedical Sciences), 2018- |
| Dr Sierra Beck | Department of Medicine (nominee Faculty of Medicine - Dunedin), 2019- |
| Dr Natasha Flack | Department of Anatomy (nominee Otago Medical School Research Society), 2023- |
| Associate Professor Allan Gamble | School of Pharmacy (co-opted), 2024- |
| Dr Joon Kim | Department of Physiology (co-opted), 2025- |
| Dr Emily Gray | President Otago Medical School Research Society, ex officio, 2025-26 |
| Dr Nils Birkholz | Department of Microbiology and Immunology (co-opted), 2025- |