June 2017
The University of Auckland News for Staff Vol 46/ Issue 04 /June 2017
TAKING ON CANCER
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EVIDENCE FOR EARLY LIFE FAREWELL TO PROFESSOR BUDGET 2017 Astrobiologist Professor Kathy Campbell is NICHOLAS TARLING After the 2017 Budget announcement, Honorary part of an international research team which UniNews pays tribute to well-known figure Associate Professor Susan St John takes a has discovered exciting new evidence for life Nicholas Tarling, Emeritus Professor of History, critical look at the effects of recent economic starting on earth millions of years earlier than who died suddenly last month. Read a touching policies on social inequality in New Zealand. previously thought. obituary by one of his former students, Professor Paul Clark, inside
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PROUD NIGHT FOR NGARINO AND AUP WHAT’S NEW ...... 3
In a double win for the University, AUP’s IN BRIEF ...... 4 Whakapapa of Tradition: 100 Years of Ngāti COVER STORY ...... 5 Porou Carving, 1830–1930 by Dr Ngarino Ellis (Art History), won the Judith Binney Best First Book OBITUARY ...... 7 Award for Illustrated Non-Fiction at the 2017 Ockham New Zealand Book Awards last month. WHAT’S ON CAMPUS ...... 7 Auckland University Press had four books RESEARCH IN FOCUS ...... 8 shortlisted, including Emeritus Professor Warren Moran’s New Zealand Wine: The Land, the Vines, IN THE SPOTLIGHT ...... 9 The People and Peter Simpson’s Bloomsbury South: The Arts in Christchurch 1933–1953. FROM THE COLLECTION ...... 10 WHAT’S COMING OUT ...... 10 BEAUTIFUL BIOLOGICAL ART CLASSIFIEDS ...... 11 Dr Peng Du, a director and the lead engineer MARAMATANGA ...... 12 for FlexiMap, a spin-out company at Auckland’s Bioengineering Institute (ABI), creates art works out of his company’s research to understand the stomach and intestine by measuring its bioelectrical activity. The image, right, called ‘Re-entry’ happens when abnormal activity in the stomach causes bioelectrical activity to loop back onto itself. It shows a mosaic of the initiation and maintenance of a re-entry event. For more on the art project Peng initiated at Bioengineering see: www.art-of-bioeng.squarespace.com
WRITERS’ EVENT ATTRACTS CROWDS
Divisions across gender, race, geography and COVER PHOTO: Dr Francis Hunter from the Faculty class was the theme of the well-attended of Medical and Health Sciences. Photo courtesy of University of Auckland Festival Forum event at The Cancer Society Auckland-Northland. the Auckland Writers Festival last month. The Great Divide featured Australian journalist Stan Grant, American writer Susan Faludi, British author John Lanchester and our own Dr Paula Morris (Faculty of Arts), with convenor Andrew Johnston. Panelists grappled with reasons for and solutions to the 2016 nationalist, populist ‘revolutions’ in the US, the UK and Europe.
GRAD GALA WINNER SPARKLES
An “assured and compelling” rendition of EDITOR: Julianne Evans Tchaikovsky by pianist Sara Lee won her first [email protected] prize and $6,000 at the annual Graduation Gala PHOTOGRAPHY: Godfrey Boehnke, Sampford Cathie, Billy Wong Concerto Competition last month. DESIGN: Justin Marshall The South Korean-born undergraduate from the PRODUCTION: The University of Auckland School of Music delighted a packed crowd at the Auckland Town Hall with her performance of the Published by: first movement from Tchaikovsky’s much loved The University of Auckland Piano Concerto in B flat minor. Sara is currently Communications, taught by Associate Professor Rae de Lisle in the Fisher Building, 18 Waterloo Quadrant, School of Music. Private Bag 92019, Auckland 1142
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2 THE UNIVERSITY OF AUCKLAND NEWS FOR STAFF WHAT’S NEW REWARDING Laureen Boucher, Ashleigh Fox, Rosalind EXCELLENCE Henshaw, Kalindu Maddugoda, Nina Riikonen and Ursula Taylor. TVNZ SERIES The University is partnering with TVNZ on a Recognition for the many remarkable Community Engagement Award: The new, interactive series which asks big questions achievements of our staff, the 2017 Vice- Education and Social Work Inaugural Showcase about where New Zealand will be in 20 years Chancellor’s Excellence Awards were held in Event Team from Strategic Engagement and the and what we should be doing now to shape the the new Pavilion last month. Faculty of Education and Social Work: Sharon 2037 we want. The awards this year were presented in three Roux, Kate Backler and Helen Pengelly. categories: Professional Staff Excellence; Delivering Results Award: The School of Health, Safety and Wellbeing and Environmental Chemical Sciences Technical Staff Relocation Sustainability. Team from the Faculty of Science: Alistair Mead, Vice-Chancellor Professor Stuart McCutcheon Pooja Yadav, Roger van Ryn, Tony Chen, Stuart said he had received a record number of Morrow, Tasdeeq Mohammed, Radesh Singh, nominations this year, 40 in total. Sreeni Pathirana, Jan Robertson and Tim Layt. “Many of the nominations came from cross- Health, Safety and Wellbeing Award: faculty and service division teams, providing a CAI Technicians and Facilities Team from the great example of the collaborations occurring Faculty of Creative Arts and Industries: Peter across the University.” Cleveland, Kenneth Murgitroyd, Steve Lovett, Joe Award winners for 2017 Makea, Daniel Swain, Scott Facer, Franca Bertani, Leadership Award: Antoinette Kesha from Ellen Portch, Tom Whelan and Ross Collinson. Hosted by celebrity clinical psychologist Nigel Organisational Performance and Improvement. Environmental Sustainability Award: Faculty Latta and respected broadcaster John Campbell, Customer and Stakeholder Experience of Science Sustainability Network. What Next ? will air at 8.30pm on TVNZ 1 between Award: The Digital Student Data Project Highly Commended awards Sunday 11 June and Thursday 15 