Past lectures
Take a look at recordings of past inaugural lectures in the Faculty of Science.
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Inaugural lectures 2025
Professor Jeroen Schillewaert - Geometry, symmetry and a touch of magic
Geometry and symmetry have been studied for several millennia: the ancient Greeks already knew the five Platonic solids. Geometry plays a central role in modern mathematics and connects different branches of mathematics, including number theory and topology. This has led to solutions of difficult problems which a priori do not seem geometric. For example, Lie theory, the study of continuous symmetry, plays a key role in the study of differential equations; and roots of polynomials are studied via their Galois groups. The discipline of geometric group theory formalises this relationship. It emerged in the 1880s when Poincaré and Klein studied groups of symmetries associated with geometric and topological spaces. In the 20th century Tits, Gromov and Thurston reversed this process by associating geometries to groups of symmetries. I will discuss some of the highlights of this field, mentioning some of my contributions and my plans for future research.
About the speaker: Professor Schillewaert obtained Masters degrees in engineering ('03) and mathematics ('05) and a PhD in mathematics ('09) at Ghent University in his native Belgium and a Habilitation at the Institut des Hautes Etudes Scientifiques (Paris-Saclay University) in 2022. He previously held academic appointments at the University of California at San Diego, the Free University of Brussels (ULB) and the University of Canterbury in Christchurch. He is the recipient of a number of awards. These include the 2024 Friedrich Wilhelm Bessel prize from the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation, the 2019 Hall medal from the Institute of Combinatorics and its Applications, and the 2020 New Zealand Mathematical Society Research Award. He was a Marie Curie and Humboldt Foundation Research Fellow at Imperial College London and the University of Munster in Germany respectively. He was awarded a Marsden grant as sole PI in 2021.His research interests centre around geometric group theory, which studies the interaction between geometric and topological properties of interesting spaces and algebraic properties of their symmetries.
Professor Claire Postlethwaite - Winnerless competition: dynamics of Rock-Paper-Scissors and other games
In this talk, Claire will take you on a whirlwind tour of the world of intransitive, or winnerless competition, from Pokémon to E. coli, and dice games to lizard mating strategies. Every schoolchild has at some point used the game Rock-Paper-Scissors as a “coin-tossing” mechanism: there is no best strategy which can guarantee you will win. In ecological settings, this type of interaction is thought to increase biodiversity, because there is no single “best” competitor, and typically oscillations in the population densities of the species are observed. Claire will show how surprisingly complicated dynamics can arise from simple networks of intransitive competition between species. Along the way, she will talk about the mathematical discovery process and coming to terms with being “stuck”.
About the speaker: Claire obtained her PhD from the University of Cambridge, and subsequently held postdoctoral fellowships at the Universities of Northwestern and Houston in the USA before moving to NZ for a lectureship at the University of Auckland. Her research covers a broad range of theoretical and applied topics in dynamical systems, and she enjoys collaborating with ecologists, computer scientists and neuroscientists as well as other mathematicians. Claire has had an active role supporting women in the mathematical sciences. Away from her desk, Claire enjoys hanging out with her kids and extended NZ whanau, playing board games, and is a keen amateur cellist.
Inaugural lectures 2024
Professor Nicholas Lewis - Please don't call me a social scientist
Knowledge is always political. What knowledge we make and how we translate it are pivotal to the worlds we might make. That is why the public university is so important. A fierce critic of many of its directions of travel but an ever-hopeful defender of its possibilities, in this talk Nick argues that it must be fought for. The lecture traces a journey from fresh-faced immigrant to transdisciplinary scholar and committed citizen of the University of Auckland. Making meaning of what has been as much a privileged and fun-filled wandering as a career pathway, the talk is anchored to three current preoccupations: the demise of political economy and Geography in New Zealand; the rise of an anaemic conception of transdisciplinarity; and the rentierism of the current government. He reads these trends against the backdrop of challenges to the university from the position of a political economist and geographer within a Science Faculty. Much is to be made from this position of what it means to be labelled a social scientist. Much is to be done to fashion a future for Geography.
About the speaker: Nick Lewis is a geographer with broad research interests that consolidate around questions of political economy. Nick grew up in Britain, Kenya, Taranaki and Mangaia. He arrived at the University of Auckland in 1982 and apart from an extended OE has been there ever since. He completed degrees in Anthropology, Economics and Geography and an MA and PhD in Geography. He has studied small island, rural and regional development, neoliberal reform in New Zealand schooling, the restructuring of universities, and the making of wine, agrifood, and blue economies. His scholarship is international, cross-disciplinary, and impact-focused. Once an athlete and a footballer, Nick now shuffles across campus in a way his students claim is distinctive, and his children diagnose courtesy of Dr Google as ‘multi-dimensional decay’.
Professor Cate Macinnis-Ng - Surviving in a changing climate: life as a woman plant ecophysiologist
Plants are highly responsive to their environment, particularly stressful conditions like exposure to pollutants and lack of water. Professor Cate Macinnis-Ng spent her career studying stress in a range of photosynthetic organisms, including seaweed, seagrass, phytoplankton, and, more recently, forests. Her current research focuses on plant-climate interactions, especially impacts of extreme events like drought. In a world of “optimisation”, she will share why plants are essential for addressing climate change and highlight the limits of nature-based solutions. While many plants show incredible resilience, as the climate continues to change, identifying vulnerable species and ecosystems will be key.
Sustaining a career as a woman and mother in science also requires resilience and perseverance. Academic structures and processes continue to favour certain demographic groups over others. In sharing her own experiences and challenges, she acknowledges the importance of support from whānau, friends, collaborators and mentors. But for marginalised groups to truly thrive (and not just survive) in academia, we need to value excellence in all its forms.
About the speaker: Cate grew up on Sydney’s Northern Beaches, and attended North Sydney Girls’ High School. She completed a Bachelor of Science in Environmental Biology with First Class Honours, then studied the impacts of pollutants on seagrass health for her PhD. For her first postdoc, Cate moved to terrestrial plants and developed an interest in plant water relations which remains a central part of her research programme.
Cate spent 13 years on fixed-term contracts and worked part time while caring for her children. In 2010, she moved to Tāmaki Makaurau with her family and in 2012 she received a Marsden Fast Start Grant. In 2015, when she was awarded a Rutherford Discovery Fellowship, she finally secured an ongoing position in the School of Biological Sciences.
Cate has received a range of awards including a UoA Early Career Research Excellence Award (2014), the Roger Slack Award for Plant Science Research (2016) and the Miriam Dell Award for Mentoring (2023). Cate has served as President of the New Zealand Ecological Society (2018-2019), as Council member for the Royal Society Te Apārangi (2020-2025) and as Academic Group Leader for the Ecology and Evolutionary Biology group in SBS (2021-2024). She is current Senior Editor for the Journal of Applied Ecology.
When not studying plants and the impacts of climate change on biodiversity in Aotearoa, Cate enjoys spending time with her husband and teenage children, preferably in the outdoors or in the water.
Professor Annette Henderson - Teamwork from the start: Children, parents, and human nature
Humans are inherently social beings. Our ability to communicate and collaborate with others is essential for survival and success in society. As adults, we often take these skills for granted. However, when you consider it, our capacity to communicate and coordinate our actions with others in diverse ways is quite remarkable. We can generally communicate with strangers almost as easily as with long-term acquaintances. We recognise when someone needs help or is struggling with a problem and adjust our actions accordingly. How do we achieve this? Are we born with these capacities, or do we develop them over time through our experiences with the social world?
