Rate My Professor Niall Pearson

Niall Pearson is the University Dive and Boat Officer and Boating and Diving Compliance Officer at the University of Otago, operating within the Health, Safety and Wellbeing team in Dunedin. He oversees compliance for all university boating, snorkelling, and SCUBA diving activities, serving as the primary contact for the Safe Boating Policy and the SCUBA and Snorkel Diving Health and Safety Policy. Pearson approves dive plans for teaching and research purposes, manages marine science fieldwork and vessel bookings, and ensures adherence to safety protocols such as DCIEM decompression tables. His role supports safe small boat activities and laboratory compliance in hazardous environments. Contactable at mobile +64 21 279 1036 or DDI +64 3 479 5007, he facilitates training and risk assessments for off-campus activities.

Pearson significantly contributes to the Department of Marine Sciences at the University of Otago by assisting with sample collection and fieldwork logistics in numerous studies. He collected sporophylls for research on the giant kelp Macrocystis pyrifera sporulation (2022) and supported projects on kelp forest communities (2024), bryozoan fauna in Otago Harbour (2024-2025), Hector's dolphin ecology, mussel feeding preferences, and trace element profiling in marine organisms. He is acknowledged in multiple doctoral theses from the OUR Archive for providing diving compliance, boat operations, and technical support. Pearson is a co-author on the 2023 publication 'Assessing the utility of marine filter feeders for environmental DNA (eDNA) biodiversity monitoring' in Molecular Ecology Resources, affiliated with the Department of Marine Sciences. During the COVID-19 pandemic, he developed online smart forms with dropdown functionality using Adobe Acrobat Pro, learned via YouTube, to enable safe fieldwork resumption under Level 3 restrictions and temporarily assisted Campus Watch operations.