June. Team from Organisational Performance and Excellence in Leadership: Claire Philipson Using research from the University’s School of Improvement, IT Strategy, Policy and Planning, and Sharon Peace; Excellence in Customer/ Psychology, and including results from a recently Academic Services and ITS: Colin Williams, Stakeholder Experience: Chip Mathews; released national survey, the five-part series Andrew Georgetti, Henry Bell, Gary Tomlin, Hilda Excellence in Enabling People: Katene Paenga; will explore issues like the preservation of the Ho, Penny Moonsammy, Niall Redmond and Excellence in Community Engagement: environment, the direction of the economy, the Raewyn Knight. Audrey Brooks; Excellence in Health, Safety possibilities and challenges of technology and how Enabling People Award: Faculty of Arts and Wellbeing: Raymond Dixon. we can adapt to, and manage, looming social issues. Shadowing and Mentoring Working Group; Following the broadcast there will be an interactive online ‘after show’ to keep the discussion going, Winners of the featuring Professor Shaun Hendy, pictured above, Community from the University’s Department of Physics. Engagement Award: Director of the Centre of Research Excellence From left: Sharon Te Pūnaha Matatini, Shaun is a regular contributor Roux, Kate Backler to public debate on science issues and a strong and Helen Pengelly advocate for the New Zealand science and with Vice-Chancellor technology sector. Professor Stuart Viewers can engage with the series and complete McCutcheon. the survey on multiple platforms, including online with the live television screening, available via TVNZ 1.
DREAM OF SPINAL CORD RECOVERY BEHIND GENEROUS GIFT For 28 years, eminent neuroscientist Professor Research Facility, which she was instrumental in Louise Nicholson – now Professor Emeritus – has establishing. pic of Louise Nicholson at front of graduation given the gift of her passion and expertise to her Louise is seen (right), proudly leading the parade holding the mace here somewhere colleagues, her students and the community. procession at last month’s Autumn Graduation please Now, as she retires, her greatest hope is that – a very special time for her in more ways than a cure for spinal injury will be achieved within one. Her grandson Taylor was capped that day, her lifetime. With this in mind, she has decided, marking the fourth generation of her family to with her husband Jon, to donate $1 million to the graduate from the University. Taylor was wearing University. the trencher of his grandmother (Louise’s This, the largest gift ever presented to the much-loved mother, the late Beryl Green), who University by a retiring staff member, will help graduated in the early 1940s. enable work in her field to continue by endowing For more information about Louise, her funds for a PhD student working on spinal brilliant career and her generous gift, see the cord injury and repair at the Spinal Cord Injury story on the Staff Intranet news.
UNINEWS 3 WHAT’S NEW
BIG CITIES, BIG THE FINAL IDEAS ON SHOW FRONTIER? Dr Francis Hunter is a Research Fellow at the The opportunities and challenges of big cities Associate Professor Patrick Hu (Electrical Auckland Cancer Society Research Centre, was the theme of the 2017 Research Excellence Engineering). University of Auckland. He has just won an Awards, also held in the Pavilion last month. University Research Excellence Awards, Early Career Research Excellence Award which Outstanding University research achievements worth $5000 went to: Professor John Windsor, joins an array of national and international from the past year were showcased at the event, Associate Professor Anthony Phillips, Dr Max accolades for his work. He is currently working which was attended by Science and Innovation Petrov and Mr Scott Aitken (Surgery, Faculty with a team led by Professor Bill Wilson on Minister the Hon. Paul Goldsmith and hosted by of Medical and Health Sciences); Dr Danny a multi-million dollar research project to Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Research) Professor Osborne, Professor Chris Sibley and Associate develop new drugs to combat head and neck Jim Metson. Professor Nickola Overall, Drs Sam Manuela, cancers. Projects focused on issues like environmental Carla Houkamau and Tim West-Newman sustainability, public wellbeing and energy (Psychology, Faculty of Science); Professor Gary Cancer. A word accompanied by an icy blast efficiency and research teams were on hand to Barkhuizen (Cultures, Languages and Linguistics, of fear. It can end lives fast and brutally, or answer questions on everything from the ethics Faculty of Arts) and Professor Helen Sword agonisingly over time. and effects of wild bird feeding to methods for (Centre for Learning and Research in Higher And up until quite recently, the toxic cocktail purifying water more efficiently. Education, Faculty of Education and Social of therapies used to fight it often left the patient The Vice Chancellor’s Research and Work). wondering if the treatment wasn’t worse than the Commercialisation Medals went to Photon Early Career Research Excellence Awards, disease. Factory founder Professor Cather Simpson worth up to $25,000 went to: Dr Timothy Angeli, So when a young and academically (School of Chemical Sciences and the Auckland Bioengineering Institute; Dr Maria distinguished Francis Hunter was deciding how Department of Physics, joint appointment), Armoudian (Faculty of Arts) ; Dr Francis Hunter, he wanted to spend his life, finding a cure for this structural steel expert Associate Professor (Faculty of Medical and Health Sciences); Dr most tenacious of killers topped his list. Charles Clifton (Civil Engineering), and Telemetry Jenny Malmstrom (Faculty of Engineering); Dr “I was doing an undergraduate degree at Research and PowerbyProxi founding scientist Ritesh Shah (Faculty of Education and Social