Researching microalgae and building software.

I'm an MSc student at the University of Canterbury, studying Galdieria sulphuraria for phycocyanin production from kiwifruit waste. I also build web tools and data visualisers.

Research ↓Projects ↓

Thesis research

Improving Phycocyanin Production from Thermoacidophilic Galdieria sulphuraria Isolates on Kiwifruit Waste-Derived Feedstocks

Strain selectionOxygen controlMixed sugarsWaste validation

Natural blue pigments are hard to produce at scale. Galdieria may offer a fermentation-based route better suited to acidic food applications than traditional light-dependent Spirulina systems.

ISME20 poster and references

Glass bioreactor containing green Galdieria culture, with insets showing cell micrograph and extracted phycocyanin blue pigment powder

Featured project

A field guide to every spring in the dataset.

1000 Springs is a public field guide to New Zealand's geothermal springs. Chemistry, microbial community, site records and safety context are brought together so one spring can be understood at a glance, and any two can be compared.

792

spring records

geothermal systems

22,275

chemistry records

92,282

taxonomy observations

The 1000 Springs web app: a field guide to New Zealand's geothermal springs, with headline counts of 792 spring records, 12 geothermal systems, 22,275 chemistry records and 92,282 taxonomy records, and a browse-by-system section below — Browse by geothermal system, or search the full record setOpen the live explorer ↗

Open the live project ↗See more projects

Data from the 1000 Springs Project (GNS Science and University of Waikato), led by principal investigator Matthew Stott, used under CC BY-NC-SA 4.0. An independent, non-commercial educational tool; no dataset ownership or endorsement is implied.

Mobile app

Point your phone at a spring and it tells you what it is.

The companion app puts the same dataset behind the camera. It works out which springs are in front of you and draws them onto the live view, so a field of unmarked pools becomes a set of named records with temperature, chemistry and community attached.

Springs labelled by bearing and distance as you pan the camera
Aim the centre reticle at a spring to pull up its full record
Off-screen springs show a directional arrow; co-located ones fold into a +N chip
Temperature drives the marker colour, so a field reads at a glance

Built with Expo and React Native. Every spring carries a standing safety warning: the app is educational and is not for navigation.

The 1000 Springs mobile app in use: a phone held up at a geothermal pool, its screen showing nearby springs labelled over the camera view with Champagne Pool selected at 74 °C and 25 m away, alongside a panel of chemistry and microbial community data

Projects

Research tool

Galdieria Digital Twin

Interactive simulator for batch and fed-batch production of phycocyanin from Galdieria, modelling growth, substrate consumption, pigment accumulation, and harvest timing.

Heterotrophic, mixotrophic, and autotrophic growth modes
Scenario presets for kiwifruit hydrolysate and synthetic feeds
Endpoint summaries with harvest timing recommendations

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Client web app

Professional Insight

Self-paced CPD platform for New Zealand teachers on professional boundaries with students, written by the team that investigates professional-conduct cases for the country's regulators.

Nine modules, 3 CPD hours, certificate on completion
Text, video, reflection and quiz sections with progress tracking
Private per-section notes and inline feedback capture

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About

I'm an MSc Microbiology student at the University of Canterbury, based in New Zealand. My research focuses on extremophilic microalgae, fermentation, natural pigments, and waste-to-value biotechnology.

Outside the lab I build websites and data tools for researchers, educators, and small organisations. Open to selected projects.

Contact

Get in touch.

hamishkentlindsay@gmail.comLinkedIn