Hamish Spencer

Hamish Gordon Spencer is a New Zealand evolutionary biologist, and is a Distinguished Professor at the University of Otago. Spencer was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society Te Apārangi in 2009, and is a Fellow of the International Science Council. He won the Callaghan Medal in 2016.

Academic career

Spencer completed a PhD at Harvard University in 1988, under the supervision of Richard Lewontin. Spencer joined the faculty of the Department of Zoology at the University of Otago in 1992, rising to full professor in 2006. He was appointed one of seven University of Otago Sesquicentennial Distinguished Chairs in 2019.

Spencer was director of the Allan Wilson Centre of Research Excellence for three years from 2012. He was an independent science advisor to the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment for five years, beginning in 2016. Spencer led the bid to hold the International Congress of History of Science and Technology in New Zealand in 2025.

Honours and awards Spencer was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society Te Apārangi in 2009. In 2016 he was awarded the Royal Society . In 2022 he was awarded a James Cook Research Fellowship. He has been a Fellow of the International Science Council since 2023.

The deepwater snail Hortia spenceri is named after Spencer.

Selected works