Auckland in molecular biology,” he remembers. Work) and Dr Gabriel Verret (Faculty of Science). “In my second year I had a ‘eureka moment’ about cancer and the magnitude of the problem. Above left: Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Research) I was a young person with the ability to make a Professor Jim Metson and Science and difference – and treatments for cancer pose a Innovation Minister Hon Paul Goldsmith tour the complicated intellectual challenge.” displays. Left: Professor Grant Covic (Electrical And in an alignment of fates, top University and Computer Engineering) showcasing cancer researcher Distinguished Professor Bruce inductive power transfer technology to the Baguley was a family friend. Minister and University Chancellor Scott St John. “As a young child I attended an open day at the [Auckland] Medical School, and I remember meeting and talking with Bruce about his work on cancer.” IN BRIEF Francis’ own life was touched by it when, the day before a big exam, his father had a cancer diagnosis. Fortunately, he says, he received BLOSSOMING CAREER NEW LOOK WEB PAGES excellent care and has since recovered. Professor Jo Putterill from the School of Biological The result of months of work, the newly designed Completing a PhD at Auckland in molecular Sciences has been appointed as Director of the pages for 160 academic programmes will be medicine in 2014, Francis, now 31, gained a Joint Graduate School in Plant & Food Science. launched by the team at the Web Presence place on the Dean’s List for the excellence of his The School is a partnership between the University Improvement Programme (Web PIP) in this month. doctoral research. and Plant & Food Research. The new programme pages will improve the user His focus has been on employing cutting- Gaining a PhD from Auckland in 1990, Jo is experience, hold all key information in one place, edge genetic technologies to understand passionate about developing a pipeline to attract reduce effort and increase accuracy by using a precisely how drugs and radiation work in cancer the brightest and best students towards a career in single source of truth. treatment. plant and food science. The new pages deliver on the website vision to His ultimate goal is making treatment more Her research speciality is the investigation of how attract high quality prospective undergraduate precise and personalised, and therefore more the timing of flowering is controlled in plants in and postgraduate students, both locally and effective. response to environmental cues like temperature internationally. Part of the complex jigsaw is getting a better and day length. Flowering time is an important trait Go to: www.auckland.ac.nz/webprogramme or understanding of the genetic basis for treatment for plant yield and productivity, and Jo is currently contact [email protected] to find responses in cancer. collaborating with PFR scientists to understand out more. “No two tumours are the same,” say Francis. flowering control in kiwifruit and kiwiberry.
4 THE UNIVERSITY OF AUCKLAND NEWS FOR STAFF COVER STORY
selected for a three-year term on the Associate Member Council of the American Association for Cancer Research (AACR), the largest organisation of its type in the world, with a global membership of 37,000 clinicians and scientists. In this role he frequently attends international conferences on cancer research, the most recent being in Washington DC in April, attended by 20,000 delegates. A regular public speaker on cancer research, he believes it’s a duty of researchers in his position to spread the word. “We are funded by the Health Research Council [which manages the Government’s annual investment in health research], and I think it’s really important that people know how we’re spending their money and what progress we’re making.” It seems cancer sufferers in 2017 have good reason for hope. Thousands of brilliant minds all over the world How they behave comes down to a whole allows Francis and his team to identify genes that are, like Francis, devoted to beating this scourge, range of factors. control the sensitivity of tumours to treatment. and they’re making stunning breakthroughs. Each individual cancer possesses different Inside the mass of many tumours, there are Watch this space. biological characteristics, even cancers of the areas of low oxygen where blood is not getting same organ. These differences are caused by the through, called hypoxia. n Julianne Evans mutations and chemical changes to DNA that One might think this is a good thing. But it occur during cancer development, as well as the doesn’t work like that, says Francis. distinct populations of cells that reside within “Hypoxia is a major clinical problem. If the tumours. tumour mass has an ineffective blood vessel While Francis is currently working across network, there is a non-functioning delivery of a range of cancer-related projects, his most oxygen and therefore the cell is resistant to killing ambitious, and potentially world-changing, is a by radiation and chemotherapy.” three-year programme now in its second year, to It is hoped that the drug currently in get a cancer drug to the stage of a clinical trial by development by the Auckland team – which the end of 2018. involves Professor Bill Wilson, Francis, graduate This is where the mysteriously named CRISPR- students, technicians and other colleagues – will Ca9 comes in, a unique technology that enables diffuse from the blood stream into the hypoxic geneticists and medical researchers to edit parts regions of the tumours where they’re ‘switched of the genome by removing, adding or altering on’ and therefore become toxic to cancer cells in sections of the DNA sequence. these regions. Applying this technology to drug development Francis is the first New Zealand scientist to be
Top left: Dr Francis Hunter in the lab. Photo Cancer Society Auckland-Northland.
