Newly appointed as a professor at Te Herenga Waka—Victoria University of Wellington, Professor Ritchie grew up in Auckland and spent many of his childhood days on the Hauraki Gulf exploring above and below the water’s surface.
“I grew up in an age where kids roamed free—we’d pull apart logs and look at all the living things inside.
“That freedom is what got me into science, and I decided very early on that biology was the thing I wanted to do,” he says.
At the time, Professor Ritchie had no idea what area of biology he wanted to pursue until a third-year undergraduate paper at the University of Auckland introduced him to evolutionary genetics.
“I took the course and couldn't believe that you could use genetic markers to understand more about populations and the evolution of species. I was hooked—I didn’t look back after that.”
His interest in discovering these markers took him to laboratories in Paris and New York, before returning to New Zealand to take up a Marsden-funded PhD under the same professor who had introduced him to evolutionary genetics, years before.
In 2004, Professor Ritchie joined Te Herenga Waka, where he has since supervised more than sixty postgraduate research students.
“When you get to this point in your career,” he says, “the most enjoyable thing about it is the people—the people that you've worked with and the people that you've supported through their own journeys.”
“Research papers are a fantastic thing to add to the body of science but, for me, it’s about those you support and inspire along the way.”
Over the years, Professor Ritchie has walked cobbled streets in Paris and crossed ice sheets in Antarctica—but the most change he has seen comes from within the laboratory.
“When I was early in my career, everything was so much more hands-on—it took hours and hours to set up the rigs and devices in the lab to collect a small amount of data.”
Professor Ritchie would then spend few days analysing it. Now, however, his postgraduate students may spend only a few weeks of their entire PhD in the lab, but then months analysing the data, because they get significantly more in-depth results through modern processes.
“When I worked in the US, my findings came out of the lab with four DNA sequences in it—and it was included in a top journal,” says Professor Ritchie.
“Now, we would have four million DNA sequences.”
Professor Ritchie says access to a new technology opens access to a whole new suite of questions and answers for the first time.
“Initially, my research focused on using genetic markers to understand how species and populations were changed and influenced by external forces such as ice ages—I was trying to understand how big environmental changes could influence species and populations.
“With the changes to technology, we're now able to make predictions about the future. We can detect when populations are shifting and adapting to new challenges and changes in the environment.”
A highlight for the professor is being there in the moment where questions can be answered that have in the past seemed so out of reach.
In his inaugural lecture, Professor Ritchie will reflect on this journey and how his research— and his field in general—has changed over time.
“I think there are so many challenges that we're going to face as a country, and as a global community, in the next century and so having technologies that enable us to see these changes and respond to them wisely is really important.
“I think it’s actually a really useful discussion—so that's the sort of story that I'm going to tell.”
Professor Ritchie's inaugural lecture, Genes to genomes: A journey from drift to adaptation, will be held on Thursday 22 October from 5.30–6.30 pm in the Council Chambers, Level 2, Hunter building, Kelburn campus. Register to attend.