Whakapukahatanga Taiao Research Fellowships

25 September 2019

The Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering (CEE) offers research fellowships to international scholars of superior academic research ability in any CEE discipline, to work at the University of Auckland with our research staff.

The fellowships are tenable for a minimum stay of one week at the University of Auckland, are valued at up to NZD$5,000, and can include travel and accommodation support, as well as support for general collaborative research practices. The next application due date is 8 November 2019.

Previously awarded Whakapukahatanga Taiao Research Fellows

  • Professor Elsie M. Sunderland, Gordon McKay Prof of Environmental Chemistry at the Harvard John A. Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences, Harvard University, USA
  • Professor T. Alan Hatton and Dr Xiao Su, MIT, USA
  • Assistant Professor Anahid A. Behrouzi, California Polytechnic State University, USA
  • Dr Marjan Popovski, Principal scientist at Canada FP Innovations and Adjunct Professor at UBC, from Canada
  • Professor Damia Barcelo, Institute of Environmental Assessment and Water Studies IDAEA-CSIC, Barcelona, Spain and Catalan Institute of Water Research (ICRA), Girona, Spain
  • Professor Russell Green, Virginia Tecgh, USA
  • Professor Ian Moore, Queen's University, Canada
  • Professor Scott Smith, Southern Cross University, Australia
  • Associate Professor Nan Li, Tsinghua University, China
  • Professor Kevin Lansey, Department of Civil and Architectural Engineering and Mechanics, University of Arizona, USA

Background

Māori are the indigenous Polynesian people of New Zealand. Whakapukahatanga Taiao is the Māori name for civil and environmental engineering. The name encompasses the branches of engineering that are directly associated with the environment or the natural world. Within the Māori worldview, people and the environment are directly connected, a sentiment summed up in the whakatauki (Māori proverb): “ko au te whenua, te whenua ko au”, “I am the land, the land is me”. The name Whakapukahatanga Taiao therefore directly references the key role that civil and environmental engineering plays to establish these connections between people, the environment and world we live in.

Whaka– : (prefix) cause/causing something to happen

–pukaha–: engineering

–tanga: (suffix) makes word a noun

Taiao: the environment or natural world

For further information or to apply, please email cee-enquiries@auckland.ac.nz.