Announcing the promotions, vice-chancellor Prof David Skegg said these academics had made "exceptional contributions" to research or professional practice, teaching, and service to the university and wider community.
The new professors are:
Associate Prof David Bilkey, psychology: Prof Bilkey is particularly interested in the hippocampus, a brain structure that stores information about spatial locations and the experiences that occur there.
It was hoped that his studies of how the function of the hippocampus was altered in schizophrenia would shed light on the physiological and functional changes that underlay schizophrenia, university officials said.
This could also lead to improved targeting of therapeutic interventions.
After gaining an Otago PhD in psychology, Prof Bilkey undertook further research as a postdoctoral Fellow at the University of Washington in Seattle, before joining the Otago staff in 1986.
Associate Prof Gregory Cook, microbiology: Prof Cook joined the Otago microbiology and immunology department as a lecturer in 1998.
His primary research focus has been on the membrane-bound F1Fo-ATP synthase, a nano-sized rotary engine embedded within the membranes of mitochondria, chloroplasts and bacteria.
His research on ATP synthase had formed an essential platform for future studies on this enzyme in Mycobacterium tuberculosis as a new drug target to combat tuberculosis.
This enzyme was also a potential target to control greenhouse gas production by rumen methanogens, officials said.
Associate Prof Katharine Dickinson, botany: Last year, Prof Dickinson received a national award for excellence in tertiary teaching and another from Otago University.
An ecologist who studied the interactions between plants, animals, people and their environments, she was committed to communicating science to a wide audience.
She was particularly interested in mountain environments and was on the Scientific Steering Committee of the Global Mountain Biodiversity Assessment network of DIVERSITAS, which aimed to integrate biodiversity science with human well-being.
She has also served for nine years on the New Zealand Conservation Authority.
Associate Prof Keith Gordon, chemistry: Prof Gordon's research involves creating new, cheaper and more flexible materials as an alternative to conventional semiconductor electronics.
This includes new materials in lighting, such as plastic-based light-emitting diodes, or in plastic solar cells.
Recently, his research group, in collaboration with Australian and European researchers, developed a modification to a porphyrin molecule which produced a solar cell with 7% efficiency.
This was among the highest reported for non-silicon-based solar cells, officials said.
Associate Prof David Grattan, anatomy and structural biology: Prof Grattan is a former president of the New Zealand Society of Endocrinology and of the Otago Institute.
He was recently appointed editor-in-chief of the Journal of Neuroendocrinology and has published more than 20 papers in international endocrinology and neuroscience journals in the past five years.
In recent years, his research, undertaken at the Centre for Neuroendocrinology and the Otago anatomy and structural biology department, has focused on the hormonal mechanisms by which the maternal brain adapted to pregnancy.
Associate Prof Lyall Hanton, chemistry: Prof Hanton studies the structure and function of extended chemical systems with the aim of developing new advanced materials.
Such structures can be engineered to contain cavities and channels to hold and store targeted solvent or gas moleculesHe is part of a research team which is also developing a first generation of biopolymer-based surgical gels for wound healing applications.
Human trials are under way in Adelaide.
Associate Prof Henrik Kjaergaard, chemistry: Prof Kjaergaard has an international reputation for his development and use of theoretical chemistry to address key issues in atmospheric science.
He has been awarded fellowships from Japan, the United States and Denmark.
He was also recently awarded the Maurice Wilkins Centre Prize for Academic Research.
His research had led to several exciting discoveries, including a new mechanism of the photolysis of sulfuric acid in the upper atmosphere, officials said.
Associate Prof Anthony Kettle, pathology: Prof Kettle's research is centred on a green enzyme called myeloperoxidase, which gives pus and phlegm their characteristic green tinge.
This is an enzyme that produces chlorine bleach, and is a major protein in white blood cells, officials said.
These cells fight infection by eating bacteria and killing them with the bleach.
Associate Prof Richard Porter, psychological medicine: Associate Prof Porter, of the psychological medicine department at Otago's Christchurch campus, is associate editor of the Australian and New Zealand Journal of Psychiatry.
His work on changes in memory function in depression was internationally recognised, officials said.
