Peter Wills

Peter Wills is a Theoretical Biologist in the Department of Physics, University of Auckland.

He gained a BSc in Chemistry and Biochemistry in 1973, his PhD in Biochemistry in 1977, and has held full time positions at a variety of leading overseas institutes.

Dr Wills’ most recent research has been concerned with the early stages of biological evolution, especially the origins of genetic coding and biological information processing. Some of his collaborative research work into prions - the infectious agents active in transmissible spongiform encephalopathies - has involved the contained laboratory use of microbial genetic engineering for gene amplification and functional protein analysis.

He has published widely in the international scientific literature covering a number of different fields: biochemistry, theoretical physics, molecular genetics and complexity theory.

Since the mid-1980s, Dr Wills has written and spoken extensively about genetic engineering, both in New Zealand and abroad. His analysis has been published internationally. He was an invited speaker at the 1994 Third World Network Conference in Penang that resulted in the scientists’ statement, “The Need for Greater Regulation and Control of Genetic Engineering” and in 1999 he was the only foreign invitee to the first Australian Consensus Conference on “Gene Technology in the Food Chain.”

He was a Witness to the Royal Commission on Genetic Modification on behalf of PSRG and a number of other New Zealand organisations. He has also been a Witness on genetic engineering to the Waitangi Tribunal.

Dr Wills is a Trustee of Physicians and Scientists for Global Responsibility, previously Physicians and Scientists for Responsible Genetics New Zealand, a Charitable Trust. He was Co-founder of Scientists Against Nuclear Arms (1983), and Chair of Greenpeace New Zealand (1993-1996).

March 2008

Links:

Peter Wills - The Biological Complexity and Genetic Engineering Web Site

http://www.physics.auckland.ac.nz/uoa/associate-professor-peter-wills

Genetic Engineering: Policy and Science since the Royal Commission: Insoluable Problems Summary (pdf); Full Report (pdf)

'Harnessing our very life' Peter R Wills, David L F Williams, Denys Trussell and L R B Mann

Information