Geoff Chambers
Retired Academic
School of Biological Sciences
Qualifications
BSc(Hons) Biochemistry 1st class (1970) University of Leeds, UK
PhD (1974) Department of Genetics, University of Leeds, UK.
Victoria University academic staff member since 1985, promoted to Reader in 1992.
Visiting Professor at Universiti Sains Malaysia, Penang (USM) from 2008.
Memberships
American Association for the Advancement of Science, Australia and New Zealand Forensic Science Society, Genetics Society of Australia Inc., NZ Association of Scientists, Ornithological Society of New Zealand.
Research interests
The central theme of my research programme is the development and application of methods to measure genetic variability in populations. The present focus of this work is the use of polymerase chain reaction (PCR) catalysed amplification of target genes, DNA sequencing and microsatellite DNA genotyping analyses in forensic science, human disease diagnosis, and wildlife conservation.
Visit my research pages:
Teaching interests
My general teaching interests include evolution, genetics and molecular biology. I also teach a range of special topics in comparative genomics, molecular biology of human disease, population genetics and molecular evolution, as graduate level subjects at USM.
Selected publications
OSNZ (Ornithological Society of New Zealand) Checklist Committee (2010). Checklist of the Birds of New Zealand, Norfolk and Macquarie Islands and the Ross Dependency Ed. 4. (500 pp.) Te Papa Press, Wellington, NZ.
Bellwood, P., Chambers, G.K. Ross, M. and Hung, C.-H. (2011) Are “cultures” inherited?: Multidisciplinary perspectives on the origins of Austronesian–speaking peoples prior to 1000 BC. Pp. 321-354 in Investigating Archaeological Cultures: Material Culture, Variability and Transmission. B. Roberts, and M. Vander Linden Eds. Springer, Berlin
Chan, C.-H., Robertson H.A., Saul, E.K., Nia, L.V., Luong, V.P., Kong, X., Zhao, Y., and Chambers, G.K. (2011). Low levels of genetic variation in the kakerori (Pomarea dimidata) and implications for conservation of this island endemic in the, Cook Islands. Conservation Genetics 12: 441-447.
Myles, S., Lea, R.A., Ohashi, J., Chambers, G.K., Weiss, J.G. Hardouin, E., Engelken, J., Macartney-Coxon, D., Hall, D.A., Naka, I., Kimura, R., Matsumura, Y., Kayser, M. and Stoneking, M. (2011) Testing the thrifty gene hypothesis: the Gly482Ser variant in PPARGC1A is associated with BMI in Tongans 7pp in Biomed Central Medical Genetics 12:10.
Chambers, G.K., Moeke, C., Steel, R. and Trueman J.W.H. (2009). Phylogenetic analysis of the twenty-four named albatross taxa based on full mitochondrial cytochrome b DNA sequences. Notornis 56: 82-94.