Bill Kelly

Bill Kelly completed a PhD in the Biochemistry Department at Lincoln College and then joined the rumen microbiology group led by Dr. Dick Clarke at the DSIR Applied Biochemistry Division (ABD) in Palmerston North to work on the genetics of rumen anaerobic bacteria.

Subsequently research was developed with lactic acid bacteria involved in food fermentations including two years spent at University College Cork in Ireland constructing bacteriophage-resistant dairy starter cultures for the international food ingredients company Chr. Hansen.

Upon returning to New Zealand he was employed at HortResearch and continued work with lactic acid bacteria involved in food including malolactic fermentation in wine and the microflora of minimally processed fruit and vegetable products, however the major focus was on dairy starter cultures in collaboration with the Microbial Fermentation Unit at Fonterra.

In 2002 he joined AgResearch to help set up the rumen microbial genomics programme and has been involved at all stages from selection of the strains to be sequenced onwards.

Bill's scientific interests are in functional and comparative genomics and the analysis of bacterial diversity.