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Priscilla Wehi image 2020Research Professor

Director, Te Pūnaha Matatini Centre of Research Excellence in Complex Systems

Ko te pae tawhiti whāia kia tata
ko te pae tata whakamaua kia tina

Seek out distant horizons, and cherish those you attain

Research background

Priscilla is a conservation biologist who works across disciplines. She engages with some of the most challenging conservation issues that confront humanity globally, focusing on the connections between culture, biodiversity, and ecological restoration. This transdisciplinary research informs her role as Co-Director of New Zealand’s national centre of research excellence in complex systems, Te Pūnaha Matatini, hosted out of the University of Auckland.

Her research incorporates both scientific and humanities approaches, integrating the best of both quantitative and qualitative approaches in learning how the world works. She uses scientific tools such as stable isotope analysis, using historical collections, to recover information about past relationships between humans and nature. She also works with introduced species that challenge native ecosystems, and on animal ecology and behaviour, in particular the sexually dimorphic New Zealand tree wētā genus Hemideina spp.

Priscilla’s work in conservation and te taiao draws from her lived experience in extended whānau communities of Waikato, Ngāpuhi nui tonu and Tūhoe, her family background of South Island as home for >150 years, and her Scottish highland and island roots, among other inspirations. She continues to learn from her extended family and children.

Priscilla supports research culture change towards a kinder, more inclusive and adequately funded research system. She is a foundational member of the Kindness in Science Collective. She builds inclusivity in science to create broad platforms for intellectual advancement. Her past experience includes 8 years of precarity as a Research Fellow and Postdoctoral Fellow, and 7 years in government research institute Manaaki Whenua Landcare Research, before accepting a permanent research position in the Centre for Sustainability at the University of Otago, where she has been since 2021.

Priscilla currently chairs the Prime Minister’s Emerging Scientist Award panel, and serves on the Otago Women’s Caucus Committee, the Homeward Bound Women in STEMM Leadership programme committee, the editorial board of Current Research in Insect Science and as an associate editor for the New Zealand Journal of Ecology. She has previously been a member of the Marsden EEB Panel, contributed to the NZ secondary school curriculum revamp 2021-2023, and acted as Associate Editor for 4 journals including People and Nature.

In 2020 Priscilla received an Inspirational Alumna Award from the School of Biological Sciences, University of Canterbury. She received the Hill Tinsley Medal in 2021 from the New Zealand Association of Scientists. The position of Visiting Scholar at the McDonald Institute, University of Cambridge, taken in 2023 and 2024, was a delight.

Priscilla loves working with motivated postgraduate students, and welcomes visiting students and fellows to the Centre for Sustainability Research.

Current and recent research projects

  • Historical and contemporary analyses of kākāpō diet (with Dr Amandine Sabadel, Dr Andrew Digby, the kākāpō recovery team and mana whenua)
  • Bird names and the embedding of ecology in language (with Dr Catriona MacLeod)
  • Pekapeka: the relationships of Māori communities with bats (with Dr Kerry Borkin from the Department of Conservation, and Prof. Tom Roa from the University of Waikato, Taarewaanga marae, and local kura)
  • Trophic position and habitat loss: does pekapeka diet change with anthropogenic influences? A team of stable isotopists, molecular researchers, and ecologists set out to explore this question and others in two endemic bat species at locations across Aotearoa.
  • Kurī and human relationships. With Te Papa’s mātauranga team, and University of Adelaide researchers, the team aims to explore the history and story of kurī in Aotearoa.

New opportunities for students and early career researchers

  • MSc: a comparison of kākā, kea, and kākāpō diet using stable isotopes to estimate trophic change through time. This project is largely data-based.
  • MSc or PhD: Historical ecology: exploring archives to find insights on the changing relationships between humans and nature

Please get in touch if there is something that you would like to work on with me

Postdoctoral fellows

  • Luna Grey (Thermoregulation in New Zealand tree wētā)
  • Billy Van Uitregt (Māori involvement in Antarctic governance and research)

Current and past students

  • Greer Sanger (PhD, in progress)
  • Te Rerekohu Tuterangiwhiu (PhD, in progress)
  • Finley Ngarangi Johnson (PhD, in progress)
  • Jade Watkin (MSc, completed)
  • Erana Walker (PhD, completed)
  • Javiera Cisternas (PhD, completed)
  • Adele Parli (MSc, completed)
  • Meg Kelly (MSc, completed)

Visiting PhD students

  • Brandon Whitley, PhD student University of Copenhagen
  • Matthew Bond, PhD student University of Hawai’i

Publications

Walker, E., Cox, M., Whaanga, H., & Wehi, P. (2026). 'Okea ururoatia': The role of Indigenous activism in the restoration and protection of nature. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B, 381(1942), 20240435. doi: 10.1098/rstb.2024.0435 Journal - Research Article

Wehi, P. (2025, September). The blue coat and scientific hope. University of Otago, Dunedin, New Zealand. [Inaugural Professorial Lecture]. Other Research Output

Jarić, I., Fernández-Llamazares, Á., Molnár, Z., Arbieu, U., Canavan, S., . . ., Wehi, P. M., & Jeschke, J. M. (2025). Cultural integration of invasive species. npj Biodiversity, 4, 25. doi: 10.1038/s44185-025-00097-3 Journal - Research Other

Ahmed, D. A., Sousa, R., Bortolus, A., Aldemir, C., Angeli, N. F., Błońska, D., … Wehi, P., & Haubrock, P. J. (2025). Parallels and discrepancies between non-native species introductions and human migration. Biological Reviews. Advance online publication. doi: 10.1111/brv.70004 Journal - Research Article

Johnson, F. N., Shaw, R. C., & Wehi, P. M. (2025). Supporting biocultural connections in conservation translocations. Biological Conservation, 302, 110937. doi: 10.1016/j.biocon.2024.110937 Journal - Research Article

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