Staff
Edward Abraham
Edward's experience is in applied mathematical research. Edward has a PhD from Cambridge University, where he studied theoretical physics in the cosmology group led by Stephen Hawking. After returning to New Zealand, he worked for over 10 years as an oceanographer at NIWA. The focus of his research was on the interaction between the physical and biological environment, particularly on how stirring by ocean currents affects the plankton.
Edward started Dragonfly in 2006.
Selected publications
Abraham, E. R. and Thompson, F.N. (2009) Warp strike in New Zealand trawl fisheries, 2004-05. New Zealand Aquatic Environment and Biodiversity Report No. 16., 39 p. [PDF]
Abraham, E. R. (2007) Sea urchin feeding fronts. Ecological Complexity 4, 161-168 [PDF]
Frean, M and Abraham, E. R. (2001) Rock-scissors-paper and the survival of the weakest. Proceedings of the Royal Society of London, B 268 1323-1327 [PDF]
Abraham, E. R., Law, C. S.; Boyd, P. W.; Lavender S. J.; Maldonado, M. T. and Bowie, A. R. (2000) Importance of stirring in the development of an iron-fertilized phytoplankton bloom. Nature 407, 727-730 [PDF]
Abraham, E. R. (1998) The generation of plankton patchiness by turbulent stirring. Nature 391, 577-580 [PDF]
Finlay Thompson
Finlay has a PhD in mathematics from Sissa, Italy. His research concerned four dimensional algebra and geometry. After a two year post-doc back in New Zealand at Victoria University, he left academia to work in Wellington's IT industry.
Finlay has five years experience with database programming and manages the large data sets we deal with at Dragonfly. He also has extensive experience with web development and open source software.
Sonja Miller
Sonja completed her PhD at Victoria University of Wellington in early 2009 where her research focussed on assessing the efficacy of traditional marine protected areas (Ra'ui) in Rarotonga. Sonja works at Dragonfly part-time, and is also working on a three year FRST postdoc through Victoria University of Wellington looking into the sustainability of 'stunted' paua at key Te Atiawa (ki Taranaki) mahinga kai sites.
Prior to studying for her PhD, Sonja spent a year working for the Cook Islands Natural Heritage Project identifying and classifying corals and invertebrates for the Cook Islands Biodiversity Database. Over the past 10 years, Sonja has worked in a variety of science-related contract roles including work for the Ministry of Fisheries, the University of Otago, AgResearch, the Department of Conservation, and NIWA.
Louise Alliston
Louise's experience is in information management and research within the government sector. She specialises in managing web sites to allow clear communication between organisations and the public. She is currently working with Research New Zealand writing literature reviews. She also brings her project management and information skills to Dragonfly.