Prof Hunter (43), a former lecturer in the University of Otago chemistry department (1989-91), is back in Dunedin this week as a keynote speaker at a chemistry conference at the university.
More than 300 people are attending.
Prof Hunter, who is is now based at Sheffield University, England, carries out theoretical research in "supramolecular" chemistry.
This chemistry goes "beyond the molecule" and investigates the structure, function and properties of systems that contain more than one molecule.
Theoretical work in this field could be applied to speeding up the identification of promising new therapeutic drugs, he said.
The Otago chemistry department was "very vibrant" and was going from strength to strength in its research in supramolecular chemistry and other fields, he said.
Prof Hunter has spent most of his life in Britain, having left Dunedin with his family at the age of 2, and later gaining a PhD in chemistry at Cambridge University.
The five-day conference, which ends tomorrow, is the biggest chemistry conference held in Dunedin in more than 10 years.
The New Zealand Institute of Chemistry, the New Zealand Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology and the New Zealand Society of Plant Biologists are all taking part.