With a toolkit of diverse methods, developmental psychology has revealed that the answers to these questions lie in infancy and early childhood. In this talk, Annette shares her journey as a developmental scientist, exploring what infants and young children understand about the shared nature of human behaviour and how this understanding shapes their ability to communicate and coordinate with others. She discusses the crucial role of social interactions in this development and reveals how a digital baby might help us unlock the mystery of how infant behaviour fosters responsive and coordinated social interactions. While many questions remain unclear, what is evident is that although infants are just starting their own journey into human society, they are prepared to be part of the team from the start.
About the speaker: Annette, originally from Calgary, Alberta, Canada, earned her BA (First Class Hons, 1999) and MSc (2002) from the University of Calgary. She completed her PhD in Developmental Psychology at Queen’s University (2007) and a post-doc at the University of Maryland. Her early research focused on children’s word learning and cooperation.
Since joining Waipapa Taumata Rau | The University of Auckland in 2009 and founding the Early Learning Lab (ELLA), Annette has explored how biological and experiential factors influence cooperation and prosocial behaviours in early childhood. Annette’s work also focuses on identifying the factors that support or hinder responsiveness and coordination in parent-child interactions.
Annette values her enduring collaborations that have opened new research directions and enjoys science communication through media. Career highlights include serving as President of the Australasian Human Development Association (AHDA), being a Rutherford Discovery Fellow, and becoming the Inaugural Director of the School of Psychology’s new Centre of Developmental Science (2025).
Professor Yun Sing Koh - Shaping the Future: Harnessing AI for Good
In this era of rapid change and pressing global challenges, artificial intelligence offers unprecedented opportunities to make a meaningful difference. We are well-positioned to harness its power, alongside other technologies, to improve the lives of millions and safeguard our planet. This presentation will share my experiences using AI for good, showcasing how it can solve real-world problems and create a better future for everyone.
About the speaker: Yun Sing Koh is a Professor at the University of Auckland, New Zealand, specializing in artificial intelligence and machine learning. Her research focuses on creating novel AI techniques, algorithms, and technologies that enable systems to continuously learn and adapt to new situations. With over 150 publications in top-tier venues and recognition through numerous awards, Yun Sing leads groundbreaking research dedicated to advancing AI algorithms and technologies for societal good. She is the founding co-director of the Centre of Machine Learning for Social Good.
Professor Maren Wellenreuther - A Journey to Unravel the Threads of Life's Rich Tapestry
Ecologists often recall early encounters with nature that sparked their sense of wonder. For me, one of my most vivid memories is walking through the forest with my father, whose deep love for the natural world sparked my own curiosity. My parents always encouraged me to ask critical questions, and that inquisitive nature has stayed with me, shaping every facet of my life. In this talk, I will share stories from my research on flies and fish as part of a broader endeavour to capture and understand the rich diversity of life on Earth.
About the speaker: My academic journey began in central Germany, in Göttingen, where I pursued an undergraduate degree in Biology. I went on to earn a joint MSc from the University of Hamburg and the University of Adelaide in Australia, followed by a PhD from the University of Auckland in 2007. To broaden my expertise, I joined a leading evolutionary biology group at Lund University in Sweden, where I learned how to integrate field data, experimental approaches, and genomic methods to explore how species evolve in nature.
In 2014, I returned to New Zealand to take up a position at Plant and Food Research in Nelson, where I work as Science Group Leader of a group of over 30 staff. I lead several national and international initiatives to advance scientific knowledge and have been recognised for my contributions to biodiversity, receiving an award from the Swedish King in 2013 and the Hamilton Award for research excellence from the Royal Society in 2018.
Professor Karen Fisher - People and Place
Place is a fundamental concept in geography. The desire to understand how places are made, how places change, and how lessons from one place can be applied to other places drives much geographical research. For human geographers, the relationship between people and place draws attention to the social processes that shape and are shaped by, with and through place while also revealing how places are connected. In this conception, place exceeds the material dimensions and physicality of location; place is thoroughly social. In this lecture, I will talk about the different places that have been the focus of my research as I explored approaches to sustainable development, innovations in environmental governance, and the intersections between science, policy and governance to enhance the management of social-ecological systems. I will also talk about the people I’ve worked with, learned from, and who have shaped how I think about the world.
About the speaker: Karen (Ngāti Maniapoto, Waikato-Tainui) grew up in the Waikato and was the first in her family to attend university. She obtained a BA and MSocSci from the University of Waikato, and a PhD from the Australian National University. Prior to moving to the University of Auckland, she had the opportunity to teach at the University of Waikato, and to be involved in research teams working in the Asia-Pacific region focused on resource management. A brief stint in local government while completing her studies stimulated an interest in understanding how different scales of government interact with each other and affected communities in the implementation of laws and policies related to the environment. This interest forms the basis of her research programme.
Professor Gordon Miskelly - Every contact leaves a trace
The French criminologist Edmond Locard made a statement that can be translated as “The truth is that no one can act with the intensity required by criminal activity without leaving multiple marks of their passage”, following this with “...sometimes the criminal left the mark of his passage on the scene, sometimes by an opposite action he took away on his body or on his clothes the clue of his stay or his gesture”. These propositions have been generalised to Locard’s Exchange Principle “Every contact leaves a trace”. This talk will trace key contacts throughout my career, consider the provenancing of materials and the behaviour of chemical sensors in terms of this generalised principle, and cover some of our research on trace evidence in forensic science.
About the speaker: Gordon Miskelly started his school education in Christchurch, before completing his schooling in Howick and at Pakuranga College. He obtained a BSc(Hons) in Chemistry followed by a PhD in inorganic coordination chemistry at the University of Otago. Gordon then spent about 8 years in California, first as a postdoctoral fellow at Stanford University and Caltech, and then as an Assistant Professor at the University of Southern California. He returned to NZ in 1995 to take up an analytical chemistry lecturer position at the University of Auckland. In 1996 he started to lecture in the new Forensic Science Programme jointly run by the University and ESR, and soon after was appointed as the Deputy Director of that Programme – a position he has held ever since. His research at the University of Auckland has included analytical chemistry, environmental chemistry, materials science, sensors, and forensic science. Gordon is married to Denise, and they share their home with two cats.
Professor Tony Hickey - Full cycle with the vital force
Once, on a research trip off the coast of Australia, I was asked at dinner by a legend in the field, “What makes a good scientist?” I didn’t know the answer, and I’m sure I wasn’t supposed to know either. My response was, “A great set of jokes and snappy dress sense.” Of course, I was wearing a spectacular shirt at the time. I was then told, “It is all how one deals with serendipity." Indeed, I appear to have some capacity in this regard, but my more sincere answer is that your career is dependent on good friends, colleagues, and mentors who are willing to give you honest advice, discussion, direction, and support. Let’s not also forget endurance.I have had two lives. The second began when I realised I only had one life as a husband, a dad, and a scientist (order is important). I have been honoured to be able to contribute my part to science I have worked in polar to tropical habitats, and from field to bench, and in biomedical arenas. My ideas and inventions have been translated from work on shark hearts, to research exploring disease, exercise and cancer. I research and love to teach how we, or at least how we think life works, moves, fails, and evolves at fundamental levels. My particular focus is mitochondria (yes, the cell’s powerhouses). All respiring eukaryotes have some kind of mitochondria, a structure that evolved from an ancient bacterium and took up residence within a larger host cell. Mitochondria now deliver us enormous amounts of energy as ATP, and this is essential for complex life, yet when overly stressed they bring death. As an ecophysiologist, I often explore how organisms adapt to extreme adversity, such as how epaulette sharks tolerate no oxygen for hours or frogs that are dormant for 5 years wake up and walk. I have studied extremes of function, such as bee flight muscles that beat their wings at 250 times a second. My work also has been fundamental to understanding how animals fail, especially in the context of warming oceans. The value in all this work is that we learn how animals survive and succeed where we cannot. Or it informs us of life’s limits and what species will win or lose. Here, I will discuss my journey to become a scientist. If you are exceptionally lucky, I will tell you about mitochondria.
