Rate My Professor Gigi (Ghislaine) Laroche

Gigi (Ghislaine) Laroche is a Laboratory Technician in the Department of Botany at the University of Otago in Dunedin, New Zealand. She supports the department's academic and research activities through laboratory management and technical assistance to professors, lecturers, postgraduate students, and undergraduates. Her role involves hands-on support in experimental setups, course practicals, and daily lab operations within the Botany discipline, which focuses on areas such as evolutionary biology, ecology, plant physiology, and fungal studies.

In 2023, Gigi (Ghislaine) Laroche was part of the Department of Botany team awarded the University of Otago Staff Excellence Award for Sustainable Practice by Staff (Team). The recognition celebrated their environmental initiatives, including cultivating food for staff and students, composting food waste, donating to a local food bank, and contributing to United Nations Sustainable Development Goals like no poverty, zero hunger, good health and well-being, quality education, affordable and clean energy, responsible consumption and production, and climate action. She provides technical support for courses such as BTNY202 Plant and Fungal Diversity. Postgraduate theses acknowledge her practical assistance and patience in lab work for projects on phenomic screening of salinity tolerance in Festuca rubra and the fungal endophytic community of Chionochloa species.