New Zealand Association of Scientists Conference 3 April 2013

New Zealand Association of Scientists Conference 3 April 2013
“What is the value of science in New Zealand?”
List of Invited Speakers
Hon. Steven Joyce
Hon Steven Joyce is Minister for Economic Development; Minister of Science and
Innovation; Minister for Tertiary Education, Skills and Employment; and Associate
Minister of Finance.
After completing a zoology degree at Massey University, Steven started his first
radio station, Energy FM, in his home town of New Plymouth, at age 21. Along with
two business partners, he built up The RadioWorks over 17 years until, as a listed
public company, it consisted of 22 local radio stations and four national radio
networks. In 2000/2001 RadioWorks was purchased by Canadian company
Canwest. Steven retired as Managing Director in April 2001 on his 38th birthday.
He chaired the National Party's Campaign Review after the 2002 election, and then
its major Strategic Review which led to a full reorganisation of the Party. He took on
the role of the Party's first General Manager, and led it through to the 2005 election. He managed the
2005 election campaign.
Steven was Chief Executive of NZAX-listed Jasons Travel Media Limited, a tourism marketing company,
for two years from August 2006. He has also been a director and Chairman of Taranaki-based hospital
bed manufacturing and export company Howard Wright Limited, and a consultant to National Leader
John Key.
Steven chaired the National Party’s successful 2008 national election campaign and was also elected as
a list MP at the same election. He was then appointed as a Minister in the new Cabinet. Steven spends
his spare time developing his lifestyle property north of Auckland, where he lives with his family.
David Shearer
David Shearer is the leader of the New Zealand Labour Party. He first entered
Parliament in June 2009 after winning a by-election for the seat of Mt Albert. He
was elected Labour Leader on 13 December 2011.
Born and raised in Auckland, Mr Shearer has spent most of his career working in
the areas of international humanitarian affairs and conflict resolution. Mr
Shearer has led large-scale relief and reconstruction operations for the United
Nations in Liberia, Rwanda, Albania, Belgrade, and Afghanistan. He headed the
humanitarian office in Jerusalem covering the West Bank and Gaza and led the
humanitarian operation in Lebanon during the war in 2006.
Between 2007 and 2009 Mr Shearer was responsible for leading the UN’s
reconstruction programme in Iraq. He has also conducted various assignments
for Save the Children Fund and the International Crisis Group and while with the
International Institute for Strategic Studies wrote extensively on conflict
resolution.
In 1993, David Shearer and his wife Anuschka Meyer were named New Zealanders of the Year by the
New Zealand Herald. That same year Mr Shearer was awarded a MBE in the UK honours list for his work
running one of the largest aid operations in Somalia.
Dr Russel Norman
Russel is Co-Leader of the Green Party, and one of 14 Green MPs. He
currently sits on Parliament’s Finance and Expenditure Committee, where he is
a strong advocate for smart, green economics, because he believes that New
Zealand’s future prosperity depends on investment in clean technology and
sustainable jobs. He has a Doctorate in Politics from Maquarie University in
Sydney. Russel entered politics to save the world - he thinks there’s still a bit of
a way to go.
Professor Sir Peter Gluckman, FRS, FRSNZ
Professor Sir Peter Gluckman was the founding Director of the Liggins
Institute and is one of New Zealand’s best known scientists.
His research has won him numerous awards and international recognition
including Fellowship of the Commonwealth’s most prestigious scientific
organisation, The Royal Society (London). He is the only New Zealander
elected to the Institute of Medicine of the National Academies of Science
(USA) and the Academy of Medical Sciences of Great Britain.
In 2009 he became a Knight of the New Zealand Order of Merit replacing the
2008 Distinguished Companion of the NZ Order of Merit, for services to
medicine and having previously been made a Companion of the Order in
1997. In 2001 he received New Zealand’s top science award, the Rutherford
Medal. In July 2009 he was appointed as the first Chief Science Advisor to
the Prime Minister of New Zealand.
Professor Sir Gluckman is an international advocate for science, promoting
the translation of discoveries in biomedical research into improvements in
long term health outcomes. He is the author of over 500 scientific papers and
reviews and editor of eight books, including three influential textbooks in his subject area.
