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Professor Sir Peter Gluckman is one of New Zealand's internationally recognised biomedical and medical scientists.
Sir Peter's research focuses have ranged from the hormonal control of growth before and after birth, intrauterine growth restriction and neurological diseases to evolutionary medicine and the interface between human and pastoral animal biology.
In 2009 he was appointed as the inaugural Chief Science Advisor to the Prime Minister and has continued to serve in this role. In 2014 he was appointed as Co-Chair of the World Health Organisation Commission on Ending Childhood Obesity. He hosted and chaired the Science Advice to Governments Conference, the first global meeting of high-level science advisors convened by the International Council for Science in Auckland in 2014, and chairs the International Network for Science Advice to Governments and APEC's annual meeting of Chief Science Advisors and equivalents.
He is the only New Zealander to be elected to the Institute of Medicine of the United States National Academies of Science and a Fellow of the Academy of Medical Sciences of Great Britain. He was Dean of the Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences at the University of Auckland in the 1990s before establishing in 2001 and serving as founding Director of the Liggins Institute to encourage New Zealand scientists to undertake world class research.
In 2004 he helped establish the Gravida National Centre for Growth and Development, one of seven Centres of Research Excellence in New Zealand. Until 2013 he led the Epigen Consortium, comprising six centres in three countries.
Sir Peter has published several books and developed LENScience to encourage experimental involvement of school children in science.
Honours
Redesignated Knight Companion of the New Zealand Order of Merit, 2009
Distinguished Companion of the New Zealand Order of Merit, New Year 2008
Companion of the New Zealand Order of Merit, Queen's Birthday 1997