Category: Airlines

Dr Ēnoka Murphy, Te Pua Wānanga ki te Ao, Faculty of Māori and Indigenous Studies

Dr Murphy (Ngāti Manawa, Ngāi Tuhoe, Ngāti Ruapani, Ngāti Kahungunu) teaches te reo and tikanga Māori and completed his PhD in 19th century warfare in Aotearoa. His research passions are in the areas of Indigenous history and tikanga. Dr Murphy was the Prime Minister’s Educator of the Year and received a Kaupapa Māori Award at the 2023 Te Whatu Kairangi – Aotearoa Tertiary Education Awards.

Dr Armon Tamatea, Te Kura Whatu Oho Mauri School of Psychology

Dr Tamatea (Rongowhakāta, Te Aitanga-a-Māhaki) has worked extensively with violent and sexual offenders in the criminal justice arena for more than 20 years. He is the lead researcher for Nga Tūmanakotanga, a multi-year MBIE-funded research programme that aims to understand and reduce prison violence in New Zealand. His other research interests include psychopathy, gang communities, and culturally-informed approaches to offender management.

Dr Haki Tuaupiki, Te Pua Wānanga ki te Ao, Faculty of Māori and Indigenous Studies

Dr Tuaupiki (Ngāti Tūwharetoa, Waikato) has a strong research focus on Māori voyaging knowledge and traditional navigation in te reo Māori, which sees him drawing on ancestral knowledge in areas such as astronomy, science and maritime studies. He is a practitioner and dedicated advocate for the preservation, regeneration and revitalisation of te reo Māori, a Fulbright Scholar and a Marsden Fund recipient.

The University of Waikato has today signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to develop a third New Zealand medical school in the Waikato region.

Vice-Chancellor Professor Neil Quigley says the MoU, signed with the Ministry of Health, is a significant step towards addressing health workforce needs and reducing New Zealand’s heavy reliance on importing doctors from overseas.

“The University of Waikato has long advocated that an investment in a third medical school is part of the solution to our current and future health workforce needs. It will provide a new model of medical education in New Zealand, with new entry pathways attracting a more diverse range of students. It will be new approach to matching medical education with our actual workforce needs, and a new approach to integrating provincial and rural communities into the medical education programme.”

Professor Quigley says the University will now work with the Government to provide the business case for the medical school.

“We are committed to the medical school and to working with partners in other parts of New Zealand, as well as to building a full range of allied health programmes.”

He says the current situation is not going to materially improve if nothing changes. “We need to train more doctors, we need to select students from a wider range of backgrounds who are committed to long-term careers in primary care outside the main centres and we need to place these students in the regions where they are needed.”

Setting the scene for the days ahead, the Forum will be opened with a keynote from Finance Minister Nicola Willis. As the Government nears the end of its first 100-days, she will explore the steps ahead and how the new Government plans to support a strong economy for all New Zealanders and their families.

The discussion will continue with a ‘health check’ of New Zealand’s own health system, and a look at how our growing and ageing population will shape our country in the years ahead. Panel sessions include a discussion on the disruptors that face our agriculture sector, as well as a session on global trade in a divided world and an in-depth look at New Zealand’s monetary policy.

Day two will open with a keynote by Adrian Orr, Governor of the Reserve Bank of New Zealand – Te Pūtea Matua. This will be followed by an update from Treasury on the state of the country’s books, with a talk from Caralee McLiesh, Chief Executive and Secretary, New Zealand Treasury.

Other topics include infrastructure and how we unclog the arteries for growth; whether a social investment approach may change policy and outcomes; and what will happen to our climate and weather – and how we’ll have to adapt – if emissions aren’t curbed.

“We are glad to once again bring together an exceptional range of speakers and experts. The Forum will be two days of debate, discussion and insight. It serves not just as a briefing to the incoming government, but to anyone interested with the key issues facing our country,” says Matt Bolger.

The programme collaborates with local and regional councils, businesses and iwi to facilitate meaningful change.

“We face a lot of barriers when trying to reintroduce nature into cities and buildings, such as population density and budget constraints. We must continue collaborating with these groups and supplying research, so we can enact positive change,” says Dr Nepia.

A series of wānanga were held with iwi in Hamilton in 2023, exploring traditional knowledge relating to the nature and history of cities. A final wānanga is scheduled for February 2024, and an upcoming conference involving regional and city councils will also aim to disseminate research findings and their implications.

People, Cities, Nature played a role in advocating for 10% native vegetation cover in New Zealand cities, which has since been adopted in the new National Policy Statement for Indigenous Biodiversity policy, enacted in August 2023. In 2007 a survey of 20 New Zealand cities showed an average of only 2% native landcover.

A new study published in Science resolves a long-standing scientific debate, and it stands to completely change the way we think about Earth’s climate evolution.

The research debunks the idea that Earth’s surface (across land and sea) has experienced really hot temperatures over the last two billion years. Instead, it shows that Earth has had a relatively stable and mild climate.

Temperature is an important control over chemical reactions that govern life and our environment. This ground-breaking work will have significant implications for scientists working on climate models or questions surrounding biological and climate evolution.