Professor Christine Winterbourn, FRSNZ
Professor Christine Winterbourn is an Auckland University chemistry
graduate who received her PhD in biochemistry from Massey University
and now has a personal chair in the Pathology Department, University of
Otago, Christchurch where she leads a research group investigating the
biochemistry of free radical reactions and the involvement of oxidants and
antioxidants in health and disease. Her work encompasses mechanisms
of antioxidant defence, understanding how white blood cells kill bacteria,
and free radical involvement in cardiovascular and respiratory
diseases. Professor Winterbourn has published more than 250 scientific
papers. As well as receiving the 2011 Royal Society of New Zealand
Rutherford Medal, she has received the NZ Association of Scientists’
th
Marsden Medal, Massey University 75 Anniversary Medal, Society for
Free Radical Research (Australasia) Distinguished Service Award,
University of Otago Distinguished Research Medal and Society for Free
Radical Research (International) Lifetime Achievement Award. She is a
Fellow of the Royal Society of New Zealand and has recently been made
a Companion of the NZ Order of Merit.
Professor Les Oxley, FRSNZ
Les Oxley FRSNZ, FMSSANZ, FIEMSS is Professor in Economics,
Department of Economics University of Waikato and Adjunct Professor Adjunct Professor, School of
Economics and Finance, Curtin University of Technology, Perth, Australia. He is also an Affiliate, at
Motu, Wellington, Research Associate, Centre for Applied Macroeconomic
Analysis (CAMA), ANU, Research Affiliate, Centre for Economic History (CER),
ANU.
His research interests include: modelling and testing theories of economic
growth especially those involving measures of human capital and the role of
innovation; financial econometrics; the knowledge economy/society; intellectual
property; energy economics and cliometrics. He is one of the Foundation
Editors, and currently Editor in Chief, of the Journal of Economic Surveys
(Wiley-Blackwell), Senior Editor, Mathematics and Computers in Simulation
(Elsevier) and is on the editorial boards of several international journals,
including Environmental Modelling and Software.
His research is funded, in part, with support from the Marsden Fund where he
has been PI on six successful bids, and other government grant awarding
bodies.
Professor Oxley was a Member (2003) and Deputy Chair (2006, 2012) of the Performance Based
Research Fund (PBRF) national panel for Business and Economics; is currently a member of the elite six
person Economic Advisory Group to New Zealand Minister of Finance, Bill English. He is a Member of the
Fellowship Selection Committee; James Cook Fellowship Committee and Rutherford Fellowship
Selection Committee for the RSNZ.
For his contributions Les Oxley received the award of Elected Fellow, Royal Society of New Zealand
(FRSNZ) in November 2004, following the award of Elected Fellow, Modelling and Simulation Society of
Australia and New Zealand, (FMSSANZ), in August 2000. He received the Biennial Medal, (Socioeconomic Systems) from the International Environmental Modelling
and Software Society (iEMSs) in 2006.
Professor Graham Le Gros, FRSNZ
Graham has been the Director of the Malaghan Institute of Medical
Research since 1994 He also leads the Allergic and Parasitic
Diseases Research Group. In the late 1980’s he worked with Dr W.E.
Paul and colleagues at the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious
Diseases, NIH defining the role of IL-4 in Th2 immunity and in the
1990’s was involved in preclinical drug discovery for the indication
Allergy at Ciba-Geigy, Basel, Switzerland. Prof Le Gros has a long
standing interest in seeking to understand the cell and cytokine
signals that trigger the initiation of Th2 immune responses in the
context of allergic, inflammatory and parasitic diseases. He was
awarded a Wellcome Trust Senior Research Fellowship, James
Cook Fellowship, is a Fellow of the Royal Society of NZ, and is a
member of HRC, Cancer Society and WMRF scientiifc committees.
Associate Professor Nicola Gavey
Nicola Gavey is an Associate Professor in Psychology at The University of
Auckland. Her research has focussed on sexual violence, as well as
broader issues relating to gender and sexuality. Currently she is working on
a project addressing the issue of pornography in relation to gender, justice
and ethics. She is editor of the Sage journal Feminism & Psychology (with
Virginia Braun). Her book Just sex? The cultural scaffolding of rape
(London & New York: Routledge) received a Distinguished Publication
Award from the U.S. Association for Women in Psychology.
