Professor Bing Xue has been recognised with a Mana Tūārangi Distinguished Researcher fellowship which provides $220,000 over two years.
Professor Sally McArthur, Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Research), says this recognition is an acknowledgement of the high-quality research undertaken by both experienced and new researchers at Victoria University of Wellington.
“Professor Xue is an extraordinary academic, and as this project to create small onshore data models for New Zealand attests, her creativity is one of the many reasons why Te Herenga Waka is recognised as an AI subject leader in the recent ShanghaiRankings.
“Dr Multerer’s work seeks to include Māori and Polynesian population and genetic data into our understanding of genetic diseases and their treatments. This has the potential to improve equality within our health system, and I can’t wait to see how this develops over the coming years.”
Bing Xue, Professor of Artificial Intelligence, Deputy Head of School of Engineering and Computer Science, and Deputy Director of the Centre for Data Science and Artificial Intelligence, is one of only two researchers being recognised in the distinguished researcher tier.
The Chair of the Selection Panel, Professor Brendan McCane from the University of Otago notes, “The selection panel is delighted to announce that the fellowships have been awarded to two outstanding, internationally recognised scholars. We received many very high-quality applications which is a testament to the quality of research being done in New Zealand.”
Professor Xue says she is deeply honoured to be awarded the fellowship, which she will use to develop new AI systems based on evolutionary computation in Aotearoa New Zealand.
“I will develop systems that will be able to learn from small multi-modal datasets that mix images, text, and numbers to build small but capable language models, keeping our data onshore. I hope to target these models to address our country’s specific problems, such as in aquaculture and seafood, agriculture, environment, and health,” explains Professor Xue.
“This recognition motivates me to keep pushing the boundaries of my research and turning it into real-world applications that benefit society.”
Dr Keri Multerer, who completed her PhD in computational biology at Te Herenga Waka in 2025, is one of 20 early-career researchers awarded $820,000 over four years with a Mana Tūāpapa Future Leader Fellowship.
Dr Multerer has been awarded a fellowship to address the challenge presented by genetics-related metabolic diseases.
“The existing genetic methods used to predict gout are largely derived from European data and perform poorly for other populations, including Polynesian populations. I want to incorporate Māori and Pacific genome data, alongside Aotearoa-specific clinical and environmental factors into my analysis, to then identify new gout subtypes that capture the full complexity of the genetics underlying the disease across our diverse population and contribute to better prevention and treatment.”
She says, “It’s a real honour to have been awarded this fellowship. I’m thrilled to continue my work and contribute to Aotearoa’s world-class research."
Find out more about the Tāwhia te Mana Research Fellowships on the Royal Society Te Apārangi website.