Above: Immunohistochemical staining for P450 oxidoreductase expression in a whole-section from a carcinoma of the hypopoharynx.
Left: Breast cancer cells showing amplification of the HER2 oncogene (red fluorescence).
UNINEWS 5 MY STORY STAFF PROFILE
Mabingo Alfdaniels teaches Dance Studies
Mabingo Alfdaniels did his BA and his MA in Dance at Makarere University in Uganda, followed by a Masters in Dance Education at New York University, which he completed on a Fulbright Scholarship. He is now doing a PhD in dance pedagogy in the Faculty of Creative Arts and Industries, and is a Professional Teaching Fellow in Dance Studies.
Where were you born and where did you Mabingo in the poster image for In Transit. Photo Paul Simei-Barton grow up? I was born in Buwama, central Uganda, close to the shores of Lake Victoria, just three minutes throughout my childhood I continued to dance, What are you doing now? from the lake by car. I lived in one of about 40 or sing and tell stories. I’m studying for my PhD and I’m a Professional 50 homesteads in a rural village called Mbuukiro, Did you always want to have a career as a Teaching Fellow in East African dance. I also run where the main activity is farming. My family was dancer? workshops and community outreach projects, Roman Catholic and we come from the Baganda No, as a child I wanted to become a Catholic and recently I’ve choreographed and have been people of central Uganda. priest. Then at about 13 I wanted to be a lawyer. playing music for a production called In Transit Tell me about your childhood Then, when I was accepted to university in [which had its world premier at the Mangere Arts I came from a very large extended family and I dance, I started to think of it as a career that Centre on 4 May]. loved spending time with them, especially with could include teaching and research and Do you think what you do can change my mother, whose name is Joyce Nakawombe, scholarship. people’s lives? and my father, Mathias Tulabiddaawa. I went to Did you have a favourite teacher? I think it not only can but has changed people’s primary school in the village, which meant I was When I joined college and started to pursue lives. First by expanding their skill sets and their living at home – not going to boarding school as dance I met Professor Moses William SSerwadda knowledge of different types of dance. some of my siblings did. I enjoyed the way my at Makarere University. He is my hero. He Second, by helping them understand the parents prepared me for the world outside. They identified the potential in me and at every point continent and the people of Africa in a more set out to instill in us a sense of responsibility, where I lost confidence he was always there to real way than what they learn from watching TV hard work and empathy. My father always said: support and guide me emotionally, academically, news, which is usually about wars or disease or “The time will come when you will face the world intellectually and spiritually. famine or disaster. Through music and dance almost alone and now is the time you need to Tell me about when you decided to go to and story-telling I can introduce new narratives build the character for that.” university that help people move past the stereotypes What did you enjoy learning? My two parents are well-known, profoundly- and find different voices and different ways My parents always encouraged us to question committed teachers. My family valued education of experiencing the cultures. Often they start and verify everything – and that meant and the search for knowledge. Growing up, I wanting to visit Africa or engage in positive ways challenging us to seek knowledge from different always envisaged not only attending university, with African people and experiences. sources and to learn about different ways of but also excelling at it. My parents always What are you most proud of? thinking. At home we had no access to TV or showed me that it was possible. They did not That I’ve been able to contribute to a movement screens – only radio. But my father would always have much money, but they saved a lot and that seeks to expand the presence of dances and go out and buy newspapers – in our language sacrificed much to send us to school. music from Africa in academia globally. and in English. He would give them to me to How was it when you first went to study in What do you love doing? read after he’d finished. Then he would ask me: New York? I think I’m in my element when I’m teaching “Mabingo, what do you think?” We talked about At first I felt that sense of alienation because a class because I see people finding different all sorts of things - about politics, international of being separated from my communities back ways of growing, doing, thinking and becoming. news, arts, music, history, always questioning home, and because of the feeling of always When I’m writing it’s also exciting because I enjoy and trying to expand my thinking in different being reminded that I was “the other”. I learned participating in processes that generate new ways. that when you’re living in a culture that’s very knowledge. Where and how did you learn to dance? different from your own you have to accept to be To discover more about Mabingo’s work, see Probably I started to dance before I was born – at vulnerable and to put yourself in other people’s the Autumn 2017 issue of Ingenio magazine least, that’s what my mother tells me. And when shoes – so then you can open up to other on the University’s website under News and you grow up dancing it becomes a habit. people, adapt to new cultures and embrace new Opinion>University publications. That was the world in which I lived and experiences.
