Primary Job Title Research Director, New Zealand Primary Organization BioDiscovery
Location Auckland, Auckland, New Zealand Regions Asia-Pacific (APAC), Australasia Gender Male
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Dr Peter Wigley is a co-founder of BioDiscovery New Zealand Ltd and has more than forty years of research experience in the fields of quantitative ecology, insect pathology, microbiology, natural product discovery and plant-microbe interactions. He has been the scientific lead on multiple national and international research contracts and was the
inventor of the AMS technology on which the company is now focussed.
Peter has initiated and lead many research programmes both as a government scientist and at BioDiscovery, including: national strategies to avoid insect resistance in transgenic plants; bacterial pesticides for sheep ectoparasites; microbial marking for insect dispersal studies; the discovery of bioactive microbial compounds and methods to accelerate the discovery and development of microbes that improve crop growth.
He has gained substantial research contracts with companies such as Syngenta, Novartis Animal Health, Monsanto, Maxygen and Verdia as well as contracts with government research organisations, producer groups and private companies. These include AgResearch, Crop Research, Industrial Research, Enza, Comvita, AgraQuest, Living Nature, Biovite (Aust.) and a Joint Venture with New Zealand’s largest fertilizer company, Ballance Agri-Nutrients. His research output includes more than 45 scientific papers and 40 conference presentations and 5 patents.
Peter holds a D.Phil from the University of Oxford, United Kingdom and a Masters in Agricultural Science from Massey University, Palmerston North, New Zealand.
