May 2014
He Kupu Whakamahara
Celebrating our graduates
Charging into the future Fighting addiction
(From left) UC Chancellor Dr John Wood, UC students Romy Ridl and Andrew Mikhail, and Deputy Prime Minister Bill English.
Village boosts student accommodation UC’s new Waimairi student accommodation village was officially opened by Deputy Prime Minister Bill English recently.
Chronicle 49 no.2
May 2014
Editor: Renee Jones 364 2987 ext 6072 S taff Writers: Kip Brook Charlene Smart
Sub–editor: Col Pearson Photos: Duncan Shaw–Brown Eve Welch
Artwork: Brian Carney
Printer: Toltech Print
D istribution: Canterbury Educational
Printing Services Email: communications@ canterbury.ac.nz Address: Communications and Stakeholder Relations, University of Canterbury, Private Bag 4800, Christchurch. Front cover: Emma Hipango, who graduated with a Bachelor of Fine Arts. Thanks to everyone else who’s played a part making this issue happen.
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Construction on the village started just before Christmas when Hawkins Construction began building 15 four bedroom houses, each with a floor area of 103sqm to accommodate a total of 60 students on the Ilam campus. Hawkins Construction Manager Paul Brailey said the design of the houses was by Spanbild and was the same design as what Hawkins provided for the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment on Linwood Park and Kaiapoi Domain following the 2011 earthquake. The selection of proven designs allowed the project to progress quickly. “This was an excellent project where all parties involved in the project, from the UC staff, consultants, Hawkins staff, build
teams and subcontractors, all combined to ensure production and delivery targets were met without too much fuss and to a very high standard,” Mr Brailey said. Vice-Chancellor Dr Rod Carr said the University had to take urgent and positive steps to help alleviate the tight Christchurch housing market. “We are sensitive to the city’s housing situation and we see the Waimairi Village as exciting for the Christchurch economy, for the University and for students,” he said. “We will continue to talk to neighbours and interested parties about providing more accommodation on the Dovedale campus in future as the University continues to contribute to the rebuild.”
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Water ski champion takes on engineering.
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Hannah Charon-Dixon celebrates graduation with fellow graduates.
Charging to success.
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Student wins $25,000 prize.
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Investigating toxic algal blooms in our rivers.
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Dr Juan Canales
Finding may herald breakthrough in drug treatment Scientists at UC have discovered that by chemically activating a receptor in the brain they can eliminate cravings for cocaine. The discovery has just been published in Neuropsychopharmacology, the official journal of the American College of Neuropsychopharmacology. The receptor was the trace amineassociated receptor 1 and was found in areas of the brain that appeared to be very sensitive to drugs, Dr Juan Canales (Psychology) said. As a result of the findings, Dr Canales’ partners, the Swiss pharmaceutical company Roche, will add an addiction trial arm into the clinical development programme of compounds that target this receptor. This type of pharmacological intervention could be used to facilitate detoxification and prompt recovery from chronic addiction, reducing significantly the propensity to relapse. Cocaine addiction remains at epidemic levels in the United States and in some European countries, but therapies to treat 4
this condition are still ineffective. The finding opens new avenues for the therapeutic treatment of cocaine addiction. “It remains to be seen whether activation of this recently discovered receptor provides relief for other forms of addiction too, including alcohol, nicotine and even compulsive eating. This is something we are going to investigate in the near future,” Dr Canales said. UC researchers have conducted experiments to see if activation of the brain receptor is effective with methamphetamine. “So far the results indicate that activation of the trace amine receptor completely eliminates the self-administration of methamphetamine as it does for cocaine. We will publish the full results soon,” he said. “Cocaine and methamphetamine produce euphoric effects mainly through activation of a transmitter named dopamine. Dopamine is important for motivation, pleasure and well-being. The problem is that drugs like cocaine and methamphetamine cause a particularly powerful surge of dopamine in the brain. “By releasing dopamine, drugs create a shortcut to get to the brain’s pleasure
centres. Normally dopamine is released when we experience something really exciting. This is how the brain learns about the consequences of our actions. Dopamine signals reward in certain situations but is essentially a teaching signal. “When cocaine and methamphetamine activate dopamine they fool the brain into thinking that they are really good, or better than anything experienced before, but this is only an illusion, and people fall into the trap.” The research team, led by Dr Canales, discovered that when the trace amine receptor was activated, cocaine was unable to release dopamine into the pleasure centres, which explained their findings. They also found that, after abstinence from chronic cocaine exposure, cocaine seeking did not reoccur if the trace amine receptor was activated, preventing relapse. Dr Canales’ postgraduate students are also involved in other addiction projects and are working with the Canterbury District Health Board as part of their research. To read the paper go to www.nature.com/npp.
