The Distinguished Fellowship Research Start-up Grants have been withdrawn. Their purpose is now fulfilled by the government’s Rutherford Discovery Fellowships.
The purpose of the Distinguished Fellowship was to assist the development of New Zealand’s research capability by supporting the repatriation of outstanding New Zealanders to undertake research in New Zealand.
Inaugural Distinguished Fellow
The 2009 award winner, Dr Alan Davidson, was announced at the Science Honours Dinner, 18th November 2009, by Professor Margaret Brimble, Chair of the Trustees of the Rutherford Foundation.
Dr Alan Davidson, an Assistant Professor at Harvard Medical School, was attracted back to New Zealand to develop his outstanding career studying the genetic pathways involved in kidney development and regeneration. He is now at the University of Auckland Faculty of Medicine.
In the first year of his repatriation, Dr Davidson has achieved a Marsden grant, high profile research publications, and was interviewed on Nine to Noon on radio New Zealand on April 6th 2011.
The Rutherford Distinguished Fellows are required to attain a permanent position as a condition of the award, and Dr Davidson was appointed to an Associate Professorship at The University of Auckland Medical School, beginning in late 2010.
The research grant is being used to restablish the research career of Dr Davidson in New Zealand, enabling him to research how acquired and congenital defects in the kidney lead to disease and to work on the molecular mechanisms underlying renal regeneration following injury.
He has published papers in prestigious journals including Nature, Cell Stem Cell, and PloS genetics, and has written reviews in Science, Kidney International andOncogene.