“Knowledge of temperatures in the past can help us understand how the Earth’s climate system works and provide insight into the conditions that allowed for the origin and evolution of life,” says University of Waikato geochemist and lead author, Dr Terry Isson.

Understanding past temperatures and the evolution of life is not an exercise in history or pure intellectual curiosity but is vital for understanding future climate. The work underpins the modelling of present-day climate.

“We can’t use our planet as a large-scale lab to understand how the Earth works. Looking to the past provides a way to understand the processes that regulate the Earth’s climate.”

In the work Dr Isson and PhD student Sofia Rauzi adopted novel methods to illuminate a history of Earth’s surface temperature.

They utilised five unique data records derived from various rock types including shale, iron oxide, carbonate, silica, and phosphate. Collectively, these ‘geochemical’ records comprise over thirty thousand data points that span Earth’s multi-billion-year history.

To date, the study is the most comprehensive collation and interpretation of one of the oldest geochemical records – oxygen isotopes. Oxygen isotopes are different forms of the element oxygen. It is also the first study to use all five existing records to chart a consistent ‘map’ of temperature across an enormous portion of geological time.

“By pairing oxygen isotope records from different minerals, we have been able to reconcile a unified history of temperature on Earth that is consistent across all five records, and the oxygen isotopic composition of seawater,” says Dr Isson.

The study disproves ideas that early oceans were hot with temperatures greater than 60°C prior to approximately half a billion years ago, before the rise of animals and land plants. The data indicates relatively stable and temperate early-ocean and temperatures of around 10°C which upends current thinking about the environment that complex life evolved in.

“It also tells us there are naturally occurring processes that tightly regulate temperatures on Earth.”

The work produces the first ever record of the evolution of terrestrial (land-based) and marine clay abundance throughout Earth history. This is the first direct evidence for an intimate link between the evolution of plants, marine creatures that make skeletons and shells out of silica (siliceous life forms), clay formation, and global climate.

“The results suggest that marine clay formation may have played a key role in regulating climate on early Earth and sustaining the temperate conditions that allowed for the evolution and proliferation of life on Earth,” says Dr Isson.

Overall the work provides new evidence of the Earth’s climate and geochemical history that needs to be better understood to inform and update current ideas and research around climate and evolution.

Dr Isson concludes, “The results provide us with an impetus to deepen our understanding of how life both responds to, and shapes climate on Earth.”

Dr Isson’s research has been funded from a Rutherford Discovery Fellowship and a Marsden Fast Start Grant.

The University of Waikato has appointed Dr Leon Fourie as the new Associate Dean for the Waikato Management School at its Tauranga campus.

Dr Fourie has more than 30 years of leadership experience in tertiary education, including as Chief Executive of Toi Ohomai Institute of Technology for the past seven years, and more recently as Wintec and Toi Ohomai Transitional Executive Lead for Te Pūkenga.

He holds a Bachelor of Arts, majoring in Political Science and Management, Honours in Public Management, and Master of Performance Management from Stellenbosch University, and a PhD from the University of Pretoria in South Africa. He is also a Woolf-Fisher scholar and completed the Senior Executive Educational Leadership programme at Harvard University.

Leon is a PBRF-rated researcher and serves on multiple national and international boards and associations. He is recognised as a values-based and energetic leader who is focused on building strong relationships and partnerships to achieve great results.

Waikato Management School Pro Vice-Chancellor Matt Bolger says Dr Fourie will play a pivotal role in the School’s strategy to grow student enrolments at the Tauranga campus and deepen connections with business and wider stakeholders in the community.

“We’re passionate about empowering people to grow thriving businesses, that are part of a thriving society and natural world. Being able to connect more students from across the Bay of Plenty into our excellent programmes really helps us achieve this.

“We’re delighted to have someone with Leon’s experience and relationships coming on board to help drive this work,” says Matt.

Dr Fourie offers a unique perspective on the key economic development priorities for the Bay of Plenty, drawing from experience collaborating with various corporate sectors and industry leaders, and has extensive networks across industry, government, community and iwi stakeholders.

“Deepening our connection and understanding of the needs of our stakeholders, iwi, partners, community and future learners across the Bay of Plenty will enable us to authentically respond with innovative, tailored products and delivery options that enable growth, opportunity and success for the region.

Dr Fourie will also contribute to teaching for the Master in Business Management, as well as engaging and supporting research across the Division.

Dr Fourie joined the University on 30 January and is based at the Tauranga campus.

Education New Zealand Director of Engagement, East Asia and India, Jugnu Roy says the University of Waikato’s participation at the conference marks a significant stride in strengthening educational ties with India.

“As one of New Zealand’s leading institutions for teaching and research, this initiative underscores the shared commitment of the University and Education New Zealand to fostering global cooperation and networks in the domain of SDGs,” says Roy.

Since Professor Quigley was appointed as Vice-Chancellor in 2015, he has led substantial change designed to improve the University of Waikato’s quality of teaching and research, leading to growth in student enrolments and a ranking within the world’s top 250 universities.