Published by the Communications
and Development Department
13 November 2003
Three professors from the University of Canterbury have been honoured
by the Royal Society of New Zealand.
Professor Miles Fairburn (History) and Professor Mike Steel (Mathematics
and Statistics) are among 13 new fellows announced by the prestigious
science academy at its annual conference in Auckland.
Professor Fairburn is regarded as New Zealand’s leading social
historian. He broke new ground by asking how social integration and
deviance might be measured in modern society.
Professor Steel spearheaded the development of new mathematical theory
to help biologists better recover evolutionary relationships from
genetic data. His work includes the first efficient “supertree”
method for allowing biologists to combine evolutionary trees in different
sets of species.
Coinciding with the Royal Society’s annual conference is the
country’s first Science Awards dinner.
Fourteen of the country’s top scientists will be honoured tonight
including Canterbury University professor Andrew Sturman. The geography
professor won the inaugural Edward Kidson Medal for his paper “Application
of back-trajectory techniques to the delimination of urban clean air
zones, published in Atmospheric Environment (2002). The award is presented
by the Meteorological Society of New Zealand.
The Royal Society has chosen fresh water as the topic for its annual
conference.
"You might think that New Zealand has no problem with fresh
water, with its high rainfall and low population density", said
Canterbury University's Emeritus Professor David Elms. "But the
Rotorua lakes, hailed as an environmental disaster, show that we too
have serious issues of water quality. In many of our rivers, we have
issues over quantity too, with the conflicting demands of hydro-electricity,
irrigation, ecology and natural values, Maori, recreation, industrial
users, and drinking water supplies."
The conference, "Fresh Water New Zealand: Problems, Processes
and Priorities", brings together all those who are concerned
with managing water, including hydro electricity owners, lawyers,
engineers and Maori.
"These groups sometimes have difficulty talking to each other
because they see the world from such different points of view",
said Professor Elms. The conference aims to integrate these perspectives
and work towards better strategies and systems to manage sustainable
fresh water in New Zealand.
For more information contact:
Professor Miles Fairburn
Department of History
University of Canterbury
Christchurch
Ph 03 364 2987 extn: 6085
Email miles.fairburn@canterbury.ac.nz
Professor Mike Steel
Department of Mathematics and Statistics
University of Canterbury
Christchurch
Ph 03 364 2987 extn: 7688
Email michael.steel@canterbury.ac.nz
Professor Andrew Sturman
Department of Geography
University of Canterbury
Christchurch
Ph 03 364 2987 extn: 6502
Email andrew.sturman@canterbury.ac.nz
Glenda Lewis
Royal Society of New Zealand
Ph 04 470 5758 or 025 210 0997
