Professor Hamish Spencer
Head of Department of Zoology
Hamish is an evolutionary geneticist, whose research ranges from mathematical population genetics to the use evolutionary trees in understanding biodiversity, as well as the history of the eugenics movement.
He has a wide range of research interests, having recently published on topics as diverse as the laws and attitudes surrounding first-cousin marriage and the developmental origins of human health and disease to mathematical models of frequency-dependent selection and the phylogenetic placement of the Galápagos Cormorant.
Much of his work involves mathematical modeling of genetic changes that occur in human, animal and plant populations. Professor Spencer is best known for his work on an unusual aspect of mammalian genetics known as genomic imprinting, in which the expression of a gene in an individual differs according to whether it was passed on from the mother or the father. Using the tools of molecular genetics, he has also worked on the evolutionary trees of birds, snails and flat-worms, which show how the different species are related to each other.
Professor Spencer is a principal investigator in two of the government-funded Centres of Research Excellence, the Allan Wilson Centre for Molecular Ecology & Evolution and the National Research Centre for Growth & Development. He is a Fellow of the Royal Society of New Zealand and holds an appointment as an Honorary Research Fellow at the Liggins Institute, University of Auckland.
For more information on Hamish: http://www.otago.ac.nz/zoology/staff/spencer.html
Teaching
Hamish teaches in GENE 312 Evolutionary Genetics, GENE 360 Special Topics in Genetics and GENE 412 Current Topics in Genetics.
Recent Publications
Donald, K.M., D.B. Keeney and H.G. Spencer. 2011. Contrasting population makeup of two intertidal gastropod species that differ in dispersal opportunities. Journal of Experimental Marine Biology and Ecology 396: 224-232.
Fraser, C.I., D.J. Winter, H.G. Spencer and J.M. Waters. 2010. Multigene phylogeny of the southern bull-kelp genus Durvillaea (Phaeophyceae: Fucales). Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution 57: 1301-1311.
Fraser, C.I., M. Thiel, H.G. Spencer and J.M. Waters. 2010. Contemporary habitat discontinuity and historic glacial ice drive genetic divergence in Chilean kelp. BMC Evolutionary Biology 10: 203. http://www.biomedcentral.com/1471-2148/10/203
Nikula, R., C.I. Fraser, H.G. Spencer and J.M. Waters. 2010. Circumpolar dispersal by rafting in two subantarctic kelp-dwelling crustaceans. Marine Ecology Progress Series 405: 221-230.
Holland, B.A., H.G. Spencer, T.H. Worthy and M. Kennedy. 2010. Identifying cliques of convergent characters: concerted evolution in the cormorants and shags. Systematic Biology 59: 433-445.
Williams, S.T, K.M. Donald, H.G. Spencer and T. Nakano. 2010. Molecular systematics of the marine gastropod families Trochidae and Calliostomatidae (Superfamily Trochoidea). Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution 54: 783-809.
Trotter, M.V., and H.G. Spencer. 2009. Complex dynamics occur in a single-locus, multiallelic model of frequency dependent selection. Theoretical Population Biology 76: 292-298.
Gillman, M.W., G. Davey Smith, M.A. Hanson and H.G. Spencer. 2009. Developmental origins of health and disease across generations — Theory, observation, experiment. Pages 52-64 in Early Life Origins of Human Health and Disease, J.P. Newnham and M.G. Ross (eds). Karger, Basel.
Spencer, H.G., B.A. Marshall, P.A. Maxwell, J.A. Grant-Mackie, J.D. Stilwell, R.C. Willan, H.J. Campbell, J.S. Crampton, R.A. Henderson, M.A. Bradshaw, J.B. Waterhouse and J. Pojeta. 2009. Chapter 10: Phylum Mollusca – Chitons, clams, tusk shells, snails, squids and kin. Pages 161-254 in New Zealand Inventory of Biodiversity. Volume 1. Kingdom Animalia: Radiata, Lophotrochozoa and Deuterostomia, D.P. Gordon (ed.). Canterbury University Press, Christchurch.
Spencer, H.G., B.A. Marshall and J.M. Waters. 2009. Systematics and phylogeny of a new cryptic species of Diloma Philippi (Mollusca: Gastropoda: Trochidae) from a novel habitat, the bull-kelp holdfast communities of southern New Zealand. Invertebrate Systematics 23: 19-25.
Nakano, T., B.A. Marshall, M. Kennedy and H.G. Spencer. 2009. The phylogeny and taxonomy of New Zealand Notoacmea and Patelloida species (Mollusca: Patellogastropoda: Lottiidae), inferred from DNA sequences. Molluscan Research 29: 33-59.
Kennedy, M., C.A. Valle and H.G. Spencer. 2009. The phylogenetic position of the Galápagos Cormorant. Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution 53: 94-98.
Fraser, C.I., H.G. Spencer and J.M. Waters. 2009. Glacial oceanographic contrasts explain phylogeography of Australian bull kelp. Molecular Ecology 18: 2287-2296.
Fraser, C.I., Hay, C.H., Spencer, H.G. & Waters, J.M. 2009. Genetic and Morphological Analyses of the Southern Bull Kelp Durvillaea Antartica (Phaeophyceae: Durvillaealeas) in New Zealand reveal Cryptic Species .Journal of Phycology 45, 436-443
Fraser, C.I., Nikula, R., Spencer, H.G. & Waters, J.M. 2009. Kelp genes reveal effects of subantarctic sea ice during the Last Glacial Maximum. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America 106, 3249-3253.
Spencer, H.G.. 2009. Effects of genomic imprinting on quantitative traits. Genetica 136:285–293.
Gluckman, P.D., Hanson, M.A., Beedle, A.S. & Spencer, H.G. 2008. Predictive adaptive responses in perspective. Trends in Endocrinology and Metabolism 19, 109-110 (2008).
Paul, D.B. & Spencer, H.G. 2008. "It's Ok, We're Not Cousins by Blood": The Cousin Marriage Controversy in Historical Perspective. Plos Biology 6, 2627-2630
Star, B., Trotter, M.V. & Spencer, H.G. 2008. Evolution of fitnesses in structured populations with correlated environments. Genetics 179, 1469-1478
Stoffels, R.J. & Spencer, H.G. 2008. An asymmetric model of heterozygote advantage at major histocompatibility complex genes: Degenerate pathogen recognition and intersection advantage. Genetics 178, 1473-1489.
Trotter, M.V. & Spencer, H.G. 2008. The Generation and Maintenance of Genetic Variation by Frequency-Dependent Selection: Constructing Polymorphisms Under the Pairwise Interaction Model. Genetics 180, 1547-1557.
Whigham, P.A., Dick, G.C. & Spencer, H.G. 2008. Genetic drift on networks: Ploidy and the time to fixation. Theoretical Population Biology 74, 283-290.