Professor Peter Hunter FRS, FRSNZ
Professor Hunter holds engineering degrees from Auckland University and
a DPhil (PhD) in Physiology from Oxford University. He is currently a
Professor of Engineering Science and Director of the Bioengineering Institute at
the University of Auckland, and co-Director of Computational Physiology at
Oxford University. He has recently been Chair of the Marsden Fund Council and
a member of the MBIE Science Board, and is currently a member of the Board
of Directors of Callaghan Innovation. As co-Chair of the Physiome Committee of
the International Union of Physiological Sciences he has been helping to lead
the international Physiome Project, which aims to use computational methods
for understanding the integrated physiological function of the body in terms of
the structure and function of tissues, cells and proteins, and has been
developing the standards (CellML and FieldML) to facilitate reproducible multiscale modeling.
Associate Professor James Renwick
James has over 30 years’ experience in weather and climate research. He is
currently associate professor of physical geography at Victoria University,
specialising in large-scale climate dynamics. His career spans the range from
weather forecasting at the Met Service through seasonal prediction and climate
change studies at NIWA, to his present teaching and research role at VUW. His
current interests include Southern Hemisphere climate variability (such as the El
Niño/La Niña cycle and the mid-latitude westerly circulation) and the impacts of
climate variability and change on the New Zealand environment. James is a lead
author for the upcoming IPCC 5th Assessment Report, in Working Group I
(physical science), and was also a lead author for the 4th Assessment Report
published in 2007. He is chair of the Royal Society of New Zealand Climate Expert
Panel, and is immediate Past President of the New Zealand Association of
Scientists.
Dr David Winter
David Winter is an evolutionary biologist, and a recent PhD graduate from
the University of Otago. In his thesis research he worked on a previously
unrecognized evolutionary radiation of land snails from Rarotonga in the
Cook Islands. In addition to his scientific work, David has considerable
experience communicating scientific ideas to popular audiences, gained
through posts at his blog, opinion pieces on stuff.co.nz, and appearances
on TV and Radio. In this talk he will try to convince you that the science
system, and the country at large, will do better in a society that values
science, and that scientists have a crucial role to play in creating such a
society.
Professor Shaun Hendy, FRSNZ
Shaun Hendy is Professor of Computational Physics at the MacDiarmid
Institute for Advanced Materials and Nanotechnology at Victoria University of
Wellington and an Industry and Outreach Fellow at Callaghan Innovation. Shaun
has a PhD in physics from the University of Alberta in Canada and a BSc (Hons) in
mathematical physics from Massey University. He has a wide range of research
interests, including computational physics, nanoscience, complex systems and
innovation, and has authored more than 90 peer reviewed journal articles on these
and other topics. In 2010, Shaun was awarded the New Zealand Association of
Scientists Research Medal and a Massey University Distinguished Young Alumni
Award. In 2012 he was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of New Zealand for
his research on nanotechnology and in 2013 he was awarded the E. O. Tuck
medal for research in applied mathematics by ANZIAM. Shaun also writes a blog,
‘A Measure of Science’, as part of sciblogs.co.nz, a hub for New Zealand’s science
bloggers, and has a regular slot on Radio New Zealand Nights as physics
correspondent. In 2012, Shaun was awarded the Callaghan Medal by the Royal
Society of New Zealand and the Prime Minister’s Science Media
Communication Prize for his achievements as a science communicator.
Helen Heath
Helen Heath’s debut collection of poetry Graft was published in May 2012 by
VUP to critical acclaim, including winning a VUW Post Graduate Research
Excellence Award and being selected for the NZ Listener top 100 books for
2012. A poem from Graft also won the inaugural ScienceTeller Poetry Award in
2011. The science poems in Graft range from historical portraits of scientists to
a story of her parents meeting over a dissection table to a love poem structured
around Newtonian physics. She is currently working towards her PhD in
Creative Writing at the IIML. Her PhD research project explores how science is
represented in the work of contemporary UK poets writing in the 1980s and
90s.