Congratulations to the winners of the teaching programme awards for 2020!
In 1972 the first Genetics course was started here at Otago by Associate Professors Ann Wylie and Russell Poulter, consisting of a single third-year paper. Now, almost 50 years later, this has grown to become a degree program drawing expertise from eight departments across the University.
Associate Professor Wylie began teaching at the university in the Department of Botany during her honours year in 1945. After leaving to complete her PhD at the University of London she returned to Otago in 1961 taking on a position teaching cytology and genetics within the Department of Botany.
Despite her background in Botany she, together with Associate Professor Poulter, developed a course that covered the rapidly expanding breadth of Genetics including the recently described rII bacteriophage, the lac operon, Aspergillus, Drosophila, and human cytogenetics, many of which remain important components of the degree programme to this day. Associate Professor Poulter recalls “Lectures were in the Benham Theatre in Zoology which had steeply tiered desks. No white-boards, no projectors, no photocopiers (handouts were printed). Lectures began by cleaning the board, and writing on the board also involved turning your back to the class. As a result amongst the students, the art of making paper darts out of handouts was highly developed.” Associate Professor Wylie took this in her stride and was well known for the rigorous standards to which she held her students.
In honour of her contribution, in 2005 the Board of Studies for Genetics established the Ann Wylie Prizes in Genetics to encourage excellence amongst students majoring in Genetics. These are awarded to the top achieving students in 300 and 400 level genetics papers,
