All (the) KuDos winners are required to spend their cash rewards in ways that further their research in the Waikato region.

The eight winners were chosen from nearly 50 scientists who were nominated as either individuals or science teams. The nominee list was narrowed down by expert judges to a list of 19 finalists, including the eight winners.

+ 2008 Award Winners
+ 2008 Award Finalists
+ Download a booklet of the 2007 winner profiles (245 KB PDF)

Watch videos of the 2007 winners of (the) KuDos below.

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Warwick Silvester - Lifetime Achievement Award
Sponsored by The University of Waikato
Crystal trophy awarded and named after him for use in future years

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Warwick is a Professor of Biological Sciences (part time) at the University of Waikato. Professor Silvester has given a lifelong commitment to the pursuit of excellence and innovation in environmental science. He has for many years worked on the way in which interactions of soil properties, microbes and plant roots influence the availability of nutrients for plant uptake, focusing specifically on the native forests of the Waikato and wider parts of NZ. Silvester is an internationally recognised pioneer in the use of stable isotopes for this purpose.

James Sleigh - Medical Science Award
Sponsored by the Waikato District Health Board
$8000 Award

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James is a Professor of Anaesthesiology and Intensive Care at the Waikato Clinical School, Waikato District Health Board. Dr Sleigh's research has focused on understanding of how general anaesthetic drugs induce unconsciousness, and how to quantify their effects. His work can be directly applied to the clinical practice of anaesthesia; it also contributes to the broader scientific understanding of how the brain works. Practically, he hopes his work will be able to eliminate the rare, but devastating, problem of patient awareness when under general anaesthesia.

LIC's Test-Day Model Research Team - Agricultural Science Award
Sponsored by Hamilton City Council
$8000 Award

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The LIC team, led by Dr Bevin Harris, developed new genetic evaluation software that provides increased accuracy, new information about lactational persistency breeding values for somatic cell count (SCC) and has allowed herd testing organisations the ability to provide single-sample products for their clients. The benefits to dairy farmers from increased accuracy of the milk production traits from the test-day model has been estimated to be worth $2.5 million accumulated net income which equates to $137 million for New Zealand dairy farmers ($38 million for Waikato dairy farmers) over 10 years. There has been a high degree of update of the new test amongst New Zealand dairy farmers.

Louis Schipper - Environmental Science Award
Sponsored by Environment Waikato
$8000 Award

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Louis is an Associate Professor in the Department of Earth and Ocean Sciences at the University of Waikato. He developed the concept of denitrification walls for removing nitrate from shallow groundwater. This work led to the development of denitrification beds for treating a range of effluent streams. When sized appropriately, denitrification beds and walls can achieve 100% removal of nitrate without active maintenance, something no other simple technology has yet to achieve.

The University of Waikato's CRCnet Team - ICT Science Award
Sponsored by Rural Link
$8000 Award

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The University of Waikato's CRCnet Project Team, led by Dr Murray Pearson, has been developing a platform that enables broadband Internet to be delivered into very remote rural areas and underserved rural communities. The platform is made up of three main components, the hardware and software systems and the operational models. The first testbed for the innovative network connected eight rural Waikato schools and approximately 50 homes around Te Pahu. The team is about to commence its largest project that will connect 2000 homes in the Tuhoe tribal lands in the Bay of Plenty.

Alison Campbell - Science Educator/Communicator Award
Sponsored by Wintec
$4000 Award

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Alison is a Senior lecturer in the Department of Biological Sciences at the University of Waikato. She is well-known in the Waikato and Bay of Plenty through her involvement in promoting science to school students and community groups. Many secondary schools students know her as the ‘skull lady' as a result of her presentations on human evolution. Her passion for science communication saw her and a colleague set up Café Scientifique in Hamilton, which is part of an international movement to involve the community in talking about science issues. Alison has also launched several science education teaching tools, including a ‘BioBlog' and an ‘Evolution for Teaching' website.

Bjorn Oback - Emerging Scientist
Sponsored by WaikatoLink
$4000 Award, plus $4000 of intellectual property services from James & Wells

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Bjorn is a Senior Scientist at AgResearch and specialises in Nuclear Transfer (NT) Cloning. Traditional NT cloning procedures are labour- and cost-intensive and require high technical skills to perform. Bjorn developed a simplified cloning procedure which: 1) doubles the throughput in cloned bovine embryos and offspring productions, and also 2) increases the ease of operation and reproducibility. This method can help satisfy the increased demand for cloned embryos and offspring in commercial agriculture, basic science and therapy.

Peter Molan - Science Entrepreneur Award
Sponsored by the Waikato Innovation Park
$4000 Award, plus $4000 of intellectual property services from James & Wells

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Peter is a Professor in Biological Sciences at the University of Waikato. He has, through research, education, invention and advising companies, taken his discovery of the unusual antibacterial activity of manuka honey through to developing wound dressings used in hospitals around the world. Professor Molan has enabled successful commercialisation of manuka honey products for wound care that are now registered as medial devices with the regulatory authorities in Australia, Canada, the countries of the European Union, Hong Kong, New Zealand and the USA.