Footing it with the best of them UC engineering student Georgia Groen is having no trouble keeping her head above water as she juggles study and being a world barefoot water ski champion. Georgia, 17, became the world tricks champion at the 2012 World Barefoot Water Ski Championships in Waco, Texas, when she was just 16 and recently defended her world barefoot water ski tricks title in Mulwala, Australia. She also came first overall in slalom and tricks at the New Zealand championships on Lake Karapiro, breaking the New Zealand women's slalom record, and placed first in the international division overall in tricks,
jump and slalom at the Australian championships in Perth in April. Georgia is ranked second in the world in barefoot water skiing overall, including tricks, jump and slalom. Georgia said she has balanced her preparation for major competitions and caught up on her studies during the first part of the year. “Because I am taking engineering it makes it quite difficult to study away from campus as the lectures are important. However, I do what I can due to Learn, Canterbury’s learning management system, which has all the lecture notes on it,” she said. “This is my first year of engineering but I am looking to concentrate on civil and natural resources engineering as I progress my studies.”
Georgia already has a plan in place that combines both her passions once she finishes her degree. “I would like to do some travelling around the world, barefooting and coaching people to barefoot ski, and then I hope to become an engineer in the workforce,” she said. “I came to Canterbury this year because I believed it was the best place for me to study engineering. I like how it’s all on one campus so everything is close together. “The campus is great. I love walking through the trees and the water features are so nice to look at. It makes me feel at home. Also, I really enjoy University Hall. It’s such an awesome hall of residence and I have made lifelong friends.”
UC engineering student Georgia Groen in action.
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Prime Minister John Key
Quake graduates celebrate success Four graduation ceremonies took place at the CBS Canterbury Arena on 15 and 17 April with 1255 students graduating in person and a further 38 in absentia. Presiding over the ceremony, Chancellor Dr John Wood acknowledged the vibrancy of the UC campus that continued to thrive. “Your university is in good heart and spirits are rising further even as, a little over a month ago, we acknowledged that three years had passed since the most devastating of the earthquakes befell us. You could feel in the air not just the usual buzz and excitement of the return of our staff and the arrival of our students at the start of the new academic year, but also a renewed sense of confidence in the future of our great institution,” he said. Dr Wood acknowledged the boost UC has been given by the Government decision
Associate Professor David Fortin and his daughter Esther, who was awarded a BA.
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to invest up to $260 million in UC to enable a complete rebuild of the engineering precinct, and the development of a new Regional Science and Innovation Centre, as well as maintaining the Government’s contribution to teaching at previously agreed funding levels for up to five years. Dr Wood congratulated the graduands for their commitment and dedication to study through the earthquakes and subsequent recovery. “Some of you graduating today will have started your university careers with UC before the earthquakes. Significant numbers of you, I would imagine the clear majority, are of a cohort who has, in your time here, known nothing but natural disaster and its consequences. “The experience of those years, and that time, makes you very special and will distinguish you for life. You chose to come, to stay with us and tough it out. The University in response, at times under the most difficult of personal and professional
circumstances, redoubled its efforts to honour the commitment it had entered into with you. The outcome is that there will always be an aura about the graduating class of 2013/2014. “You and your cohort will go down in the long and distinguished annals of this institution as perhaps the greatest we have ever known for resilience, courage and determination, and at the same time compassion and caring for each other, and the wider community,” he said. A highlight of the graduation week was the awarding of three honorary doctorate degrees to film-maker Vincent Ward (Doctor of Fine Arts), entrepreneur Alan Gibbs (Doctor of Engineering) and businessman Antony Gough (Doctor of Commerce). The achievements of Māori and Pasifika graduates and graduands were also recognised at two celebratory events held during Graduation week.
Director of Human Resources Paul O'Flaherty and his son Tom, who received a BA.
Professor Tim Bell with his son Andrew, who graduated with a MusB.
Impact of absent fathers focus of study PhD research looking at pairs of sisters has found that the younger sibling experiences earlier puberty if their father leaves home. Dr Jacqueline Tither, who graduated in April and who works as a Learning Skills Advisor at the UC Academic Skills Centre, evaluated two opposing theories explaining why girls from father-absent homes tended to experience earlier puberty than those from father-present homes. “The problem with previous, mainly correlational research in this area is that it couldn’t untangle genetic and environmental effects on pubertal timing, and we know that puberty is under considerable genetic control. So, to address this issue, I interviewed 93 pairs of sisters from father-present families and 68 pairs of sisters from father-absent families and looked at the difference in pubertal timing between the two sisters. The sisters I interviewed had to be full biological sisters with a reasonable age gap between them — at least two years — and the fathers had to be absent as a result of parental relationship dissolution,” she said. “This approach controlled genetic effects through randomisation. Although biological sisters won’t be identical in terms of their pubertal timing, any genetic differences between them should be randomly distributed across the birth order. But, because they have the same parents, other factors that affect pubertal timing —
Dr Jacqueline Tither
including socio-economic status and parental education — were controlled using this sibling comparison design.” Dr Tither said she found the effect of having an absent father was stronger the younger the girls were when their father left. “However, I also found that the effect was strongest in families where the fathers were incredibly dysfunctional: when they left, the younger sisters in these families experienced menarche about a year earlier than their older sisters did,” she said. “It appears that if you live with a very stressful father and then they leave when you are very young, pubertal development accelerates to take advantage of the improved environmental conditions. The girls with normally functioning fathers were not affected in the same way. Moreover, this study supports a causal rather than a non-causal, that is, genetic explanation for this association.”
