The Institute of Environmental Science and Research (ESR) has changed its name to the New Zealand Institute for Public Health and Forensic Science (PHF Science) as of 1 July 2025. The new website address is www.phfscience.nz. Visitors will automatically be redirected to the new address. Please check and update any links and bookmarks after this change.

back to Staff Profiles

Ernest Williams

Ernest Williams is a Technical Lead at PHF Science's Enteric Reference laboratory (ERL) and part of the Health and Environment team.

Qualifications

Ernest earned his PhD from the University of Maryland.

About

Ernest joined PHF Science in 2022 as the Technical Lead of the Enteric Reference laboratory (ERL). He has a PhD from the University of Maryland, USA and has worked on a variety of organisms from a molecular perspective including commensal soil bacteria, aquatic plants, protistan algae, hyperthermophiles, and Mycobacterium tuberculosis. Expertise includes genomics/transcriptomics of model and non-model organisms, biochemistry, lab culture of PC2 and PC3 organisms, experiment design, and team management. The ERL laboratory he manages is responsible for the formal identification of isolated enteric pathogens from clinical, animal, and environmental sources. Common pathogens include Yersinia species, Shigatoxin producing E. coli (STEC), Salmonella species, and Vibrio species. This typing information is used for public health surveillance and outbreak detection and tracking. Current efforts include the extension of whole genome sequencing as the routine method for all organisms referred to the lab as well as investigating historic isolates kept in the reference collection for retrospective surveillance.