Matthias Futschik 

PhD (Information Science - Otago 2003)

If you have a particularly thorny problem with your PhD, head for the hills. That's the advice of Matthias Futschik, whose PhD broke new ground in using computers to model the behaviour of molecules. 

Quite aside from labs and equipment, the best resource Otago had to offer was its proximity to the mountains. "I was ski-touring on the Fox Glacier and, in this wonderfully meditative atmosphere, I managed to get a fresh perspective on a scientific problem that I had been struggling with. The new approaches I came up with that day eventually led to a paper in Genome Biology."
Prajesh Chhanabhai 

BSc (Inf. Syst) (Rhodes, South Africa) MSc (Otago) PhD Candidate (Otago)

Having obtained my BSc at Rhodes University in Grahamstown, South Africa and been accepted into the honours programme to continue on and do Information Systems, I decided to turn down that offer and enrol at the University of Otago. That has been the start of my journey into the academic world, and what an exciting journey it has been.
Chikako van Koten 

BSc, DipTchg (Sec), two DipGrads (Information Science, Statistics), PGDipSci (Otago), PhD (Otago)

I completed a BSc in Physics in Japan, then came to New Zealand and completed a Diploma in Teaching (Secondary) at the Dunedin College of Education. I was a secondary school teacher in New Zealand, before coming to Otago, to study Information Science. I love learning exciting new things every day and since joining the Department of Information Science as a student, have completed a DipGrad and a PGDipSci, but lastly my PhD in Information Science.
Oyvind Fredstie 

BSc (Otago), PGDipSci (Otago)

I have been studying in New Zealand since 2002 and completed a BSc and PGDipSci in Information Science here at Otago. As in any university there is a broad variety of options available in the various papers offered by the Department of Information Science, and I must say that I am very happy with what I have been taught here. For me it will always be the openness in the Department that made all the difference. I always felt that I could walk over to the Department and talk to the teaching staff.
Dr Rebekah Eyles 

BSc(Hons), DPH, PhD (Public Health and Information Science)

My first job after leaving university with a BSc(Hons) in Ecology was as an Information Analyst with the Institute of Environmental Science and Research. My role involved working with New Zealand’s notifiable disease database, EpiSurv, extracting data and analysing it to summarise trends in communicable diseases. I quickly developed an interest in public health and enrolled part-time in a Diploma in Public Health with Otago’s Wellington School of Medicine. This wasn’t enough to sate my interest, so I enrolled in a full-time PhD at Otago.