Dr Tither said that experiencing early puberty could be detrimental to female health. “Experiencing early menarche, that is before the age of 12, appears to have hormonal effects across the lifespan. For example, these early maturers tend to start having ovulatory cycles much earlier than those who attain menarche after 13-years of age. The risk of breast cancer and other cancers of the reproductive system in later life is also higher for early maturers. “But, looking at it from an evolutionary perspective, it could be that this accelerated pubertal development is beneficial for the female. If you live in a very stressful environment and then a major stress is removed, in this case a very dysfunctional father, the body may take advantage of this window of opportunity by developing more quickly in order to be able to reproduce earlier.” 7
CHRONICLE 49, No.2, May 2014
UCSA President tells graduates to follow their dreams Crusaders rugby player and UC graduate Luke Whitelock.
Rugby star caps it off with a degree Luke Whitelock may be used to catching a rugby ball for the All Blacks and Crusaders but it was his graduation cap that he caught at UC’s graduation last month. Luke graduated with a Bachelor of Commerce in Management after spending four years juggling study and his rugby commitments. “I have been studying part-time the last few years whilst focusing on both rugby and my degree. “It has been a bit of a battle and hasn’t always been easy, but I am very excited to be graduating. It is an awesome feeling to finally complete my degree,” he said. “I have really enjoyed meeting a lot of new friends during my time at university and also experiencing good times as a student.” Luke, who made his debut as an All Black against Japan last November, said that even when he was away on tour with the Crusaders he had to focus on his studies. “This time last year I remember I was sitting in Cape Town on our day off, it was 5am in the morning and I had to take a test and write 3000 words. I remember all my other team-mates were going cage diving with sharks so it was pretty tough to stay behind and not go,” he said. “It has been hard at times but all those sacrifices pay off when you do finally graduate. I am glad that I stuck at it and I am able to graduate.” 8
University of Canterbury Students�Association (UCSA) President Sarah Platt graduated with a Bachelor of Arts, majoring in Education and Psychology, in late April. Sarah was one of thousands of students who began their university experience just days before the February 2011 earthquake. “It is wonderful that, even though for many of us our second day at university was 22 February, we managed to get through it with the support of our friends. “It’s an amazing experience to graduate today. It is a really special day to celebrate with all my friends and family around me,” she said. Sarah gave one of the graduation addresses, encouraging graduates not to settle for anything less than giving 100 per cent and to take hold of their dreams because they could become reality. “We need to remember that though we all have greatness inside of us, we are not designed for greatness unless we follow dreams that make us want to strive with 100 per cent of everything we have, 100 per cent of everything we are, to reach that dream. UCSA President Sarah Platt, who graduated with a Bachelor of Arts.
“As you journey along your path to making your dreams a reality, be open; you can’t do it alone. As you navigate through the rest of your lives, surround yourself with people that challenge and inspire you and that, in turn, you challenge and inspire. Your life will be better for it.” She noted that everyone who was graduating had faced the fear of failure and won. “Sitting here today shows that you are already winning daily at the only game that really counts, the game of life,” she said. Sarah concluded by letting the graduates know that they should embrace fear, the fear of failure, and to grow forward from fear to achieve their dreams. “Look to your future, it is brighter and more beautiful than it is today, so show the world your dreams and then make them a reality,” she said.
Former school mates graduate together UC engineering graduates (from left) Kelsey Paterson, Olivia Heaslip, Chloe McKenzie, Kelsey Keenan and Anna-Lisa Fraser.
A group of five women who were in the same science classes at high school have all graduated from the University of Canterbury with engineering honours degrees. Anna-Lisa Fraser, Kelsey Paterson, Olivia Heaslip, Chloe McKenzie and Kelsey Keenan all attended Southland Girls' High School in Invercargill and, in April, graduated side-by-side in different fields of engineering including mechanical, civil and electrical. Kelsey Paterson and Anna-Lisa were also friends at primary school before they met the other girls at high school. Chloe said it was incredible for the five former classmates to graduate together on the same day, in the same discipline, so many years after first discovering a shared love of the same subjects at high school. “It’s quite amazing to have five girls from the same school graduating at the same time. It’s very exciting,” she said.