6 THE UNIVERSITY OF AUCKLAND NEWS FOR STAFF OBITUARY
Nicholas Tarling 1931 – 2017 including the floor. Nick played a central role in gathered in Auckland for a conference to mark his the expansion of the University from around 5,500 75th birthday. In 2015 the University celebrated One of the University’s most tireless servants students to the 35,000 on his retirement. In this Nick’s 50 years here with a display of (at least) 50 and well-known figures passed away suddenly he worked closely with the long-serving Vice- volumes written by him. on 13 May. Nicholas Tarling, Emeritus Chancellor, Sir Colin Maiden. For his former students like myself, Nick Professor of History, retired 20 years ago He also helped shape the development of the remained a source of wise counsel and friendship. after more than three decades of enormous whole university system in New Zealand, through He died doing what he loved, swimming at Narrow contributions as a long-standing Dean of Arts, service on national committees. Neck Beach, just metres from his home on a Deputy and Acting Vice-Chancellor and key Outside of work, Nick was a major contributor to beautiful late autumn afternoon. member of committees large and small. the arts in Auckland and the nation. He became a The University is hugely in his debt, as we honour In his retirement Nick remained active as a Senior radio presenter of classical music, a founder of the his memory. Fellow of the New Zealand Asia Institute, based in former Mercury Theatre, trustee of numerous arts A public commemoration of Professor Tarling’s the Business School. He gave an extraordinary half- organisations, and a respected actor. many contributions to the University and the life of century of vital service to the University. He was a well-known regular at classical music Auckland will be held later in the year. Appointed to the History Department in 1965, performances in Auckland for decades. The n after a brief stint in Queensland following his University’s annual capping revues and outdoor Paul Clark is Professor of Chinese in the School of Cultures, Languages and Linguistics, Faculty of Arts. graduation from the University of Cambridge, Nick Shakespeare performances were graced for many established and shaped the teaching of Asia-related years by his skills as a thespian, honed regularly in subjects in the Faculty of Arts. our lecture halls. At a time when New Zealand public and A fierce defender of university autonomy and role academia was becoming more aware of our place as critic and conscience of society, Nick was among in the world, Nick played a decisive role in fostering a key group of academics who resisted in the late awareness of Asia. In 1974 he was the driving force 1980s government attempts to consolidate control behind the creation of the New Zealand Asian over the universities. Studies Society. Somewhat reluctantly retiring in 1997, Nick As a teacher, Nick was a marvellous performer, turned fuller attention to his phenomenal scholarly capturing his listeners with dramatic gestures, productivity. His colleagues would joke about “a ominous pauses and even the occasional shedding book a year” only to discover in some years that of items of clothing, all the while posing unexpected there were two coming off the presses. His careful questions. studies of imperial policy in Southeast Asia at its His courses on Southeast Asian history, the height, in decline and during the Cold War drew on origins of the First World War and lectures in world his amazing mastery of the British archival records history were models of concision, insight and (and what seems to have been chronic insomnia). stimulation. Already in the 1960s he was writing transnational Several generations of students encountered history long before the term was invented. Nick at enrolment in his capacity as Dean of As editor of the two-volume Cambridge History Arts, presiding in an office legendary for its piles of Southeast Asia, Nick brought together a network of papers and books on every available surface, of colleagues and students, many of whom
WHAT’SWHAT’S ON ON CAMPUS CAMPUS
ISLAMIC LAW EXPERT PIANO PRIZE LIFE BEYOND EARTH What: Reinterpreting Islamic law What: Llewellyn Jones contest What: Dean’s Lecture Series: Breakthrough Faculty of Law Public Lecture by Professor Raj Friday 9 June at 7.30pm Initiatives: The Search for Life in the Universe, Bhala. Piano Composition Prize Faculty of Engineering When:5.30pm on Thursday 8 June Venue: Music Theatre, School of Music, 6 When: 8 June 2017, from 5.30pm – 6.30pm Venue: Lecture Theatre OGGB4, Owen G Glenn Symonds Street. Venue: Fisher and Paykel Appliances Building, 12 Grafton Road. The Llewellyn Jones Piano Composition Prize Auditorium. Location: 12 Grafton Road. As a sacred legal system, Islamic Law has is an annual event established to foster the Dr Pete Worden will be joined by Jamie Drew prescribed sources for its rules. Four of composition and performance of new music for from Breakthrough Initiatives, an exciting them are agreed on, but additional sources the piano. programme founded in 2015 dedicated to the are disputed. This lecture will begin with an Hear talented students compete for prize search for extraterrestrial intelligence. Both analysis of the conventional and controversial money. Free admission. guests have research backgrounds in space sources. issues and have previously held positions at It then will provide poignant examples of how NASA’s Ames Research Center. Join them as they are used – and abused – in practice, such they ponder the big questions we all have as domestic violence, abortion, laws of war, about life beyond Earth. Registrations are and terrorism. essential. Go to: www.eventbrite.co.nz MARCH 2014 | UNINEWS 7 RESEARCH IN FOCUS