About the speaker: I am an ecological physiologist/comparative biochemist who also works in biomedical arenas. I primarily work on mitochondrial physiology in ecological contexts of hypoxia and elevated temperatures. Much of my ecologically oriented work has focused on fish and marine invertebrates, but I have also worked on frogs, birds, and insect metabolism. I also work in biomedical arenas and have worked in areas of acute illness (Pancreatitis and Shock), diabetic and hypertensive heart metabolism, preeclampsia, and cancer. I have over 130 peer-reviewed publications and have written educational book chapters on metabolism. I have been awarded four Royal Society Marsden and Health Research Grants, and I am currently heavily involved in an MBIE programme grant. I teach fundamental bioenergetics at first-year level covering the basics of energy flow through ecosystems through to the complexities of central metabolism, including respiration, photosynthesis, glucose homeostasis, diabetes, starvation, and exercise. I teach ecological physiology at 3rd year and post-graduate levels and cover metabolic scaling, oxygen transport, pH regulation, hypoxia, temperature effects, high altitude, the evolution of the brain, and aging.
Professor Michael Hautus - Psychophysics: Then and Now
Psychophysics, the study of the relationship between physical stimuli and their subjective psychological perception, originated with Gustav Fechner in 1850. Fechner's pioneering work was the first to quantify the connection between material sensations and mental experiences and laid the foundation for experimental psychology. Signal Detection Theory (SDT), developed a century later, enables quantifying ability independently of performance by separating sensitivity from response bias. This powerful tool finds applications across diverse fields, including diagnostics, epidemiology, machine learning, sensory evaluation, and psychology. This inaugural lecture will elucidate key aspects of SDT while chronicling the evolution of my scholarly pursuits. Audience members will gain insights into the past, present, and future trajectories of SDT and the shifting focus of my research career. The talk highlights the enduring relevance of SDT and its pivotal role in advancing our understanding of perception, decision-making, and quantitative psychology.
About the speaker: Michael Hautus specialises in psychophysics and signal detection theory. As the director of the Psychophysics Laboratory at the University of Auckland’s School of Psychology, he focuses on sensory and perceptual systems research and modelling detection and discrimination judgments. Michael has also researched sensory evaluation, auditory neuroscience, pain, memory, and decision science. His most-valued works include the 3rd edition of Detection Theory: A User's Guide and the specialised software SDT Assistant, which enables broader implementation of the techniques of signal detection theory.
Professor JR Rowland - ‘Yes, do load that gun’: Tales of high adventure in academia
According to Roget, of Thesaurus fame, adventure is synonymous with ‘exploit’ and ‘feat’, amongst a few other less adventurous terms. He was a scientist, an inventor, and a Fellow of the Royal Society, so I was surprised by his obvious miss: adventure surely is synonymous with ‘academia’. Whether avoiding bandits in Afar, engaging the minds of undergraduates, or leading teams of unbelievably clever people, every step for me has been unusual, exciting and daring: the definition of adventure.
In this talk, I’ll take you from Afar to nearby to better understand active geological processes in our backyard. You’ll meet my three R’s of education, and the C’s that increasingly underpin my leadership practice. I’ll discuss ‘failing up’, the ‘fraud’ feeling, and ‘feeling the fear and carrying on'. This is a talk about people, projects, places, and most of all, the transformative power of academia.
About the speaker: JR is the Deputy Dean for the Faculty of Science, an inaugural Director of Ngā Ara Whetū | Centre for Climate, Biodiversity and Society, and was recently the Head of the School of Environment. She is the Society of Economic Geologists’ current Vice-President of Regional Affairs. Her research focuses on tectonic-magmatic-hydrologic interactions, particularly in rift settings. This sort of research is relevant to geothermal and mineral exploration, to understanding geohazards, and to understanding fundamental tectonic processes.
Professor Geoff Willmott - From Diamonds to Droplets
Diamonds and droplets represent the bookends of an applied research career that has sometimes resembled a proverbial headless chook – and this talk will attempt to make sense of it! I have mostly worked in the fields of shock physics, micro- and nanofluidics, and fluid physics, but there have been contributions to our understanding of soil, eyes, food production, mining, rainfall acoustics, mass spectrometry, organic solar cells, and even invasive pathogens. I’ve played in the lab with jelly and Sellotape, and worked on massive computations; I have collaborated with companies that are vilified as well as those touted as saviours of our society. At one stage I chose to relocate from London’s theatre district to a sleepy corner of Lower Hutt. Besides trying to pick out the consistent threads that have motivated my own journey, this talk will attempt to reflect more generally on the “why?” and “what?” facing established and aspiring academics – our motivations, and critically our incentives, especially in modern New Zealand. These factors explain our research choices, and also how we shape, structure, support and contribute to the research environment.
About the speaker: Geoff grew up in Auckland and studied at the University of Cambridge, obtaining a PhD in shock physics in 2005. After a brief stint in management consultancy, he joined the Nano and Micro Fluidics team at Industrial Research Limited (now Callaghan Innovation) in Lower Hutt. He was awarded a Rutherford Discovery Fellowship in 2012, and joined the University of Auckland in October 2013 as a joint appointment between the Department of Physics and the School of Chemical Sciences. He has spent 5 years as Deputy Director for Commercialisation and Industry Engagement in the MacDiarmid Institute (2018-23) and is currently co-Deputy Head of Department (Research) in Physics.
Professor Lynette Tippett - Challenging brains: Neuropsychology, neurodegeneration, and sense of self
The increasing prevalence of many neurological conditions, ranging from traumatic brain injury to neurodegenerative diseases, is accompanied by growing concern about the impacts on individuals and their whānau. Understanding the interaction between the biological basis of these conditions and cognitive functions such as memory, theory of mind, emotional processing and reasoning is crucial for understanding the underlying course of diseases and for enhancing the function of each person. Multidisciplinary research can provide crucial insights into neurodegenerative diseases such as Huntington’s Disease and Alzheimer’s Disease, revealing unexpected links between clinical variability and pathological mechanisms of diseases. Longitudinal research in the Dementia Prevention Research clinics illustrates a multidisciplinary approach that additionally strives to combine scientific rigour with manākitanga. I will discuss the personal impact of working within a team of Māori researchers seeking to understand and assess dementia/mate wareware from a Māori perspective. I will also touch on broader issues that have arisen from research with memory-impaired individuals, such as how autobiographical memory is related to sense of self, and what happens when autobiographical memory fails.