Chloe said their similar interests led them to become engineers, rather than a pact to study engineering at university. “We enjoyed it and we all just fell into that path. We were in the same classes and did chemistry, physics and calculus together. We are all doing slightly different engineering specialisations between us, but we enjoyed the science, maths and physics,” Chloe said. Anna-Lisa said that their passion for engineering came from the encouragement of their teachers. “Our physics teacher, Mr King, suggested engineering to us and was a massive supporter of engineering at our high school,” she said.
In another twist of fate, all five students ended up living in the Rochester and Rutherford Hall together when they first moved to Christchurch. The graduates are now working as engineers throughout the country: Olivia is working as a structural engineer at URS in Christchurch; Chloe is working at Opus International Consultants designing bridges in Christchurch; Anna-Lisa is working for BECA in the industrial team in Auckland; and Kelsey Paterson is working for BECA in Wellington in the building services team. Chloe said she already loved her job and was delighted with her choice of career. “I am designing bridges and I absolutely love it. I have been there since November and I really enjoy what I am doing,” she said. 99
CHRONICLE 49 No.2, May 2014
UC Chancellor Dr John Wood (left) with honorary doctorate recipient Alan Gibbs.
Vincent Ward gives the graduation address.
Antony Gough receives his honorary doctorate from Chancellor Dr John Wood.
Honorary doctorate recipients pay tribute to UC An award winning film-maker, a leading New Zealand businessman and a key figure in the Christchurch rebuild were awarded honorary doctorates at the UC graduation ceremonies in April. Christchurch property investor and entrepreneur Antony Gough (Doctor of Commerce), Academy Award-winning film-maker Vincent Ward (Doctor of Fine Arts) and corporate magnate Alan Gibbs (Doctor of Engineering) all received their doctorates during the April graduation events. Mr Gough has made a significant contribution to the development of Christchurch’s central city. He is best known in Christchurch for creating The Strip, a stretch of bars and restaurants on Oxford Terrace. As chairman of the Central City Business Association, he was instrumental in establishing the Re:Start container mall in Cashel Street. He has begun a $140 million redevelopment project known as The Terrace, which will be a mixed-use development built around a central courtyard that will house bars, restaurants, shops, a hotel, apartments and offices. Mr Gough graduated from UC in 1970 with a Bachelor of Science degree with honours in nuclear physics. 10
“It is a great honour for me to be awarded this doctorate. It is also a great privilege to be speaking to you all at your graduation ceremony. You are the few real winners and the top one per cent of New Zealanders who will achieve real greatness. I am privileged to be in such esteemed company,” he said during the ceremony. Mr Ward, who graduated from UC in 1979 with a Diploma in Fine Arts, is one of New Zealand’s most celebrated film-makers, screenwriters and artists. His first feature film, Vigil (1984), was also the first New Zealand feature film to be invited to enter the competition at the Cannes Film Festival. Navigator: A Medieval Odyssey (1988) and Map of the Human Heart (1993) also featured at Cannes. His 1998 film What Dreams May Come, starring Robin Williams, received an Academy Award for best visual effects. While based in Hollywood in the late 1990s, he developed the initial story for Alien 3, executive produced the Academy Award-nominated film The Last Samurai, which starred Tom Cruise, and directed the historical epic River Queen. He received the New Zealand Order of Merit for his contribution to film making in 2007. “I want to thank the University for conferring this award upon me. It is a huge acknowledgment and it is a little bit like coming home, coming back to Canterbury. I want to acknowledge my lecturer Maurice Askew who tolerated me during my time at university,” he said.
Mr Gibbs has devoted the past 15 years to developing and commercialising the world’s first high-speed amphibious vehicle technology. He has also had a substantial influence across New Zealand’s business, economic, political and cultural spheres since graduating from UC in 1961 with a Bachelor of Arts in economics, having previously studied for three years towards an engineering degree. During New Zealand’s period of economic reform from the late 1970s to the early 1990s, he was active in restructuring businesses such as Freightways and Telecom. He helped establish New Zealand’s first pay television channel, Sky TV, and was key to the development of Auckland’s Viaduct Harbour. “I am honoured today to talk to you on the occasion of being granted an honorary doctorate in engineering,” he said. “My experience at Canterbury in engineering, economics and politics started the most significant stimulation in my life. Engineering gave me discipline, economics taught me the art of justifying anything and political science made me think.”
Gifted students focus of study Gifted students will be better supported by teachers and schools thanks to the research of recent UC graduate Dr Louise Tapper. Dr Tapper, who graduated with a PhD in education in April, undertook research for her PhD that focused on a group of teenagers to see what it meant to them to achieve in school as gifted and talented students. In-depth data was collected from the students, and their parents and teachers, over an 18-month period using multiple interviews and written reflections. “Gifted students are a diverse group who have differing schooling experiences and school is not always a breeze for gifted and talented young people,” said Dr Tapper, whose thesis was supervised by Dr Jane Abbiss (Education). “The study aimed to highlight ideas that might lead to a rethink for educators around some of the ways in which they support the myriad of gifted and talented learners in New Zealand schools,” she said. “By listening to the experiences of the student participants, educators and parents may gain more of an understanding of what it is like to be gifted and talented within the socio-cultural milieu of schools in Aotearoa New Zealand.” Dr Tapper said there had been very little research that asked New Zealand gifted and talented adolescents what it was actually like for them experiencing school. “Many gifted and talented adolescents are more focused on finding out who they are as young people; in their identity development and finding a fit in the social world of school, than in achieving highly in school-related areas,” she said. “Teachers need to understand this might mean students choose to reject opportunities for taking part in special programmes because of this focus on socialisation issues. There is no one stereotype of a gifted and talented student. Gifted and talented adolescents could, at any one time, fit a range of identity profiles.”
