Rate My Professor Pete Russell

University of Otago

5.0

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5.04/23/2026

Always goes above and beyond for students.

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About Pete

Dr Pete Russell (Ngāpuhi) is a Senior Lecturer in the Department of Marine Science within the Division of Sciences at the University of Otago. He holds a BSc in Physics, an MSc in Electronics, and a PhD in Oceanography, all obtained from the University of Otago. Previously, he served as a Research Fellow in the Department of Physics at the University of Otago from 2019 to 2022, contributing to research on supercooled water under ice shelves and cyclone-generated marine primary productivity. His academic career has been dedicated to advancing understanding of physical oceanography through observational and modeling approaches.

Russell's research specializations include physical processes that support marine ecosystems, coastal and estuarine processes, tropical cyclone-generated primary production, sea ice physics, and Pūtahitanga—the intersection of Mātauranga Māori and oceanography. He is Co-Principal Investigator on the Coastal People: Southern Skies CORE project, which examines local and regional thermal regimes as potential climate refuges along the East Otago and Stewart Island coasts in collaboration with Rob Smith. Additionally, he participates in the Marsden Fund project 'Crossing the Dimensional Divide: Non-linear Interaction between Sub-mesoscale Eddies and Turbulence,' led by Craig Stevens at NIWA. Key publications encompass 'Extreme South Pacific phytoplankton blooms induced by tropical cyclones' (Geophysical Research Letters, 2023, with C. Horvat), 'Pūtahitanga: the intersection of western science and mātauranga Māori in the context of Aotearoa New Zealand’s physical oceanography' (New Zealand Journal of Marine and Freshwater Research, 2020), 'High-resolution observations of secondary circulation and tidally synchronized upwelling around a coastal headland' (Journal of Geophysical Research: Oceans, 2017, with R. Vennell), 'High resolution observations of an outer-bank cell of secondary circulation in a natural river bend' (Journal of Hydraulic Engineering, 2019, with R. Vennell), and 'The effect of pseudofrazil particle entrainment on salinity measurements' (Earth & Space Science, 2023). These contributions have earned over 140 citations on Google Scholar. Russell teaches courses including MARI 201: Oceanography: The Physical Ocean, MARI 322: Coastal and Shelf Seas Oceanography, MARI 301: Marine Ecology and Ecosystems, AQFI 301: Field Methods in Applied Marine Science, and AQFI 421: Advanced Aquaculture and Fisheries. He supervises MSc student Bridgit Smerdon on drivers of temperature variability in Southern New Zealand giant kelp forests and was selected as a new investigator for Te Pūnaha Matatini in 2023.