About the speaker: Lynette was born and raised in Taranaki, before studying Zoology and Psychology at the University of Auckland. She soon developed a fascination with the brain, and how disorders of brain interact with cognitive functions such as memory and language, which led to an MSc and PhD in Psychology, and a Diploma in Clinical Psychology. This was followed by postdoctoral fellowships at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh and the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia, before returning to the School of Psychology at the University of Auckland. Her research has spanned challenging issues such as post-concussion syndrome through to the clinical and neuropsychological impacts of a range of neurodegenerative diseases, including Huntington’s Disease, Parkinson’s Disease, Alzheimer’s Disease, and Motor Neuron Disease. Her research is often multi-disciplinary, as exemplified by her current role as national director of a network of three Dementia Prevention Research Clinics. Identifying the complex interactions between brain dysfunction and changes in memory and other cognitive abilities remains at the heart of her work. Lynette is Associate Director of the Centre for Brain Research and was awarded an ONZM in 2023 for her contributions to neuropsychology and dementia.
Professor Craig Radford - The Silent World: Dismissing the myth
Jaques Cousteau famously coined the underwater world “The Silent World,” but he got this very wrong. If you take the time to listen the sea is filled with an underwater cacophony analogous to that heard in forests. Many marine animals, such as mammals, fish, and crustaceans, rely on sound for successful life history strategies, from mate selection and finding food to sound providing an orientation and settlement cues for habitat selection. Currently we have only scratched the surface regarding “who” relies on or produces sound.
However, since the industrial revolution human generated sound (anthrophony) has more than doubled the ambient background sound levels of the world’s oceans and coastal waterways. How anthrophony interferes with the natural biology and ecology of marine animals that rely on sound is a pressing issue worldwide, analogous to climate change and plastic pollution.
I use a multi-disciplinary approach, physics, physiology, and behaviour, to tackle some of these important questions. Here, I will describe some of the highlights through my academic journey to date.
About the speaker: After watching the original Top Gun movie, like most boys he imagined, he always wanted to fly jets. Not like many others, after getting into the Air Force, he decided not to enlist and ended up studying marine science at the University of Waikato, culminating with a PhD from the University of Auckland. In hindsight, Craig had spent many holidays as a kid in, on, or near the ocean, mainly with his grandfather on the Taranaki coast, and owes his fascination and love for the ocean to him. Craig is a sensory ecologist who specialises in how marine animals hear and utilise sound. As an early career academic, he won several national and international prizes for his discoveries, and he continues today to push scientific boundaries to understand the effects of human generated sounds on marine animals.
Professor Luitgard Schwendenmann - Ecosystems in a changing world
Luitgard grew up on a small farm in the Black Forest. She completed a PhD at the University of Göttingen, Germany. After a postdoc in the US and a fixed-term lecturer position in Germany, she moved to New Zealand in 2010 to take a position at the University of Auckland. Her research is at the interface of ecosystem ecology, biogeochemistry, and biodiversity. Her current research focuses on carbon and water fluxes in the soil-plant-atmosphere continuum and how environmental change alters the functions of ecosystems. She works across diverse terrestrial ecosystems (forests, grasslands, tropics, temperate).
Ecosystems provide habitats for millions of species and are critical in regulating biogeochemical cycles and the Earth's climate. Human well-being depends on healthy ecosystems. Understanding the biotic and abiotic processes within an ecosystem and how they respond to environmental change is necessary to inform potential interventions to restore and sustain ecosystems. In this lecture, I will (1) describe my attempt to further our understanding of essential ecosystem functions, such as the storage and flux of carbon, water, and nutrients across diverse terrestrial ecosystems, (2) present case studies showing the effect of natural and human disturbances on ecosystem functions, (3) discuss the opportunities and limitations of ecosystem-based strategies to mitigate carbon dioxide emissions.
Professor Siew-Young Quek - A passion for food
Siew-Young Quek was born and raised in Kedah, a peaceful northern state known as the 'Paddy field of Malaysia' on the Malaysian Peninsula, hails from a multicultural background. Her parents are of Chinese and Southeast Asian origin. She graduated with a Bachelor of Science (1st class Hons.) in biochemistry from the National University of Malaysia. After gaining industry experience, she followed her passion for further studies, supported by a PhD scholarship from the Public Service Department of Malaysia. Prof. Quek successfully earned her PhD in Chemical Engineering from the University of Birmingham (UK) in 1999. She then joined the Standard and Industrial Research Institute of Malaysia as a junior researcher. In 2000, she ventured into academia as a Lecturer of Food Science at Universiti Putra Malaysia (UPM), renowned for its top-ranking and accredited tertiary programme in food science and technology in Malaysia.
In 2004, she relocated to the University of Auckland, adopting New Zealand as her second home. As the third academic staff in the then relatively new Food Science Programme based in the School of Chemical Sciences, she contributed to the success of the BSc, BSc(Hons.), Postgraduate Diploma and masters programmes and has supervised a significant number of > 200 postgraduate students to completion. She is the recipient of the Faculty of Science Distinguished Teaching Award and the University of Auckland Teaching Award. Since October 2015, Prof. Quek has led the Food Science Programme at the University of Auckland. Her unwavering commitment to food science education and vision for establishing the programme as a leading force in New Zealand and internationally have yielded remarkable outcomes.
Professor Geoffrey Waterhouse - Nanospace… the final frontier
“These are the voyages of Dr. Geoffrey Waterhouse, his career mission… to explore strange new worlds… to seek out new materials and new phenomena… to boldly go where no Kiwi has gone before…”
In this inaugural lecture, I will introduce some of my recent collaborative research aimed at nanocatalyst discovery for the renewable energy sector. The age-old question “does size matter?” will be explored through multiple sets of lenses.
Like most New Zealanders, Geoffrey grew up with a love of the outdoors. Weekends were spent playing cricket and football, or alternatively exploring intertidal rock pools whilst his parents fished. Rainy weekends were spent watching re-runs of TV sci-fi series such as Dr. Who and Star Trek. From these activities, a strong interest in chemistry, materials science and exploration emerged that was subsequently nurtured through tertiary studies at the University of Auckland. This laid the foundation for an academic career spent trying to answer the science mysteries of his youth, segueing into his current nanocatalysis research that supports decarbonisation of the global energy sector.
Inaugural lectures 2023
Professor Kevin Simon - Lessons from Invaders
Humans have a long history of moving organisms around the planet with them for a wide range of reasons. Once established, these ‘invasive’ species often have unintended consequences that damage ecosystems and that problem has been a primary focus of concern and scientific research. However, these invaders can also tell us much about how ecological systems work, how organisms evolve, and what role animals play in ecosystems. In this seminar, I’ll talk about some examples of invasive fish that, while problematic, also serve as models for understanding the ecological world we live in. A cast of colourful individuals responsible for spreading those invaders is matched by a diverse array of people focused on understanding just what those invaders do. As part of my talk, I’ll reflect on how teams of bright, motivated researchers studying these animals in the places I have ‘invaded’ over my career have taught me lessons about being an ecologist, a collaborator, and a research mentor.
An interest in biology and a field trip to a cave as an undergraduate student started Kevin on a career as a freshwater ecologist. He spent his graduate years in the US and in France studying animals in caves and karst aquifers. After a postdoc at the University of Otago, he returned to the US where he held faculty positions before finally returning to Aotearoa and the University of Auckland. Along this journey, he has studied a wide range of fundamental and applied aspects of freshwater ecosystems.