Dr Tapper said her study focused on profiles of New Zealand gifted and talented adolescents for the first time. “There have been profiles of the gifted and talented developed from overseas literature and these are often used in schools, but this study has developed profiles within a New Zealand socio-cultural framework,” she said. “Four broad profiles were developed from the study. They were the Conformist identity, the Rebel identity, the Nerd
identity and the All-Rounder identity. The students, parents and teachers all saw the All-Rounder identity as being the preferred one for having successful schooling experiences in New Zealand schools. “It is important to remember that there is fluidity between these profiles as students develop and change their identities over time, and also that any one student might fit within one or more of the profiles.”
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Dr Louise Tapper
Dr Noa Lincoln
Research fellow brings values-based expertise to UC A recent PhD graduate from Stanford University has brought his expertise in interdisciplinary environmental research to UC’s Ngāi Tahu Research Centre (NTRC).
Dr Noa Lincoln, originally from Hawai‘i, arrived at the centre last month as a research fellow and, for the next year, will use his experience to strengthen international relationships, including those of the First Nations Futures Programme. The programme, which Dr Lincoln himself undertook in its inaugural year after completing his undergraduate degree in environmental engineering at Yale University, was initiated by Kamehameha Schools, a not-for-profit institution that educates children of Hawaiian ancestry. The initiative fosters values-based leadership and integrated solutions for 12
managing First Nations’ assets and resources in partnership with Kamehameha Schools, Ngāi Tahu, Stanford University and Sealaska. Dr Lincoln said the international fellowship programme focused on developing indigenous land managers who could navigate the murky waters of existing in a corporate and economic framework, as well as being able to express non-monetary values and desires in connection to land and place. Dr Lincoln said his aim while at NTRC was to build bridges and relationships for collaborations in the future. “I’m interested in how we can learn from each other’s models about how we approach resource management and the incorporation of indigenous values into our modern system, which doesn’t often have a lot of room for values,” he said. “There are ways of using different structures, different knowledge bases and
different ways of interpreting value as a whole to cause shifts in our different organisations. I think that’s something that is not just relevant to indigenous people and tribal groups; I think it’s something people worldwide are trying to do.” Dr Lincoln, who finished his PhD last year, completed a case study in Hawai’i on land management of farming. “I looked at the biogeochemical opportunities and limitations of agricultural development within the pre-European Hawaiian society and how that related to the development of social and political complexity, and contemporary patterns of agricultural use in the same region. I worked a lot with farmers trying to understand why they chose the practices they do and what values they see coming from agriculture.”
Novel concept charges to prize An innovative business idea to charge a flat mobile phone battery by “piggybacking” another phone has won a UC student the annual entrè Napkin Challenge. UC honours engineering student Jordie Simmonds won the competition, which is part of UC’s innovative entrè programme. Entrè is run by students to educate students in business development and the Napkin Challenge requires participants to submit their business ideas on a small paper napkin. Jordie’s idea was to produce a mobile phone charger so someone with a flat battery could recharge it with someone else’s phone using a piggyback battery booster. “My idea of the i-Sung charger has the potential to become a useful gadget to have on a key ring. I'm just not sure if it's actually possible for power to go out of a smart phone. I haven't got that far yet. But anything is possible,” he said. “My i-Sung charger would transfer battery percentage from one live phone to a dead phone using two retractable wires, adaptable for any smart phone. It would be super handy if people are out and about and their phone dies but need to use a phone urgently.” Jordie said the idea could be groundbreaking. “It could be the world’s first charger that doesn't use a power point plug or computer, but essentially turning almost every smart phone into a possible charger. “The charger would revolutionise the Samsung and iPhone rivalry as we can now not only be friends, but help each other out, one dead battery at a time.” Jordie said it was an exciting competition to be involved in. “I plan to use my engineering degree overseas somewhere. The Engineering Without Borders projects pretty much fit what I want to do in another country,” he said.
