Top US scientist visits UC
Published by Communications and Development
27 January 2010
A visit to the University of Canterbury this week by a top-level scientist from the United States brought UC’s science and technology research into the spotlight.
Dr Arden Bement, Director of the National Science Foundation, spent an afternoon at Canterbury on 25 January, taking a look at the work being carried out at NZi3 - the national ICT Innovation Institute - and the Centre for Bioengineering.
He was in New Zealand as the head of a United States science delegation which took part in the second biennial New Zealand-United States Joint Commission Meeting (JCM) for Science and Technology Co-operation. As well as taking part in the meeting, delegates visited a range of science and technology facilities around the country.
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(From left) NZi3 Acting Director Hamish House, National Science Foundation Director Dr Arden Bement and Centre for Bioengineering Director Professor Tim David. |
Dr Bement said scientific collaboration between countries was important as many of the challenges the world faced were complex and “are beyond the abilities of any one country to find solutions, so a global approach is required to attack some of these problems”.
While a lot of these collaborations were between individual scientists, Dr Bement said there were some that were between institutions and universities “and we want to explore all possibilities for collaboration”.
“The scientific relationship between the US and New Zealand is already intense, and that intensity is rather unique and speaks well of the respect US scientists have for the quality of science being carried out here in New Zealand, in the universities and academic programmes here.”
The National Science Foundation is a US government agency that funds research and education in all non-medical fields of science and engineering. The foundation has an annual budget of more than $6 billion and provides funding for about 20 per cent of all federally supported research conducted by colleges and universities in the US.
Dr Bement is the twelfth director of the foundation, having taken up the position in 2004. Prior to that he has served as director of the National Institute of Standards and Technology of the Department of Commerce (2001-2004) and was the David A. Ross Distinguished Professor of Nuclear Engineering and head of the School of Engineering at Purdue University (1992-2001). He joined the faculty at Purdue after 39 years in industry, government and academia.
For further information please contact:
Stacey Doornenbal
Communications Officer
Canterbury University
Ph: (03) 364 2984
stacey.doornenbal@canterbury.ac.nz