Fiona Jean McDonald is a New Zealand physiologist, professor and head of the McDonald Lab and the Department of Physiology at the

University of Otago The University of Otago () is a public university, public research university, research collegiate university based in Dunedin, Otago, New Zealand. Founded in 1869, Otago is New Zealand's oldest university and one of the oldest universities in ...

Academic career

McDonald was born in

Roxburgh Roxburgh () is a civil parish and formerly a royal burgh, in the historic county of Roxburghshire in the Scottish Borders, Scotland. It was an important trading burgh in High Medieval to early modern Scotland. In the Middle Ages it had at lea ...

, New Zealand. After graduating from

St Hilda's Collegiate School Saint Hilda's Collegiate School is a secondary school for girls in Dunedin, New Zealand. History Founded as an Anglican school in 1896 by the first bishop of Dunedin, Bishop Samuel Nevill and staffed by the Sisters of the Church. The sisters ...

in Dunedin she completed a BSc at the University of Otago. She then studied at the

University of Oxford The University of Oxford is a collegiate university, collegiate research university in Oxford, England. There is evidence of teaching as early as 1096, making it the oldest university in the English-speaking world and the List of oldest un ...

for a DPhil for her thesis, "Studies on the role of FGF-4 in mouse development". In 2011 McDonald was awarded a

Fulbright scholarship The Fulbright Program, including the Fulbright–Hays Program, is one of several United States cultural exchange programs with the goal of improving intercultural relations, cultural diplomacy, and intercultural competence between the people ...

to study the function of a protein named COMMD10 at the

University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center The University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center (UT Southwestern or UTSW) is a public academic health science center in Dallas, Texas. With approximately 23,000 employees, more than 3,000 full-time faculty, and nearly 4 million outpatient ...

in Dallas. Returning to her position at Otago, she was promoted to full professor, with effect from 1 February 2020.

Awards and honours

In 2005, McDonald was awarded the Research Medal by the

New Zealand Association of Scientists The New Zealand Association of Scientists is an independent association for scientists in New Zealand. It was founded in 1941 as the New Zealand Association of Scientific Workers, and renamed in 1954.Gregory, G., 2013. Not to be forgotten: New ...

, for "her outstanding physiological research over the last 3 years".

Selected works

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References

External links

* Living people Year of birth missing (living people) Alumni of the University of Oxford Academic staff of the University of Otago People from Roxburgh, New Zealand New Zealand physiologists New Zealand women academics {{NewZealand-academic-bio-stub