Rate My Professor Niall Pearson

Pearson significantly contributes to the Department of Marine Sciences at the University of Otago by assisting with sample collection and fieldwork logistics in numerous studies. He collected sporophylls for research on the giant kelp Macrocystis pyrifera sporulation (2022) and supported projects on kelp forest communities (2024), bryozoan fauna in Otago Harbour (2024-2025), Hector's dolphin ecology, mussel feeding preferences, and trace element profiling in marine organisms. He is acknowledged in multiple doctoral theses from the OUR Archive for providing diving compliance, boat operations, and technical support. Pearson is a co-author on the 2023 publication 'Assessing the utility of marine filter feeders for environmental DNA (eDNA) biodiversity monitoring' in Molecular Ecology Resources, affiliated with the Department of Marine Sciences. During the COVID-19 pandemic, he developed online smart forms with dropdown functionality using Adobe Acrobat Pro, learned via YouTube, to enable safe fieldwork resumption under Level 3 restrictions and temporarily assisted Campus Watch operations.