Other awards included Most Feasible, which went to another engineering honours student, Tim Williams, who came up with an edible popsicle stick. The Most Innovative Idea was awarded to Timofey Ilin, for a system to transport pet turtles, while The Funniest Idea award went to Lauren Lines who showed a way to decrease lift congestion by giving cookies to people who chose to walk instead of taking the lift. The Most Beneficial to Students award went to second year engineering honours
student Elizabeth Wright, who produced a campus playground on the C Block lawn, which included a massive ball pit. The Napkin Challenge was judged by UC Innovators Manager Dr Rachel Wright, Christchurch Polytechnic Institute of Technology’s Dr Juan Pellegrino and UC Students’ Association President Sarah Platt and is the first of many competitions in the annual entrè programme. Later this year, students will compete for $85,000 worth of prizes in the annual $85k Challenge.
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UC student Jordie Simmonds.
Major academic prize for top student Political science and Spanish language student Kendra Titheridge has received a major academic prize of $25,000. Kendra has been awarded the University’s Peter Windle Prize, which was set up in 2009 and is awarded annually to a second-year undergraduate student in any discipline who has achieved the best academic record in their previous year of study and has demonstrated their potential to be a success in life. Kendra, who is studying towards a Bachelor of Arts with a double major, said she was completely shocked when she found out she had won the prize. “I definitely wasn’t expecting it. The standard was quite high, so I was honoured just to be going through the interview process.”
Kendra said she would put the money towards being able to leave university debt free. “I did have a goal coming into university to leave debt free, but it was going to be virtually impossible, even working part-time, so this will really help me achieve that.” Kendra said having travelled to Romania and Moldova, and having volunteered for four months in Eastern Europe for a non-government organisation where she visited poorly funded orphanages, safehouses protecting victims of human trafficking, and projects attempting to help those trapped by systemic poverty, she knew that was the sort of work she wanted to get into. “It’s shocking to think that so close to the centre of Europe are countries struggling and suffering from economic inequality and poverty. Moldova had an 80
UC student Kendra Titheridge receives the Peter Windle Prize from Vice-Chancellor Dr Rod Carr.
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per cent unemployment rate while I was volunteering and hundreds of women were disappearing each year due to human trafficking. Having seen the effects these have, I want to be one of the people fighting for change and improving things, not just standing by. “I want to make a positive difference, particularly in communities and countries that haven’t been given the opportunities that we in New Zealand have been given. There is a lot of work that needs to be done out there, so I am going to put my effort into changing something in the world for the better.” Kendra was officially presented with her prize by Vice-Chancellor Dr Rod Carr at a morning tea on campus. The prize was established by a donation made to the University by Peter Windle, a frequent visitor to New Zealand from Singapore who had grown to admire New Zealand and its people.
Predicting toxic algal blooms A system aimed at predicting toxic algal blooms in Canterbury rivers is being developed by a UC ecology student. Tara McAllister, who is studying towards a Master of Science degree, is investigating the cyanobacterium (blue-green algae) Phormidium with the goal of providing Environment Canterbury with a tool it can use to predict when the blooms will occur. “The project is focused on answering important scientific questions,” Tara said. Phormidium is a potentially toxic cyanobacterium, which can form dense mats on the riverbed. Its powerful toxins can pose a threat to both humans and animals. Dogs are particularly sensitive to these toxins and about 100 dogs have been killed in New Zealand in the last five years. “Phormidium mats often proliferate in rivers that have low phosphorous and we want to know why. Environmental conditions inside phormidium mats can be quite different to those in the river water, including high pH during the day due to rapid photosynthesis and low dissolved
oxygen at night due to respiration, and we hypothesise that such conditions favour the release of phosphorus that is bound to fine river sediments that are incorporated into the mat. It’s a mechanism that could explain how they grow so well in low dissolved phosphorus waters, but it has never really been tested. “That is one of the big things that we will be looking at and it is really interesting,” Tara said. “I went around lots of rivers in the Canterbury region during the summer and looked at the differences in rivers that have the Phormidium blooms and those that didn’t. This has led to further questions that I’ll look at during my masters. “There have been some studies of Phormidium, but nothing like this in Canterbury.” Tara said her research would identify which sites and rivers were particularly susceptible to bloom events. “It will help us to know which characteristics of a river, like water chemistry, substrate size or river flow, make it likely that blooms will occur there. This will help councils and local iwi in managing this issue.”
Tara said that the blooms were removed naturally through flushing river flows. When the flow of the river increased beyond a particular rate, it washed the algae away. “Also, management of land use and nutrient discharges may be important because when lots of nitrate gets into the water from agricultural activities, blooms occur.” Part of Tara’s research will involve working with UC’s quadcopter, an unmanned aerial drone, to see if the growth of blooms can be measured remotely. This has the potential to provide a much more extensive view of rivers in the region. “I am also going to see if I can measure the growth rate on individual rocks. This will mean going out to each rock once a week and measuring the area of the mats on the rocks.” Tara will work on this research for the next two years and will be supervised by Dr Ian Hawes (Waterways Centre for Freshwater Management), Dr Paul Broady (Biological Sciences) and Dr Susie Woods (Cawthron Institute).
UC student Tara McAllister.