did life begin on land or in the sea?” says Kathy. Along with other microbial bio-signatures, the NEW EVIDENCE OF EARLY “This work is also highly relevant to Mars study indicates that a diverse range of life existed LIFE ON EARTH exploration. One of the key aims for NASA’s 2020 in these hot springs 3.48 billion years ago. Mars rover landing is the search for fossils in The oldest accepted evidence of life on Earth A study of hot spring deposits in New Zealand ancient (more than 3 billion years old) volcanic so far was discovered in shallow marine rocks and Australia provides new evidence that life hot springs which we now know once existed on in Greenland which have been dated to about existed in these environments around 3.48 the martian surface.” 3.7 billion years, and many scientists believe life billion years ago, millions of years earlier than The research team examined and compared must have begun in the oceans. previously thought. bio-signatures from hot spring deposits of only Others are holding out for an on-land origin, This startling find has been unearthed by an a few thousand years old in the Rotorua area a topic of debate in scientific sessions at the international research team including University to very similar rock textures newly found in the Astrobiology Science Conference held in Mesa, of Auckland astrobiologist Professor Kathy 3.48 billion-year-old Pilbara Craton of Western Arizona, recently. Campbell (School of Environment). Australia, and discovered the existence of a The oldest life on land previously recorded was Evidence of life from thermal hot springs – a mineral deposit called geyserite, forming around in organic-rich ancient soils and ponds in Africa key site of discovery for scientists because we the spring vents and pools from approximately dated at between 2.7 billion to 2.9 billion years know they host a diverse range of microbial life 100 ⁰C fluids and only found in terrestrial hot ago. living under extreme environmental conditions springs. The latest study therefore extends the like those of early Earth – has previously only Previously, scientists studying the Pilbara geological record of life on land by more than been dated to 400 million years ago. Craton thought it was an ancient marine 580 million years. The new study extends that by more than environment but the presence of geyserite three billion years. indicates it was in fact a hydrothermally-formed It was published last month in Nature volcanic crater, so any bio-signature evidence Communications and subsequently appeared in found associated with very old geyserite is Above: Professor Kathy Campbell at Pilbara, Western news media all over the world. evidence of terrestrial – not marine – life. Australia. “It’s a significant finding and one that re-opens The scientists discovered stromatolites, one of the biggest debates in science and that is, layered mounds of sediments that are produced when microbes are present.
Pictured above - Professor Merryn Tawhai, Deputy Director of the Auckland Bioengineering Institute, and 2016 Royal Society of New Zealand MacDiarmid Medal winner for her research to create anatomically detailed models of the respiratory system, providing new tools for diagnosis, prognosis and treatment of lung disease. 8 THE UNIVERSITY OF AUCKLAND NEWS FOR STAFF IN THE SPOTLIGHT
Vincent’s Home of Compassion in Herne Bay, which UNINEWS highlights some REDISCOVERING OUR was run by the Sisters of Compassion, whose founder MEDICAL HISTORY was Mother Mary Joseph (Suzanne) Aubert. of the University’s people “Now that its provenance has been more clearly and stories that have made University of Auckland Arts student Erna defined it is evident that this machine could have Battenhaussen is shining a fresh light on some of major historic and social significance to Auckland, the headlines in the past New Zealand’s most important medical artefacts. and New Zealand as a whole.” month. Last summer Erna, who has a BA in Anthropology In keeping with MOTAT’s vision, Erna’s research has and Art History, worked at Auckland’s Museum of also unearthed stories of Kiwi ingenuity such as the Transport and Technology (MOTAT) as a University Green lane Hospital technicians who deftly altered Summer Scholar. the Melrose Heart lung machine’s oxygenator which Our academics on Newsroom Under the direction of Professor of History, Linda was rotating at too high a speed when it first arrived Distinguished Professor Margaret Brimble Bryder, she was tasked with researching objects from Says Dr Bridget Mosley, Registrar of MOTAT’s talked about her drug discovery work on MOTAT’s collection that could form the beginnings of Collection Inventory, “Supporting learning and Newsroom last week, with the news site an online Auckland Medical Museum. development is important to MOTAT and Erna’s also featuring a story and video on research Among the most significant was the Melrose research will add to our understanding of the by Professor Paul Kench on the resilience of Heart Lung Machine, brought to New Zealand by Sir significance of the collection and how we interpret it coral reef islands under threat from sea level Douglas Robb and Sir Brian Barratt-Boyes, and used for visitors.” rise. in ground-breaking open heart surgery in 1958. Erna has finished her Summer Scholarship “The surgery which, repaired a hole in the heart of and is now employed two days a week at MOTAT an eleven-year old girl, Helen Arnold, was the first of while