Professor Mark Dickson - Sea change: our transgressing coast
Research over the past two decades has gradually coalesced toward quite a different perspective on the evolution of New Zealand’s coast than what I understood as an undergraduate student. This lecture traverses Aotearoa’s sandy open coasts to our rocky cliffed shoreline, reviewing selected studies that have sought to unpack the complex relationships between sea level change, tectonics, environmental processes, and coastal landform evolution. Along the way there will be opportunity to reflect on the inductive field traditions of physical geography, set amid myriad new opportunities afforded by advances in sensor technology, radiometric dating, remote sensing, and modelling. We finish speculatively, on the topic of future coastal change and the challenges posed by accelerating global sea level rise.
Mark was an undergraduate at Massey University, completed a PhD at the University of Wollongong and postdoctoral positions at the University of Bristol and NIWA. He works primarily on eroding coasts and is particularly interested in the effects of sea-level rise on coastal erosion. Mark conducts his research using a combination of field experiments, remote sensing and numerical modelling. He currently co-leads the Coastal Programme of the Resilience National Science Challenge and a Marsden project that is investigating the creation and destruction of marine terraces.
Professor Kerry Loomes - How to focus on everything
Many of my research stories have come from chucking ideas, like paint splatters, onto an invisible canvas. Some splatters remain intact and stagnant while others show initial promise but end up dribbling into pathetic vestiges. Yet other splats merge in unpredictable ways, evolving into new forms and textures. The portrait resembles a battlefield, mostly littered with splats meeting tragic ends amidst a few survivors, battling bravely as champions of opportunity for their right to exist.
Prof. Kerry Loomes was born and raised in Whanganui a short distance from the Whanganui river. His mother, Elizabeth Potts, hailed from Waverley, South Taranaki, and his English father, Maurice, emigrated to Whanganui after serving in the merchant navy after WWII. They both worked at telephone exchanges in Waitōtara and Whanganui, meeting each other over the wire. Then they had four children one of which was Kerry. After attending Whanganui High School, he gained his PhD in Chemistry at Massey, Palmerston North, and came to the University of Auckland on a postdoctoral fellowship in 1991 following a postdoc at the Karolinska Institute, Stockholm, Sweden. His research interests range from metabolic disease, natural product biochemistry (Mānuka honey), rare metabolic disease, and drug discovery.
Professor Frédérique Vanholsbeeck - What is a real physicist?
After 25 years in physics, I still don’t know the answer. People have many misconceptions about physics and physicists, meaning that many stereotypes come to their mind when they picture a physicist. We are not all boring or white or…I consider myself a true applied physicist which means that I use physics concepts to solve real-life problems. My specialty is optics and photonics, i.e. the science of light. I first started in the field of nonlinear optics and for my PhD worked in collaboration with Alcatel on signal amplification for telecommunication applications. When I came to the University of Auckland, I switched to biophotonics, and founded my own group to work on imaging biological systems at the micron scale with amazing colleagues from Science, Engineering, and Medicine. During my talk, I will delve into my research journey. Amongst other things, I will focus on the physics behind monitoring bacteria viability using fluorescence and microfluidics as well as understanding osteoarthritis using optical coherence tomography. I will also touch on why physics and science are fun; especially when you work across disciplines and your first task is to understand each other’s topics. Hopefully, by the end of the lecture, we will have an answer to my question.
Frédérique Vanholsbeeck is a professor in the Department of Physics at the University of Auckland. She leads the biophotonics group and her research focuses on biomedical optics. In April 2023, she was appointed as the director of Te Whai Ao - the Dodd Walls Centre for photonics and quantum technologies. She was awarded the NZAS Hill-Tinsley Medal in 2020, the OSA (Optical Society of America) Diversity and Inclusion Advocacy Recognition inaugural award in 2018, and the Miriam Dell Excellence in Science Mentoring Award and the Dean’s Award for Sustained Excellence in Teaching in 2017.
Professor Giovanni Russello - Cybersecurity in Aotearoa
Any digital system that is connected to the Internet is intrinsically insecure. Yet numerous organisations in New Zealand, both public and private, treat cybersecurity as an optional aspect of their digital infrastructure. In this presentation, I will share some insights and experiences gained over the past 10 years of working in this field within Aotearoa, highlighting the critical importance of addressing cybersecurity challenges.
Dr. Giovanni Russello is a Professor and serves as the Head of the School of Computer Science at the University of Auckland. With a rich background in academia and industry, Dr. Russello has made significant contributions to the field of cybersecurity.
Notably, he holds the position of Director of the Cyber Security Research Programme, a prestigious project funded by MBIE (Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment). Furthermore, Dr. Russello is the founding Co-Director of the Cyber Security Foundry. This pioneering centre represents the first multi-disciplinary centre for cybersecurity in New Zealand, focusing on bridging the gap between industry and academia.
Dr. Russello served as the CEO of a start-up between 2013 and 2014. This venture was dedicated to addressing the pressing security concerns in the smartphone market, demonstrating his commitment to practical applications of his research.
Dr. Russello's research interests encompass a wide range of areas within cybersecurity. He is particularly focused on human-centered cyber security, policy-based security systems, privacy and confidentiality in cloud computing, smartphone security, and applied cryptography. Through his extensive research efforts, Dr. Russello seeks to address critical challenges in the field and develop practical solutions to protect individuals, organizations, and systems from cyber threats.
Professor Kerry Gibson - What young people can tell us about the crisis in youth mental health
There is widespread concern about a ‘crisis’ in youth mental health in Aotearoa New Zealand and elsewhere. Academics, professionals, and parents are struggling to make sense of rising rates of mental health problems amongst young people and are at a loss to know how they can help. Despite considerable public debate on youth mental health, young people are seldom included in these conversations. But youth are at the forefront of dealing with new political and social challenges, negotiating the rapid transformation of digital technologies, and preparing for an uncertain future. I will argue that young people are able to offer unique insights into the reasons for the mental health crisis, and provide direction for the kind of mental health support that will work for them. Adopting a youth-informed approach, I will challenge some of our ideas and practices in youth mental health, and make suggestions for how we can better meet the needs of young people in distress.
Kerry Gibson is a professor and clinical psychologist in the School of Psychology at the University of Auckland. She is passionate about ensuring young people are included in conversations about their mental health. Her research, conducted as part of The Mirror Project, asks young people how they experience mental health distress what they want from support services. Kerry is the author of What young people want from mental health services: A youth informed approach for the digital age, published by Routledge in 2022. Kerry completed her PhD at the University of Cape Town and worked at several universities in South African and New Zealand before joining the University of Auckland in 2010. Kerry is a past president of the New Zealand Psychological Society and a Fellow of the Society.
Professor Giovanni Coco - Rhythms of the Shoreline: Patterns in Waves, Sand and Jazz
This seminar explores the fascinating rhythms of the shoreline, from the intricate patterns formed in the sand to the improvisational rhythms of jazz. The formation of beach cusps and other sand patterns are a result of complex feedback mechanisms between waves, currents, and the shape of the beach. We will examine how these feedbacks lead to the emergence of these patterns, and how they can be used to better understand coastal processes and predict coastal change. To further explore the connections between music and the coastal environment, we will draw parallels between the improvisational nature of jazz and the dynamic nature of coastal systems. Finally, I will explore how modern technologies, such as machine learning, can be used to better predict and
manage coastal evolution. By examining the intricate connections between the coastal environment and music, we can gain a deeper appreciation for the complexity and beauty of our natural world.
Giovanni has obtained his PhD from Plymouth University and has subsequently worked at Scripps Institute of Oceanography (USA), at NIWA (New Zealand) and at IH Cantabria/University of Cantabria (Spain). His scientific activity is primarily related to the study of nearshore morphodynamics, coastal hazards, pattern formation and interactions between physical and biological processes. The approach is based on a combination of numerical modeling, field and laboratory observations, and addresses system evolution over timescales ranging from seconds to millennia. More recently, he has focused on machine learning techniques for data analysis applying them to geophysics and jazz.
