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Published by Communications and Development
For the second year in a row, the prestigious MacDiarmid Young Scientists of the Year Awards have been dominated by University of Canterbury students.
Of the seven category prizes awarded this year, three have gone to Canterbury University postgraduate students – Shelley Scott, who was also named overall runner-up, Roger Dungan, who was also given a special commendation by the judges, and Matthew Keir (see below for full details). It follows the scooping of last year's awards by Canterbury University students who won the majority of category prizes and the overall prize.
Shelley, winner of the Manufacturing and Materials prize, has been recognised for her nanotechnology research in which she has drawn on ancient environmental phenomena for inspiration.
“I've taken some ideas from nature — like the way a snowflake grows — and thought about how we can mimic this sort of process to self assemble nanoscale structures,” she says.
“Basically, a snowflake forms by absorbing moisture from the atmosphere and how big it gets depends on how quickly the moisture is absorbed into it and how cold the atmosphere and cloud is.
“What we want to do is fire atoms into a space and let them do their own thing. They have certain things they like to do by themselves but by changing their environment a little bit we can coax them into forming structures that are useful.”
She says nanotechnology developments are key to improving computer technologies, but believes it is just the tip of the iceberg.
“Nanotechnology can also be used in the likes of drug deliveries so there is going to be a lot of medical advances with it as well. At the moment we're right at the beginning, so we really don't know just how far it's going to go. But certainly it's going to have a major impact on the way we live our lives.”
The prestigious awards, organised by the Foundation for Research, Science and Technology, are named after New Zealand-born Nobel Prize-winning scientist Professor Alan MacDiarmid.
A panel of judges selected this year's winners from a record 127 entries from around the country. Each category winner receives a cash prize of $2000.
Roger Dungan: Environmental Sciences
Miniature Farmers on a Massive Scale is the title of Roger Dungan's research into tiny scale insects living in beech trees which are helping forests absorb more carbon.
Roger's work has seen him named first equal winner of the Environmental Sciences category prize at this year's MacDiarmid Young Scientists of the Year Awards. He has also received a special commendation from the judging panel for the quality of his research.
A Post-Doctoral Fellow in the School of Biological Sciences , his research investigates the sap-feeding, sooty-beech scale insect's ability to stimulate photosynthesis and compensate for carbon loss.
Infested trees lose around 520 kilograms of carbon per hectare to honeydew, which forms from excess sugar excreted by the insects.
Honeydew is a vital food source for native birds and insects which feed on the sugary sap in the beech tree's trunk and branches.
It is well established that photosynthesis in trees can be limited by the build-up of sugars in the leaves.
Roger is investigating whether these insects are effectively harvesting sugar to produce honeydew for other wildlife while, at the same time, reducing the tree's sugar levels and stimulating photosynthesis.
Trees absorb carbon from the atmosphere through photosynthesis and increasing their absorption is critical in helping to offset greenhouse gas emissions from the burning of fossil fuels.
Roger says the research is providing exciting new knowledge about ecosystems and the productivity of native forests.
“Most terrestrial ecosystems are controlled from the bottom up and regulated by photosynthesising plants. We have now uncovered a unique and widespread example of top-down regulation of forestry ecosystem productivity by insects.
“We have an amazing situation where scale insects are effectively farming sugar from 1 million hectares of beech forest.”
His work also delivers valuable insights into beech forest interactions that are important for the conservation of threatened native birds and insects that depend on honeydew for food.
Roger is currently involved in a number of research collaborations with global partners including the University of Montpellier, in France, and Columbia University in the United States.
Matthew Keir: ICT and Creative Industries
Surgeons having ultrasound images superimposed over their eyes to effectively give them x-ray vision during medical procedures is, for now, something we can only imagine.
But thanks to the likes of University of Canterbury student Matthew Keir, winner of the ICT and Creative Industries category prize at this year's MacDiarmid Young Scientists of the Year Awards, it will one day be reality. Or, to be technically correct, augmented reality.
Matthew's work focuses on the development of low-cost technologies capable of overlaying virtual images over what a person sees through their eyes.
“Ultimately we aim to have several integrated circuit chips embedded in a little black box, the size of a match box, which will be fastened to a head-mounted display and send signals to a computer which generates the image,” Matthew says.
“It will give us an affordable, highly accurate and believable way of viewing information held in Geographic Information Systems or other databases.”
Matthew believes this kind of technology could become common in a number of workplaces within the next five to ten years.
“In factories, for example, it could be used to place things in the right spot in circuit boards without anyone needing to check a paper diagram”.
But he says the technology will have to be developed to ensure accuracy.
“Where ultrasound imagery, for example, is overlaid on a patient, effectively providing surgeons with x-ray vision for biopsy procedures, sub-millimetre accuracy will be required.
“The improvements will be incremental – the technology will continuously evolve, becoming better and more affordable every few years.”
Matthew has completed two years of his PhD in Mechanical Engineering, working at the Human Interface Technology Laboratory New Zealand (HITLabNZ) at Canterbury University.
For further information please contact:
John MacDonald
Communications Manager
University of Canterbury
Tel: +64-3-364 2910
Fax: +64-3-364 2679
Mob: +64-27-441 7280