Jacqueline Beggs


Jacqueline Rae Beggs, is a New Zealand entomologist and ecologist of Ngāti Awa descent, specialising in biodiversity and biosecurity. She is a professor at the University of Auckland.

Academic career

Following an undergraduate and master's degree at the University of Auckland, Beggs completed a PhD part-time at the University of Otago before working with Landcare Research in Nelson. She has worked for the University of Auckland since 2003. Much of her work has focused around the beech forests in New Zealand's upper South Island, where scale insects produce honeydew that both native birds and invasive Vespula wasps feed on. Beggs' research has often focused on the impact of invasive wasps in these ecosystems.
In 2015, Beggs was awarded the Te Tohu Taiao award for ecological excellence from the New Zealand Ecological Society.
Since 2013, she has been a member of the Biosecurity Ministerial Advisory Committee, which provides independent advice to the Minister for Biosecurity on the biosecurity system.
Beggs blogs about her interest in sailing.

Selected works