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Facilitator ‘delighted’ by award
UC Education Plus facilitator Neville Myers.
A UC Education Plus facilitator has been given an award for his service to teacher development work in technology education. Neville Myers was awarded the Teacher Educator in Technology Education Award by Technology Education New Zealand (TENZ) in March. Mr Myers said he was delighted to receive the award as he enjoyed working with people who had a belief and passion for what they did. “I see my role of educator being one of privilege: to be working alongside senior leaders, middle leaders and teachers enables me to see educators’ worlds that for many are only experienced individually.” Mr Myers said his role involved looking at technology as a curriculum: students undertook trialling that led both the students and teachers to explore and find resolutions to real-life problems. “I help create learning experiences and support documents that enable students to walk within and through a range of learning experiences using a variety of thinking frames,” he said. 16
Mr Myers said through his classroom observations, he had gained an appreciation for the wonderful relationships that teachers had with their students. “There are not too many employment opportunities that enable you to celebrate the everyday successes from a wide range of people. “To work within the thinking frames of intelligent, intuitive, caring people who demonstrate empathy on a daily basis is exciting. This is what makes my journey so special.” He said learning was a personal experience and that each teacher, middle leader and senior leader was on an individual learning cycle. He was thankful for the opportunity to share in their experiences. “What I have been able to achieve is to challenge teachers to consider different perspectives and, from this exploration,
align the thinking of others to enable the person I am working with to find what they are accepting of, therefore change has been considered, change can occur,” he said. “The thinking frame that students develop within technological practice enables them to transition between the contexts of technology, this being seen as an essential key to preparing them for future worlds. “My support of the technology is founded in enabling teachers to believe in a curriculum that prepares our children to be effective citizens.” Director of UC Education Plus, Geoff Moore, said the award was well deserved. “Not one to seek the limelight, he ably supports and challenges middle leaders and teachers throughout the regions, to implement effective teaching practices in technology education, to raise achievement of all students.”
UC academic presents new theory of scientific method A new theory of scientific method developed by UC’s Professor Brian Haig (Psychology) is presented in his latest book, which has been published by MIT Press. The book, Investigating the Psychological World: Scientific Method in the Behavioural Sciences, draws on behavioural science methodology, the philosophy of science, and statistical theory in order to develop the theory. Professor Haig presents and evaluates a range of scientific methods in his book with particular reference to psychology, as well as his own theory known as “the abductive theory of method” (ATOM), which stresses the importance of explanatory reasoning in science. “Most people think of scientific method as a hypothesis or theory testing exercise: from a hypothesis, predictions are derived and tested directly against relevant data and, depending on the outcome, the hypothesis or theory is confirmed or disconfirmed. I think hypothesis and theory testing, although important, are only minor parts of research. By contrast, the abductive theory proceeds in the reverse order; rather than going from theory to fact, ATOM goes from fact to theory,” he said. “With the abductive theory, facts or empirical phenomena are detected. Then an attempt is made to understand those phenomena by constructing explanatory
theories. I am not saying that the abductive theory should replace the standard view of the hypothetico-deductive method; I’m just saying there is a place for a number of local theories of scientific method, each with their own particular research goals.” Professor Haig said he wanted to write the book because scientific method was central to science, but was often poorly understood. “There is quite a lot of empirical evidence to suggest that most scientists don’t have a particularly good understanding of the methods they use. Moreover, the philosophy behind the methods is widely ignored. “We cannot have a proper understanding of research methods, both conceptually and procedurally, without a sound appreciation of their accompanying methodology. So, I’m motivated to bring methodology to bear on our understanding of methods,” he said.
“Methodology is important because it’s the primary source of deeper understandings of the methods we use in our research. I’m not promoting understanding just for its own sake. Possessing genuine methodological insights about methods makes a difference for the decisions researchers reach about whether to use a method, and how to use it. It will also help others be more critical consumers of research.” In his book, Professor Haig makes a wide range of recommendations for improving both behavioural science research and the teaching of research methods. “I hope the book will be of interest, not only to psychological researchers who want to deepen their conceptual understanding of research methods and methodological concerns, but also philosophers of science who want to contribute to the methodological debates in the field.”
Professor Brian Haig
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Emeritus Professor Francis (Frank) Devonport (1922-2014)
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Frank Devonport died recently at the age of 91. After a distinguished career in both academe and the accounting profession, Frank was appointed Emeritus Professor of Accounting at the University of Canterbury in 1985, upon the occasion of his retirement. But that understates a great deal of service to his country, his profession and to the University, as well as dedication to his family and his church. Frank lived most of his life in Christchurch. In the 1930s he attended St Bede’s College where he excelled as a scholar and an athlete. After leaving school he worked in commerce and studied part-time in accountancy. In 1941, he enlisted in the army and, during his military training, completed his accountancy qualification before being posted to the Italian campaign in early 1944. His unit, the 26 Battalion, was involved in the drive through Italy. But Frank’s war ended when he was severely wounded by shrapnel outside Florence. He was hospitalised in Caserta and Bari, and eventually sent home by hospital ship.
