On the 7th December we had a farewell function for Dr Peter Stockwell, who is ending a 48 year connection with the Department of Biochemistry.
Peter started as an undergraduate in 1968, and graduated with a BSc(Hons) in 1973. He completed his PhD in 1982, after having been employed by the Department as a Research Fellow and Assistant Lecturer. The photograph on the right is of Peter at around that time.
During Peter's PhD his researches took him into the new field of DNA sequencing, and in particular the analysis of sequencing data. Peter has been the Department's "go to" person for computer analysis of sequencing data ever since; even during his stint overseas as a Post-Doctoral Fellow at Cancer Research UK, he maintained a close relationship with Otago Biochemistry.
On Peter's return from the UK he took up employment here as a Research Fellow. He was the person in charge of our computers - firstly the PDP-11 and later the VAX2. Peter has been responsible for the development of databases and software that are still in use, still being updated, and still available for public download from our website.
Download page for Peter's software.
Peter was awarded the School of Biomedical Science's "Distinguished Contribution to Research" award in 2014.
Peter is not retiring completely, he is taking up a part time appointment in Pathology, where he will be continuing the very productive work he has been doing in collaboration with Mike Eccles and Annirhuda Chatterjee.