continuing to study for a Masters in Heritage its kind in New Zealand and made headlines around Conservation specialising in Museums and Cultural New Scientist review Professor Michael Corballis’ new book, The the world,” says Erna. Heritage. Truth About Language, was reviewed in New In 1962, Barratt-Boyes, using this machine, applied She is doing on-going research that will contribute Scientist, while Senior Lecturer James Russell a masterful technique for replacing a heart valve with to MOTAT’s wider understanding of its whole health discussed the Pest Free 2050 initiative in the a human donor and set the international standard for sciences collection. London Telegraph and Washington Post. aortic valve surgery. “I am passionate about this sort of thing,” she says. Erna has tried to place each object in a wider “I really believe in looking to the past to shape the historical context. future.” For example, she worked on an iron lung built Adds Professor Bryder: “University Summer Plastic disaster at Auckland Hospital around 1935 using an electric Scholarships open up some fascinating and valuable Senior Lecturer Melissa Bowen discussed motor and vacuum pumps from a milking machine. opportunities for students.” the discovery of 38 million pieces of plastic Iron lungs were a common treatment for polio, The Melrose Heart Lung machine will feature in on a remote uninhabited island in the Pacific which affected nearly 10,000 people in New Zealand the Auckland Medical Museum Trust’s first exhibition, ocean on Newshub - the story also ran on the between 1915 and 1961. Brave Hearts - The New Zealand Cardiac Story, a NBC news site in the US. “Understanding what polio patients went mobile pop-up exhibition where visitors will be part through pre-immunisation puts into perspective the of a journey through New Zealand’s cardio-vascular importance of modern developments in medicine medical history, past, present and future. Te Whainoa graduates and public health,” says Erna. Brave Hearts will be open to the public at MOTAT She has also studied a Dutch-manufactured with mana from 18 August 2017. Arts graduate Te Whainoa Te Wiata featured incubator with proven links to the history at St on Te Karere (TVNZ) in an in-depth interview on his life, work and haemophilia – all in te reo.
In-depth on Liggins Professor Frank Bloomfield, director of the Liggins Institute, gave a wide-ranging 18-minute feature interview with RNZ Nights presenter Bryan Crump on crucial research underway at the Institute and its campaign launch event, The Night of the Dames.
University of Auckland Arts student Erna Battenhaussen with the Melrose Heart Lung Machine, brought to New Zealand by Sir Douglas Robb and Sir Brian Barratt-Boyes. UNINEWS 9 FROM THE ART COLLECTION
Artist and 2017 Frenchman Jean- imaginary Terra Australis Incognita – the great Distinguished Gabriel Charvet unknown Southern Continent. Alumna Lisa created printed Reihana has transformed the original Reihana is currently and hand-pinted wallpaper scene into a stage of wonder by representing New wallpaper inspired bringing the figures represented to life. Engaging Zealand at the 57th by European in a method of practice which she describes as Venice Biennale exploration of the kanohi ki te kanohi (face to face interaction), she in Italy with a Pacific. builds respectful relations of reciprocity with the panoramic video Titled Les actors she photographs. installation entitled Sauvages de la mer Reihana suggests decisions of inclusion and Emissaries. Pacifique, it is this exclusion which are not arbitrary but political. By It is her most wallpaper which tackling the problems of representation (who and ambitious project in was the inspiration how do we see?) she joins other contemporary a long, illustrious and for Reihana’s video Māori and Pasifika artists in reclaiming, innovative career installation. reimagining and retelling “historical” narratives of with digital media. Charvet used foundational events. Ten years in the travel drawings by Reihana’s work is simultaneously making, Emissaries French explorers contemporary, historic and mythological; a is a remarkably Jean–Francois whāriki, or weave of technology, and a re- complex digital de la Pelouse and appropriation. animation that has Louis Antoine de Reihana’s work is included in a display of undergone a number Bougainville, as well taonga from the University Art Collection at Old of modifications as Cook, as reference Government House as part of the Matariki (Māori for the Biennale material. New Year) celebrations from 6-26 June 2017. since it was last shown in Auckland, including The first of Cook’s voyages to the Southern incorporating Aboriginal figures. Seas was undertaken to measure the Transit n Sam Melser, Gus Fisher Gallery assistant Captain James Cook – (Female) can of Venus - a venture necessary in controlling Image left: Captain James Cook - Female ( In Pursuit be contextualised into research and trade routes throughout the world in the 18th of Venus), 2015, photograph, 1520 x 1080mm by Lisa experimentation for Emissaries. In 1804, century. The tacit mission was the search for the Reihana.
WHAT’S COMING OUT
produce nothing less.” Renowned cognitive scientist, Steven Pinker, agrees: “Helen Sword delightfully shows that, contrary to lazy opinion, academics do not have to write in soggy, wooden, leaden, stuffy, turgid or bloated prose.” To see how not to write like this, read this essential new guide for writers aspiring to become more productive and take greater pleasure in their craft. Air & Light & Time & Space is hot off the press from Harvard University Press.
