Qualified at Otago University with BDS (1985), MDS in Periodontics (1992), PhD (2006) and BA in languages (2024). Fellow of the Royal Australasian College of Dental Surgeons (2002), Fellow of the International College of Dentists (2015), and Member of the Royal Society of New Zealand. Full-time tenured academic staff at Otago University since 1993; promoted Professor in Periodontics in 2015, Head of the Periodontics Discipline and the postgraduate Doctoral program for specialist training in Periodontology.

Appointed Director of the Sir John Walsh Research Institute and Associate Dean for Research in 2021. Coordinates an active PhD program, focused on dental implant therapy, novel biomaterials, regenerative scaffolds and stem-cell therapy for bone regeneration, as well as the treatment of gum diseases, diagnostic imaging and forensic research. Has >120 publications, H index = 34, has received NZ$7,828,977 in funding and supervised 61 graduate student theses. Reserve military officer for 43 years; in 2017 was appointed Honorary Dental Surgeon to the Governor General of New Zealand and in 2018, Regimental Colonel of the Royal New Zealand Dental Corps.

Actively involved in Forensic case work and research and immediate past-president of the NZ Society of Forensic Odontology. Since 1995 has also run a part-time private specialist practice in Periodontics and Dental Implantology, currently located at London Street Specialists, Dunedin.