Professor Vivien Kirk - Making good use of time
Curiosity about the way things change with time is what drives the broad disciplinary area known as dynamical systems. Sometimes the “thing” of interest might be the spread of infectious disease, principles of robotic control, the physiology underlying cell signaling, or some other phenomenon in science or the humanities. Other times the focus is on a purely abstract system just because its evolution in time is fascinating to a mathematical eye or because investigating the system may advance our knowledge of what is possible in general. I will talk about some of the dynamical systems that intrigue me and how my research interests and projects have themselves changed over time.
Vivien obtained BSc and MSc degrees at the University of Auckland and a PhD from the University of Cambridge. After postdoctoral positions at the University of California, Berkeley and at Caltech she returned to NZ to a lectureship at the University of Auckland. Vivien has been active for many years in supporting the recruitment, retention and development of women in mathematics and in science, and is a past President of the NZ Mathematical Society. Since 2017 she has been Associate Dean Postgraduate Research – Doctoral in the Faculty of Science.
Professor Jan Eldridge - Exploding binaries: stars and gender
My path towards becoming a professor has involved exploding a lot of binaries! The majority of these binaries are binary stars, that is two stars who orbit around one another, that sometimes "get-in-each-others-way" creating violent and unusual explosions. The other binary I've "exploded" is the idea that gender is only binary.
I'm going to talk about our most exciting discoveries about the lives of binary stars and how they have shaped our Universe. I will also be discussing my own personal and academic path that I've followed while doing astrophysics. I'll reflect on how someone who was first in their family to go to university became a professor in Aotearoa New Zealand while challenging the understanding of gender.
Professor Russell Millar - Counting fish is like counting trees, but you can't see them and they move
Modelling of marine population dynamics is challenging and fraught with uncertainty. This talk flows a course through contributions made to quantify these dynamics and uncertainties for the better management and protection of marine resources. These contributions include methodology for estimating the natal origins of high seas salmon, determining the right type of fishing gear to catch the targeted size and species of fish, and fundamental work on incorporating variability and quantifying uncertainty in population dynamics models of fish stocks. These have enabled the establishment of international conventions for catch of high seas salmon, reduction in bycatch and discards, and fathered the current stock assessment models used in the management of high-value fish stocks globally. More recent contributions include validation of a radical trawl gear for humane capture of wild fish.
Russell did his undergraduate and MSc study at the University of Auckland and completed a theoretical PhD (Statistics) at the University of Washington in 1989. Involvement with a salmon management problem in Washington led to an interest in applying theory to real-world problems and he took a research scientist position with the Canadian Dept of Fisheries and Oceans (St John's, Newfoundland). There he established the quantitative methodology for assessing the ability of fishing gears to target the desired sizes and species of fish.
In 1992 he returned to New Zealand as a lecturer at the University of Otago. He joined The University of Auckland in 1996 where he founded the class of state-space models for the dynamic modelling of fish populations. These models are now ubiquitous in the stock assessment of high-value fisheries worldwide. Other research includes providing expert advice and analyses for management of New Zealand fisheries, and recently the validation of a novel trawl gear for humane capture of wild fish.
Professor Margaret Stanley - Nature connections & unassuming teachers: key ingredients for creating a well-baked ecologist
Any ecologist will be able to recount their earliest childhood memory of nature that filled them with awe. But recent research has shown that exposure to nature throughout our lives is fundamental to everyone’s health and wellbeing. There’s an increasing disconnect between people and nature around the globe as we cram more people into cities and push nature out. I’ll relate my journey as a young ecologist ecstatic about studying nature in the wilderness to one hopeful of improving nature in the city for Aotearoa’s biodiversity and people. I’ll introduce you to the places and people that have been my unassuming teachers as we amble through the highlights (and lowlights) reel of research and teaching. We’ll finish the journey together with some challenges that lie ahead for impactful ecological research and teaching. As with all ecological stories, everything will be connected and everything will be context dependent.
Margaret is an ecologist with a special interest in urban ecology. She began her journey in Ōtepōti as an undergraduate with a passion for natural history. She was awarded her PhD from Monash University in Melbourne in 2001, and worked as an invasion ecologist at Manaaki Whenua until she was appointed to the University of Auckland in 2007 to establish a Masters programme in Biosecurity and Conservation. Margaret’s research projects have spanned many aspects of ecology, from lizard homing behaviour to weed biocontrol, while her teaching spans first year ecology to postgraduate pest management. She enjoys working with postgraduate students and a variety of community and agency partners to use science to inform decision-making and improved biodiversity outcomes for Aotearoa.
Professor Rochelle Constantine - The Big Animals in the Big Blue Backyard
The large ocean animals form a critical part of ecosystem function, yet they are over-represented in global endangered species lists. We know surprisingly little about most species and their interactions in the marine environment. Habitat degradation, hunting, climate change, tourism and vessel strike all pose threats to the survival and distribution of populations and species despite people’s often strong connections to these ‘charismatic megafauna’. In this lecture, I will highlight some of our multidisciplinary research to understand immediate conservation challenges facing whales and dolphins. I will also share some of our recent research where we use tags, drones, acoustics, and artificial intelligence to understand complex interactions within and between species and their environment. Conservation ‘success’ requires bringing different people, ideas, and knowledge together. I will reflect on some of the most rewarding, but sometimes challenging parts of many years of work in this space.
Rochelle has spent most of her life near, in, or on the ocean. She is a behavioural ecologist who ended up studying cetaceans by accident but knows they are handy in discussions about more important ocean issues. Since joining the University of Auckland –Waipapa Taumata Rau in 2004, she has led several international and Aotearoa based projects and is an adviser on several global ocean initiatives.
Professor Gavin Lear - When small things matter: how microbes clean our polluted planet
Climate change, pollution and habitat destruction continue to degrade Earth’s ecosystems and their life-supporting services. As global distributions of plant and animal species adjust, so too does our “invisible” microbial world, leaving a trail of evidence as to both extent and causes of environmental change. In this lecture, I’ll describe my attempts to catalogue the current ecological health of Aotearoa through the analysis of microbial DNA. Along our journey, I’ll share with you my efforts to unlock the immense potential of microbial life to transform and degrade some of our world’s worst pollutants, from nuclear waste and pesticides to vast islands of marine plastic.
As a child, Gavin cared little for the small things in life! Only during his PhD in Engineering at Oxford University did he begin understanding the immense power of microorganisms to degrade and transform even the world’s most noxious pollutants. Since joining the University of Auckland in 2006, Gavin has published widely on applied and theoretical themes in microbial ecology, including the remediation of contaminated soil and water. Gavin is vice president of the New Zealand Microbiological Society.
Inaugural lectures 2022
Professor Tilo Söhnel - Using Neutrons and Photons to study Matter(s) of the world
In this lecture, I will present how we apply large modern research facilities such as neutron sources and particle accelerators in our search for novel materials and how we use the information to learn more about crystal structures and electronic and magnetic properties. I have been working on a broad range of different types of materials during my time here at the University of Auckland and I will let you take part on how exciting playing with very big “toys” can be.
