Roberta L. Farrell, BS 1975, has been Professor of Biological Sciences at the University of Waikato in Hamilton, New Zealand since 1996. She received a PhD in biochemistry from the University of Illinois, Urbana, in 1980 and did postdoctoral research at the University of Chicago and MIT prior to an appointment, first as Associate Director of Research - Industrial Enzymes with Repligen Corporation, Cambridge, Massachusetts, in 1984 and then as Executive Vice President & Chief Operating Officer Sandoz Chemicals Biotech Research Corporation and Repligen Sandoz Research Corporation, a position she held from 1987-1996. She was recognized by her majesty the Queen as a Companion of the New Zealand Order of Merit (CNZM) in the 2009 New Year Honors in recognition of her services to biochemical research. In addition she has been involved a project in Antarctica and studies the degradation of the wooden huts left behind by the expeditions of Scott and Shackleton in the early 1900s.
