Philippa Gander

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Philippa Helen Gander is a New Zealand sleep researcher and emeritus professor at Massey University. She was the founding director of the Sleep/Wake Research Centre in Wellington, a role she held until 2019, and was named emeritus professor in 2021.

Gander studied at the University of Auckland, completing a master's degree in 1976 with a thesis on circadian rhythms, followed by a PhD in 1980 on circadian organization. She then spent time abroad as a Fulbright Fellow at Harvard Medical School in 1980 and joined NASA-Ames Research Center in 1983 to work on flight crew fatigue and jet lag. She returned to New Zealand in 1998 and helped establish the Sleep/Wake Research Centre at the Wellington School of Medicine with funding from the Health Research Council of New Zealand. In 2003 she moved to Massey University, became a full professor, and the sleep centre became part of Massey’s school of public health.

Gander has received several honors. She was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of New Zealand in 2009 and was appointed an Officer of the New Zealand Order of Merit in 2017 for services to the study of sleep and fatigue.

Notable students include Leigh Signal and Ridvan Tupai-Firestone, who both became professors at Massey University. Her research has covered sleep and fatigue, circadian rhythms, and methods for measuring sleep, including studies on sleep in pilots and other shift workers.

Selected publications include work on the epidemiology of morningness/eveningness, fatigue risk management, and sleep measurement in flight crews.