Professor Tilo Söhnel was born in Dresden, former East Germany, where he studied Chemistry at the Technical University of Dresden. He obtained his Diploma in Chemistry with specialisation in solid state chemistry and was awarded his PhD in 1998. He joined the Max-Planck Institute for Solid State Research, Stuttgart (Germany) as a post-doctoral fellow, before he received the prestigious Humboldt Foundation Feodor Lynen Fellowship. This Fellowship took him to Auckland to join Distinguished Professor Peter Schwerdtfeger’s group. He returned back to the Technical University of Dresden as Senior Research Fellow in 2001 before he accepted a position as Lecturer at the University of Auckland in 2004. In 2010 and 2017 he spent two years at the RWTH Aachen University (Germany) as Guest Professor.
Professor Paul Corballis - In a World of Our Own: Brain Mechanisms of Constructive Perception
We each create our own world; the notion is a cliché, but also an underappreciated truth. The worlds of our experience are shaped by the neurobiology of our brains as well as by our attention, personal history, and cultural milieu. A major goal of cognitive neuroscience is to identify the psychological and physiological processes underlying our experience, and to build mutually informative links between these different levels of analysis. Professor Corballis will explore some of the methodological and conceptual challenges in this enterprise, and share his own (literal and intellectual) journeys in the search for solutions. He will review studies exploiting the tools of human neuroscience and the architecture of the brain to shed light on how we experience the world. Finally, he will consider some broader implications of his research for psychology and for science in general.
Born in Auckland, Paul divided his childhood between Auckland and Montréal. After some initial forays into engineering and chemistry, Paul completed bachelors and masters degrees in psychology at the University of Auckland. Returning to North America, his doctoral studies were at Columbia University in New York City, followed by a research appointment in the Center for Cognitive Neuroscience at Dartmouth College in New Hampshire. His first permanent academic appointment was at the Georgia Institute of Technology in Atlanta. After nearly two decades in the United States, Paul returned to the University of Auckland in 2011. Paul’s research spans topics in perceptual and cognitive neuroscience, psychophysiological methods, neuropsychology, and cognitive science. He is a principal investigator in the Centre for Brain Research, past-president of the Australasian Cognitive Neuroscience Society, and is a Fellow of the Society for Psychophysiological Research.
Professor Craig Stevens - Frozen Oceans
A hundred and fifty years ago Jules Verne’s fictional Nautilus sailed beneath the south pole in 20,000 Leagues Beneath the Sea. Fantastic as it was, it wasn’t so far from the truth. The oceans beneath Antarctica’s ice shelves stretch back hundreds of km from the ice front and are one of the last parts of our planet to be explored. In this talk I’ll describe some of our recent expeditions to observe ocean mechanics beneath hundreds of metres of ice and how this same ocean finds it’s way to our coastline. In the era of sophisticated numerical earth system models and remote sensing we will look at the role of going places in the ocean and seeing how they work.
Craig Stevens is an oceanographer with a joint position in the Physics Department at the University of Auckland and in the Ocean Observations group at the National Institute of Water and Atmospheric Research (NIWA). His research focus is on extreme ocean environments and the implications as our climate changes. He currently leads MBIE-funded projects observing how the oceans around Antarctic and Aotearoa work. He has participated in 14 Antarctic field campaigns and nearly 50 ocean experiments. He trained at the Universities of Adelaide, Western Australia and British Columbia and held the position of President of the New Zealand Association of Scientists from 2016-2018.
Professor Warren Moors - Applications of Topology to Analysis
In this talk I will give some examples of how one can apply ideas from topology to solve problems in analysis. Along the way I will talk about why we have “proofs” in mathematics and why they are important, but first, back to the words in the title of the talk. What is topology? Well, Wikipedia says “Topology is concerned with the properties of geometric objects that are preserved under transformations, such as stretching, twisting, crumpling, and bending; that is, without closing holes, opening holes, tearing, gluing, or passing through itself.’’ Ok, so what is Analysis? The answer, due to me this time, is “the rigorous study of Calculus, which in turn, is the mathematical study of continuous change.” Hopefully, by the end of the talk you will be convinced that topology can play a useful role in solving problems in analysis. During the talk, I will also describe my journey to the University of Auckland and share my beliefs on teaching and learning.
Born and raised in West Auckland, Warren attended Green Bay High School before coming to the University of Auckland to study Physics. He obtained a BSc in Physics before completing an MSc in Pure Mathematics. Following this, he headed to Newcastle University (NSW) for a PhD in Functional Analysis, followed by a Post-Doctoral Fellowship at Simon Fraser University, a New Zealand Science and Technology Post-Doctoral Fellowship at Auckland and a Research Fellowship at Victoria University of Wellington. Warren’s first permanent academic position was at Waikato University, before returning to Auckland in 2003.
Warren has two children Serena and Fraser, now aged 25 and 22 respectively. He has published over 85 research articles in the areas of: functional analysis, general topology and optimisation. He received the New Zealand Mathematical Society Research Award in 2001 and is a Fellow of both the New Zealand Mathematical Society and the Australian Mathematical Society.
Professor Jennifer Salmond - Geography: the art of doing science in a ‘naughty’ world?
The last 50 years have seen radical changes in the technologies available for the monitoring, analysis and modelling of environmental systems. This has resulted in an explosion of information, and conditions appear ripe for exponential changes in our ability to describe, understand and ultimately predict, the worlds around us. However, although these new tools are fascinating and promissory, their contribution to the generation of new knowledge, and the actualisation of that knowledge into policy, is neither straight forward nor obvious.
In this presentation I examine the impact of this period of rapid change on the discipline of geography and explore my own academic journey in this context. I argue that although the clean abstractions we seek to generate with the new toys in the tool box are alluring, geographers have a fundamental role in ensuring that scientists remain accountable to the complex (‘naughty’) worlds in which we live.
Professor Nicola Gaston - A feminist theory of quantum mechanics
Thank goodness for quantum mechanics. Without it, we would understand little of atoms, even less of how to make useful materials out of them, and I might struggle to find the words to describe the superposition of states that I exist in as a feminist and a physicist. In this lecture, I’ll talk through the risks and benefits of anthropomorphizing atoms in materials science. I’ll outline the boundary conditions that have helped me define my areas of research interest – in particular the design of nanostructured materials for solutions to sustainability challenges. And we’ll indulge in the thought experiment of putting Schrödinger himself in a box.
Professor Gaston studied at the University of Auckland and Massey University in New Zealand, and was a postdoctoral fellow at the Max Planck Institute for the Physics of Complex Systems, in Dresden, Germany, before she returned to New Zealand to work at the Crown Research Institute Industrial Research Limited in 2007. She moved to an academic position at Victoria University of Wellington in 2012. Before her appointment as Co-Director of the MacDiarmid Institute she was Deputy Director from 2015-2018, and she has been a Principal Investigator in the Institute since 2010. She also served as the elected President of the New Zealand Association of Scientists in 2014 and 2015, and published a book, Why Science Is Sexist, with Bridget Williams Books in 2015.
Professor Mike Taylor - Love and other relationships: animals and the microbes they live with
Animals (including humans) function as “hosts” to a diverse array of bacteria and other microorganisms. These host-microbe associations span the gamut of potential ecological interactions, from tightly linked mutualistic symbioses – in which all partners may benefit – through to microbes as nutritional parasites or agents of disease. Understanding these interactions is an active research area within the field of microbial ecology, with implications for human health, agriculture, biotechnology and threatened species conservation. In this lecture I’ll describe some of my research experiences in this area, with examples from host animals including the humble sea sponge, the iconic kākāpō and that most enigmatic of all species, Homo sapiens.
