Dr Stephen Goldson
FRSNZ
Vice-President – Biological and Life Sciences
Stephen has been actively involved in pest management and biosecurity research for thirty years, during which time he has made a significant contribution to the suppression of New Zealand’s exotic grassland pests using parasitoid wasp biological control agents. He has also made early attempts at developing technology to improve sea container biosecurity.
More recently, he has worked as AgResearch’s Chief Science Strategist and most recently as its Chief Scientist. For ten years prior to this, he was the Science Leader of the Biocontrol and Biosecurity Group focusing on pest management.
During the founding and early operation of a government-established Bio-Protection Research Centre (CoRE) based at Lincoln University, Stephen was appointed as its Deputy Director. He is now the Centre’s Biosecurity Theme Co-leader and has been appointed as a Professorial Fellow at Lincoln University.
He was President of the New Zealand Plant Protection Society Inc. between 2001 and 2003 and has contributed to a large number of New Zealand MAF’s technical advisory groups established to deal with pest and disease incursions. He has been a member of several national science policy advisory groups and in 1996-97 worked as science adviser to the then Minister of Research, Science and Technology, the Rt. Hon. Simon Upton.
In 1999 Stephen was appointed by Cabinet to the New Zealand Independent Biotechnology Advisory Council. In 2005 he was appointed to the Biosecurity Ministerial Advisory Committee and in 2006 joined the National Science Panel. Stephen is a Fellow of the New Zealand Institute of Agricultural Science, a Fellow of the Royal Entomological Society of London and a Fellow of the Royal Society of New Zealand. In 2007 he won the New Zealand Institute of Agricultural and Horticultural Science’s Jubilee Medal for his contribution to primary industries research.
His current research interests include the seasonal physiology and ecology of weevil pasture pest species and their suppression using parasitoid wasps
