Merilyn Hibma is a Professor in the Department of Pathology at the University of Otago in New Zealand. Her research focuses on understanding human papillomavirus (HPV) regulation of immunity in the skin, the identification of biomarkers of disease progression and HPV testing in under-screened and hard to reach populations. She has published on topics that include HPV regulation of antigen presenting cells in the skin and the characterisation of the tissue microenvironment in progressing and regressing CIN2.  She obtained her PhD from the University of Otago and carried out her post-doctoral research under the mentorship of Dr Lionel Crawford at the Imperial Cancer Research Fund, University of Cambridge laboratories. She has been involved in research projects with Prof Beverley Lawton in New Zealand designed to reduce inequity for Māori, and has promoted HPV testing as a primary screen for Samoa.