The Society is delighted to announce the following 2025 Fellowship appointment:
- Professor Laura Bennet FRSNZ, University of Auckland, New Zealand
This will be celebrated at the President’s Lecture and Award Ceremony which will be held on Thursday 4 December 2025 at The Royal Society of Medicine in London and online.
Professor Laura Bennet FRSNZ
Professor Laura Bennet is an international leader in fetal physiological research. Her work is noted for her original discoveries in preterm fetal physiology and pathophysiology, leading to key new knowledge about how babies before birth adapt to adverse challenges to their environment such as oxygen deprivation and infection. Her research informs new methods for detecting the babies at risk of injury, and provides the fundamental physiology underpinning new perinatal treatments and clinical management strategies
Bennet is co-director of the Fetal Physiology and Neuroscience Group in the department of physiology at the University of Auckland in New Zealand, and past head of the department. She is the current president of the Physiological Society of New Zealand, and past president of the Fetal and Neonatal Physiological Society. She has been a member of the UK Physiology Society since 1989, a Journal of Physiology editorial board member since 2013, and is the current deputy-editor-in-chief of The Journal of Physiology. She is an elected fellow of the International Union of Physiological Society (IUPS) and is the current regional representative for Asia/Oceania on the IUPS council.
The excellence of Bennet’s research has been recognised by many research awards including the Physiological Society’s Annual Prize Lecture and The Joan Mott Prize Lecture, the Physiological Society of New Zealand’s Triennial medal and The Shorland Medal from the New Zealand Association of Scientists. She was elected as a Fellow of the Royal Society of New Zealand in 2022 in recognition of her distinction in advancing science in the field of perinatology.