Rate My Professor Bex Foxglove

Bex Foxglove is a Technical Assistant in the Department of Botany at the University of Otago, where she supports research activities in plant science. She is currently a Master's student in Botany at the same institution, with a verified academic profile on Google Scholar listing her interests in botany, plant pathology, seed biology, and salinity stress. Her professional journey began in physiotherapy, where she practiced for ten years following receipt of the Sheila Consuela MacDiarmird Musculoskeletal Scholarship from the University of Otago School of Physiotherapy in December 2008. Seeking a shift to more collaborative, research-oriented work immersed in nature, she relocated from Feilding to Dunedin with her husband, enrolled in botany studies, and transitioned into plant sciences. By 2023, as a third-year undergraduate botany student, she had already demonstrated commitment through the Otago Southern Undergraduate Scholarship awarded by Horticulture NZ in December 2021, which funded her attendance at the Primary Industries NZ Summit in 2022.

Foxglove's research engagements include the Botany Summer Research Scholarship from the University of Otago Department of Botany, awarded in October 2023, supporting her work over the summer of 2023/2024 on endophyte and virus detection in ryegrass and native flora. She has also assisted with field work and sample processing for a University of Otago thesis on the fungal endophytic community of Chionochloa species, completed in July 2024. Her recent accolades reflect growing recognition: the Brenda Shore Award from the Brenda Shore Postgraduate Research Trust in April 2024 for postgraduate research in Otago, and the University of Otago Master's Scholarship in December 2024. Additionally, she completed a summer internship at AbacusBio, supported by the Ministry for Primary Industries, Callaghan Innovation, and JobDUN, where she contributed to a project developing business and service delivery models for councils' farm environment freshwater plans. This involved stakeholder engagement with organizations such as Beef + Lamb New Zealand, Otago Regional Council, and Otago Catchment Community, broadening her expertise from plant research to applied environmental and agricultural contexts.