Associate Professor Bridgette Masters-Awatere draws on mātauranga Māori knowledge to inform medical best practice. Associate Professor Masters-Awatere has been instrumental in embedding Kaupapa Māori approaches and principles into medical and health-related research, creating meaningful health impacts for Māori at individual, community, service-provision and policy levels. Her focus is consistently reflected in her publication record, supervisory…
Dr .Charles Lee is on the front line between climate change and one of the most pristine and least understood places on earth. Dr. Lee’s early career busted many myths about the nature and behaviour of microbes in Antarctic soil and with them the prevailing belief that the icy continent’s ecosystems were stable and insensitive…
Dr Megan Grainger is securing sweet success for our multi-million dollar manuka honey industry. As a university student Dr Grainger isolated and identified MGO, the compound behind the Unique Manuka Factor (UMF) which indicates the honey’s special qualities. Dr Grainger went on to develop the first model to predict MGO concentration from freshly harvested honey,…
By building a ‘bot to crack a back-breaking task, Dr Shen Hin Lim gives hope to our asparagus industry. Our horticulture sector is facing a labour crunch and asparagus growers are particularly hard hit. Workers must walk fields daily to spot spears of the required height and then stoop to pick them, making it one…
As the perils of plastic production and pollution rise, Scion/AgriSea spies a solution in seaweed. Nanocellulose is considered to be a sustainable alternative to petroleum-based plastics and can be used in a vast range of products including adhesives, batteries, biomedical supplies and cosmetics. It’s widely available, biodegradable and biocompatible but the bulk of the world’s…
Chris Duggan’s bi-lingual science kits for primary schools have grown from a one-city wonder to a nationwide phenomenon. Observing a downward trend in our primary level science results and knowing that a lack of teacher confidence was part of the problem, accomplished science educator Chris quit her teaching job to start ‘House of Science’, a…
Outstanding leaders in terrestrial ecology, Professor Bruce Clarkson and Dr Bev Clarkson have dedicated their careers to understanding and protecting our special landscapes. Collectively, the Clarksons have attracted approximately $26 million in research funding, written nearly 200 peer-reviewed papers, supervised over 25 postgraduate students, supported many major community environmental/conservation advisory organisations and provided senior leadership…
From sewage to sea-level rise, Dr Rob Bell has devoted his professional life to protecting New Zealanders from water-related hazards. Principal Scientist and Programme Leader at the National Institute of Water and Atmospheric Research (NIWA), Dr Bell’s remarkable career began with a series of engineering projects to clean up wastewater outfall discharges into our coastal…
Greta Dromgool’s teaching and contributions to the Science Learning Hub have boosted science education regionally and nationally. Greta is hugely committed to growing a love for science, sharing her enthusiasm for the discipline with her students (currently as Head of Science at Berkley Normal Middle School) and with her peers through her role as a…
A genuine star in NZ’s artificial breeding world, Neil Standley provides critical support for LIC’s laboratories. Each spring, LIC dispatches up to 140,000 straws of bull semen per day to New Zealand farms. Neil Standley is responsible for seeing that this happens without a hitch. As well as taking care of production lab technicalities and…