Dr. Sharon Ladyman is a Senior Research Fellow in the Centre for Neuroendocrinology at the University of Otago, New Zealand. After two Postdoctoral Fellow positions in North America she returned to New Zealand and now has a senior position in Prof Dave Grattan’s laboratory group, which focuses on hormone-induced adaptations of the maternal brain. She leads studies investigating the neuroendocrine regulation of body weight, appetite and glucose homeostasis during pregnancy. Her work focuses on the neuro-hormonal circuits that mediate pregnancy-induced hyperphagia, suppression of physical activity and adaptive changes in thermoregulation during different reproductive states.