Frank did not say much about his military service and his wounds but, by chance, the father of one of my best friends was on the same hospital ship and told me that Frank’s state was very grave. This was underscored by the fact that he underwent major surgery at both Christchurch and Dunedin hospitals, and was encased in body plaster from head to hip for six months when discharged. After the war, Frank completed his studies at the University of Canterbury, graduating BCom in 1947 and MCom in 1949, with first class honours in economics and economic history. In 1950, he was awarded a travelling scholarship by the then University of New Zealand for PhD study in England. However, his father was in very poor health and Frank decided to stay home and assist him. Such was the measure of the man. In the 1950s, while working as a tax inspector for Inland Revenue, he lectured part-time in accountancy and taxation at the University. He was appointed to a full-time lectureship in 1961 and rose to professor of accounting in 1969. He was dean of the commerce faculty, member of the professorial board, and an Erskine Fellow in 1971 and 1982. He was recognised by the New Zealand Institute of Chartered Accountants (NZICA) as Peter Barr Research Fellow and was awarded a life membership by the Institute, one of just a handful. After retirement Frank worked as a consultant for Deloittes and the Securities Commission, as well as contributing to NZICA’s financial accounting research efforts. I was privileged to know Frank, first as a student from 1958 to 1963, and later as a colleague from 1964 to 1976. He was very hardworking and respected, had a sly sense of humour, and was a very good classroom teacher and researcher, especially in taxation, his main field of expertise. Frank lost his wife in 2004, but is survived by five children and nine grandchildren. Bill Cotton Former Senior Lecturer in Accounting, University of Canterbury Emeritus Professor of Accounting, State University of New York
What s on at UC? What if ... Nutrition could treat mental illness?
Official re-opening of the Business and Law building
28 May C3 Lecture Theatre, Central Lecture Block, 7pm-8.30pm
29 May
In this talk, Professor Julia Rucklidge will discuss the data that shows an alarming picture of food choices serving as risk factors to all kinds of psychiatric problems. She will then introduce the recent paradigm shift of using nutrients to treat these challenges, reviewing the evidence to date. The talk will challenge our current treatment regime for mental disorders and suggest one alternative course of action. Register for this lecture at www.canterbury.ac.nz/wiw
Jam-Packer Running until 29 May Ilam Campus Gallery, School of Fine Arts
It was a fruitful year for Miranda Parkes; a storm-chasing, breath-taking, punchpacker. It was a jam-packed year. Come and view her exhibition and see what she jam-packed into last year. Whether flat, concave or scrunched, the Jam-Packer cohort continue to experiment and play with key features of the modernist-abstract toolkit: with line, shape, colour; with “zips”, grids, intersections, relationships; with viscosity, stains, washes; with ideas that humanity has hitched to pigment over. www.canterbury.ac.nz/events/
The Business and Law building has undergone an $8.3 million makeover, and has been fully remediated and redesigned to provide a high quality learning and teaching environment. The building has refurbished lecture theatres and seminar rooms, a Moot room, café, dedicated accommodation for executive development programmes, tutorial rooms, a computer lab and video-conferencing facilities. Dedicated College spaces enable industry and community organisations to engage with staff and students on campus. It will be officially re-opened on this date.
Wacky Racers
Christchurch in minimising these barriers. It will then assess what impact this would have on the city in terms of possible levels of cycling, quality of life and community, and impacts on other modes of transport efficiency. It will finally question what else we might need to do to create a city where people can choose to cycle without worrying about safety, and ask why we aren’t implementing some of the policies.
5 June Undercroft Common Space, 11am-4pm
Register for this lecture at www.canterbury.ac.nz/wiw
This event is part of an ENEL429 Computer Hardware II assignment where groups of students get to race the robotic vehicles they have been creating over the past few months. The first two rounds use infrared control to navigate an obstacle course, while the third and fourth rounds use bluetooth communication with a control program on a PC. www.canterbury.ac.nz/events
What if... It was safe to cycle in Christchurch? 11 June C3 Lecture Theatre, Central Lecture Block, 7pm-8.30pm
In this talk, Professor Simon Kingham will draw on research to understand what the barriers to people cycling are and assess the likely success of the plans for a rebuilt
UC Open Day 10 July University of Canterbury campus 10am-5pm
The University of Canterbury is inviting all prospective students and their families to UC Open Day. Come and see what makes studying at UC a rewarding and enjoyable learning experience. You can find out about our world-class degrees and experience our vibrant campus environment. You’ll have the opportunity to talk with lecturers and researchers through introductory lectures, as well as explore labs, libraries, sports facilities and student accommodation. Register to attend UC Open Day at www. canterbury.ac.nz/openday
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MÄ ori & Pasifika graduation celebrations