Dr.Dianne Rosemary Webster studied chemistry at the University of Auckland (New Zealand; 1972) and received her PhD from the University of London (UK; 1981). She worked as research assistant and later as post-doctoral fellow on orotic aciduria and on the purine/pyrimidine metabolism. She became involved in neonatal screening in 1991, as director of the National Testing Centre, Auckland District Health Board and was also involved as senior lecturer at the Department of Obstetrics and Gynaecology, University of Auckland School of Medicine.
Dr Webster has served in various capacities in several professional societies, notably the ISNS but also the Human Genetics Society Australasia. She has been instrumental to set up a complete neonatal screening-diagnostic programme within New Zealand involving all relevant professional disciplines, recently expanded with hearing screening.
She has been involved in the organisation of many meetings and has been invited as a plenary speaker many times.