Mike was a latecomer to microbiology, with initial training in zoology. His first foray into microbiology only took place during his PhD, and since then he has been a card-carrying microbial ecologist. Since joining the University of Auckland in 2007, Mike’s research has focused on animal[1]microbe interactions. On top of his research and teaching activities, he is heavily involved in the development of microbial ecology in New Zealand and beyond. He has recently been President of the NZ Microbiological Society, Board Member of the International Society for Microbial Ecology and is Co-Convenor of the NZ Microbial Ecology Consortium.
Inaugural lectures 2021
Professor Jan Lindsay - Insights into volcanic risk from Auckland to the Antilles, Andes and Arabia
An academic career is built on collaborations - with mentors, students, fellow researchers and teachers, funders and research stakeholders. In her presentation Professor Lindsay will take you on a journey around the world to some amazing volcanoes that she has had the pleasure to research, and also acknowledge those who she has had the privilege of working with during her career. A consistent focus of her research has been on improving societal resilience to volcanic hazards – in the early years by better understanding magmatic and volcanic processes, and in more recent years by developing and testing techniques for effective communication between scientists and stakeholders, including through volcanic hazard maps. Insights from Professor Lindsay’s research and her experiences highlight the value of collaborative, user-centered approaches to natural hazard risk research, and importance of good science communication, especially during a crisis.
Professor David Barker - Molecule making – opportunity taking: a journey in synthetic chemistry
The synthesis and study of molecules is at the heart of chemical research. One of the most challenging aspects is the development of methods to synthesise molecules for the first time.
In this talk Professor Barker will describe how taking up the challenge to prepare a wide variety of different molecules has led to range of opportunities in his career. From designing methods to make bioactive natural products, to synthesising potential treatments for triple-negative breast cancer, to forming a spin-out company to prepare biosensing devices and developing novel water treatment technologies, taking opportunities has led to a diverse range of research achievements throughout his career to date.
Professor Michael Witbrock - The Future of Thinking
Humans are quite good at thinking, relative to other animals, plants, and rocks. But we are, perhaps, sometimes not as good at it as we might be. Fortunately, perhaps, our ability to think has given us the means to upgrade our ability to think, both at an individual and at a civilisational level. The development of language, accounting, the scientific method, and human rights, among many others, can all be viewed as software upgrades for individual, group, and civilisational thinking. None of these upgrades have come without both costs and benefits. This view of our history makes the accelerating rise of computational and recently Artificial Intelligence technologies seem almost inevitable.
In this talk, we’ll survey some of the upgrades that most directly predicted the path towards broadly capable AI, look at indicators that such AI is fairly imminent, including work we’re doing here in NZ. Finally, we’ll touch on the enormous opportunities and risks of this AI-based upgrade for individuals, organisations, societies and human civilisation.
Professor James Russell - A scientific Swiss army knife for conservation
Biodiversity loss and climate change are paramount global existential threats. A conservation scientist must wield a scientific Swiss army knife to successfully undertake research in these topics that informs policy. Drawing on my own contributions to conservation from a career spanning twenty years, I will provide examples of some of the tools from the natural and social sciences I have found in my scientific Swiss army knife. From islands of the tropics to the subantarctic, along the way will be entertaining stories where a real Swiss army knife has also helped save the day.
Professor Duncan McGillivray - Wandering on the edge: making sense of (bio)material interfaces
Interfaces – the boundaries only a few molecules thick that divide materials from their surroundings – are simultaneously critically important for the properties of the materials and highly challenging to study. Biologically-relevant and disordered interfaces just add to the challenge of understanding what is happening in these few nanometers. Ironically, some of the best tools for these tiny length scales, neutrons and X-rays, are produced at some of the largest research facilities scattered around the world. This talk will discuss my serendipitous wanderings among these facilities to understand the common features of explosives, functional foods, red wine and cell membranes, and also contemplate some of the other boundaries that academics can wander along.
Professor Andrew Luxton-Reilly - Teaching Scholarship in a Changing World
As computing devices have become ubiquitous, an understanding of computing is increasingly being viewed as a fundamental component of modern curriculum. This change in the perceived value of computing has coincided with rapid changes in the computing discipline, and rapid changes in education practices due to computing technology. Teaching in this dynamic environment is challenging. A scholarly approach to teaching and learning helps make sense of the complexity of education in a changing discipline using changing pedagogies. In this talk I discuss my own journey through computing education and reflect on teaching scholarship in a changing world.
Inaugural lectures 2020
Professor David Noone - The connected cycles of water on earth and integrative Climate Science
The natural sciences that allow us to understand the environment are at the heart of developing strategies to adapt to, survive, and thrive as climate changes. Water is at the heart of many of the most complex problems in climate sciences: understanding the behaviour of clouds in a warmer world, how land ecosystems mediate evolving rainfall patterns, and when weather patterns trigger decline of the polar ice sheets. The behaviour of these macrophysical problems can be interrogated by knowing the details of the microscopic properties of water: small variations in the abundance of naturally occurring heavy oxygen and hydrogen isotopes in water. Utilizing the stable isotope chemistry requires integrating many scientific disciplines and linking disparate areas of theoretical, observational and modeling techniques.
Professor Ian Lambie - From the Bush to the Beehive: Wrangling youth offenders and politicians
When you think of clinical psychology, what comes to mind? A small room, two chairs, a white board and a whole lot of talking. How would that work for young people who have offended? Instead, let’s follow the evidence base and build an active therapy programme over many weeks that includes a 10-day intensive wilderness therapy programme with a team of clinical psychologists like Ian Lambie.
Professor JC Gaillard - What’s a professor? Reclaiming a place for teaching in professorship
Dictionary definitions hint that professors are first and foremost teachers. However, we, academics, often take teaching for granted or a required ‘sideline’ to pursue a passion in research. This inaugural lecture will offer a plea for recentering teaching in our academic careers and in professorship in particular. As a case of example, it will focus on how to foster student’s participation in learning as a rewarding experience for not only teaching but also research and service to our disciplines and broader society.
Professor Karen Waldie - Genes, brains and neurodiversity: A lifespan perspective
This talk is divided into segments that pertain to particular stages of Karen’s research life. While taking us through the early years of functional magnetic resonance imaging, molecular genetics, and National longitudinal studies, she attempts to answer some of the big questions in the area of developmental cognitive neuroscience. Are dyslexia and ADHD real? How do children with dyslexia turn out years later? Do behavioural problems persist? Is there a migraine personality? How do genes and environments interact? What is neuroplasticity? Does learning a second language change the brain?
Inaugural lectures 2017
Professor Virginia Braun - Telling tales of gendered bodies: A personal and political reflection on critical scholarship in Trumped-up times
My work examines the nature of gendered bodies and gendered body practices – from body hair to genital cosmetic surgery – often related to sex, sexuality and health. I am interested in how meaning comes to be, through the intersections of personal, professional and popular discourse, and in the ways meanings and practices are constrained and enabled. I consider myself a producer of stories about the things I study, rather than a revealer of the truth about them.
Critical scholarship is vital for interrogating common-sense, for unsettling taken-for-granted truths and normative assumptions. But what does it mean to be a critical scholar, in the contemporary socio-political context? What are our roles and obligations as scholars now? Reflexively weaving together personal and scholarly perspectives, I will argue that the personal and the political can never be incised from the work we do, and that critical scholarship is vital in Trumped-Up times.