Professor Emeritus Philippa Gander.
Sleep researcher Professor Philippa Gander has been awarded the title of Professor Emeritus. Throughout her career, Professor Gander has made a major contribution on improving sleep health across all industries.
After completing her doctorate, she left New Zealand in 1980 to work at Harvard Medical School in Boston as a Senior Fulbright Fellow.
In 1983, she moved to the NASA Ames Research Centre in California where she joined the Flight Crew Fatigue and Jet-Lag Program, subsequently, the Fatigue Countermeasures Program.
And in 1998, she established the Massey University Sleep/Wake Research Centre in Wellington with a repatriation grant from the Health Research Council of New Zealand.
She was elected as Fellow of the Royal Society of New Zealand in 2009 and in 2017, was made an officer of the New Zealand Order of Merit (ONZM) for services to the study of sleep and fatigue.
She stepped down as Director of the Sleep Wake Research Centre, Wellington in 2019 after 20 years. During this time, she made a great contribution in developing research in sleep and chronobiology in New Zealand and internationally, while supporting her staff.
In 2019, she was awarded the Distinguished Achievement Award by the Australasian Sleep Association.
Professor in fatigue management and sleep health Leigh Signal says Professor Gander is acknowledged both nationally and internationally as outstanding in the fields of sleep science and fatigue risk management. "She is known to government agencies, industry groups, colleagues and students for her scientific rigour, honesty and passion for sleep science. Not only is she is a leading thinker and practitioner in her field, she is also dedicated to training and supporting the next generation of sleep scientists and to improving the sleep health of New Zealanders.
"Her appointment as Professor Emeritus is incredibly well deserved and we are excited about her continued association with the Sleep/Wake Research Centre and Massey University."