Rate My Professor Maren Wellenreuther

Professor Maren Wellenreuther is a Professor in the School of Biological Sciences at the University of Auckland, where she was appointed full professor in 2024 on a part-time basis. She also serves as Science Group Leader at the New Zealand Institute for Bioeconomy Science Limited (formerly Plant & Food Research) in Nelson. Wellenreuther earned a master’s degree in Australia and completed her PhD at the University of Auckland in 2007 with a thesis titled “Ecological factors associated with speciation in New Zealand triplefin fishes (Family Tripterygiidae),” which received the Marian Cranwell Prize for the best ecological PhD thesis. She undertook postdoctoral research at Lund University in Sweden, where she qualified as Docent in 2014 and served as Associate Professor from 2014 to 2017.

Wellenreuther’s research integrates evolutionary theory with genomics to examine adaptive and non-adaptive processes, with particular focus on sexual selection, adaptation, population demography, and applications to aquaculture and selective breeding of indigenous fish species such as trevally and snapper. She leads a major MBIE-funded project developing native fish for aquaculture, emphasizing traits including growth rate and disease resistance. Her work has societal relevance for biodiversity conservation, sustainable primary production, and responses to global change. Wellenreuther holds editorial roles including Editor-in-Chief of Evolutionary Applications and Associate Editor for Molecular Ecology and Molecular Ecology Resources. She has received the 2018 Royal Society Te Apārangi Hamilton Award, the 2017 Science New Zealand Plant & Food Research Early Career Award, and the 2013 King Carl XVI Gustaf’s 50-years award for contributions to biological diversity. Key publications include co-authored papers in Trends in Ecology & Evolution on eco-evolutionary genomics of chromosomal inversions (2018) and harnessing genomics for seafood production (2017), as well as work in Nature Communications on balancing selection and inversion polymorphisms (2020).

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