Alison Cree 

Alison Cree has been fascinated by the ecophysiology of New Zealand's endemic reptiles and amphibians throughout her professional life. Her early research included studies of water balance in leiopelmatid frogs (as a doctoral student at the University of Waikato) followed by the reproductive hormone cycles of tuatara on offshore islands (as a postdoctoral researcher at Victoria University of Wellington). Since 1991, Alison has been based at the University of Otago in southern New Zealand, where she studies, with awe, the ability of ectothermic geckos and skinks to reproduce in cool climates. Alison has also been closely involved in the reintroduction of tuatara to the nearby Orokonui Ecosanctuary, and in 2014, her landmark book Tuatara: biology and conservation of a venerable survivor was published by Canterbury University Press. Alison provides advice to the Department of Conservation on species recovery programmes, and has served as a past president of the Society for Research on Amphibians and Reptiles in New Zealand (SRARNZ).  Internationally, she has been an elected member of the Board of Directors of the Society for Research on Amphibians and Reptiles (SSAR), and of the International Herpetological Committee to the World Congress of Herpetology. She was head of the Department of Zoology at the University of Otago from 2012–2014 and has supervised over 40 postgraduate and honours students.