Māori Oral Tradition Māori oral tradition is the rich, poetic record introduced readers to the distinctive oral style Air & Light & Time & Space of the past handed down by voice over the and language of the traditional compositions, generations through whakapapa, whakatauki, “Helen Sword does it again,” writes acknowledges the skills of the composers of korero and waiata. Distinguished Professor Brian Boyd (English, old and explores the meaning of their striking A voice from the past, this remarkable record Drama and Writing Studies) of Professor Helen imagery and figurative language. underpins the speeches, songs and prayers Sword’s latest book, subtitled How successful performed on marae and the teachings of tribal academics write. Unravelling Sustainability and genealogies and histories. “In an age of academic doom she inspires... Resilience in the Built Environment This book, Māori Oral Tradition: He Kōrero nō She makes you want to consume creative Māori Lecturer Emilio Jose Garcia te Ao Tawhito, written by Jane McRae, former academic writing - not just hers - and to try to (Architecture and Planning) and Brenda Vale . lecturer in Māori Studies, and published by AUP, Routledge, 2017.
10 THE UNIVERSITY OF AUCKLAND NEWS FOR STAFF THE UNIVERSITY OF AUCKLAND ALUMNI MAGAZINE | AUTUMN 2017 CLASSIFIEDS CLASSIFIEDS
ACCOMMODATION AVAILABLE Auckland main campus, Newmarket and Grafton, AUT. Suit single or couple. Not APARTMENTS FOR RENT. Call us for your wheelchair accessible. $475/per week all rental requirements; we offer city apartments expenses included. Ph Marianne: 021 02312340 furnished/unfurnished, all sizes and prices; great or email: [email protected] rental deals for long-term leases; call rentals (09) 303 0601 or (021) 246 6710 at City Sales or HOLIDAY ACCOMMODATION [email protected] or log on to www.citysales. co.nz/rentals PEACEFUL WAITAKERE RETREAT: Two-level house with extensive grounds and gorgeous VISION BOUTIQUE FREEHOLD APARTMENTS: From coastal views. 40 minutes from Central Auckland, $545,000. Library 27 offers a unique opportunity FOR 10 minutes from Karekare Beach (or 20 minutes to own a freehold apartment in one of Auckland’s walk). Internet and mobile access (Spark). From CHANGE most prized locations – the beating heart of the $57 per night. 20% weekly discount. 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11 MARAMATANGA
‘TOUGH LOVE’ NOT WORKING
In response to the 2017 Budget, Susan St John can be far higher than the top tax rate paid by the social erosion and ever higher social costs. Policy takes a critical look at the effects of recent well-off. Throw in commuting costs and childcare, makers of the early 1990s need to own their economic policies on social inequality in New and it is not worth taking on any extra work to get delusion that smart card technology would solve Zealand. ahead. the perverse cumulative effect of tight targeting My life as a researcher into family incomes The “welfare only for the poor”policy reached policies. began in the 1980s when the Rogernomics fever point in the 1991 budget that promised that It was obvious the 1991 budget was the recipe revolution was just stirring. the nasty side-effects of high EMTRs would be for a divided nation. It gives me no pleasure The justification of this radical new direction cured. now, 26 years on, to see how the problems have was that lower wages would make us more Social welfare benefits were cut, and families intensified under today’s relentless focus on competitive, lower taxes and benefits would were going to have all their social provision “target efficiency”. encourage work effort, and ordinary people would managed by the use of smart cards. The family’s Many families, including even those in full time be better off through the trickle-down effect. income was to be aggregated (somehow) on the work, are in dire circumstances as indicators The underlying “tough love” ideology was that card and social provision like student allowances, such as trends in third world diseases, dental people should stand on their own two feet and family payments and healthcare reduced at a extractions for children under three, suicides, use not expect the state to cushion them. The means constant rate per dollar when they earned extra of foodbanks and homelessness attest. to achieve this transformation were the loosening income. In Auckland one of the key barometers of of union power, employment contracts, low flat As a young researcher I was deeply troubled social distress is the demand for food parcels at tax, small government, user pays, and social by this grand design and not surprised when the the Auckland City Mission. Since the early 1990s assistance of all kinds to be paid “only to the technocratic “solution” of the smart card proved the growth has been steadily upwards doubling poor”. unworkable and was abandoned. But what was over the past seven years. To live happily in New The imagery of “middle class capture” drove an shocking, was that the reforms of low tax, low Zealand people must have enough money and ever tighter targeting of social provision, so that benefits and tight targeting was never revisited. enough time. The older population do manage those who could pay, would pay. The welfare state Instead we were left with vicious EMTRs that trap better than young families. was no longer about social security. Nor was it people in poverty. The supportive programmes for the old such as social insurance to protect middle income people Many “working” families are now repaying large wage-linked universal NZ Super and the Gold Card from the many vicissitudes of life that private student debts at 12 percent of earnings above are successful and laudable. Today’s policies for insurance could never meet. a low unindexed threshold of just $19,084. That families are absolutely not. But there was a fly in the ointment. If social already makes their tax rate 30%. Budget 2017 will either make things worse - as assistance is to be confined to the poor, how is For income above $36,350, they lose Working has been the pattern for the last eight years - or it to be reduced as people earn extra income to for Families at 22.5%, making their tax rate 52.5%, signal that tightly targeted social provision will be prevent it going to the rich? or 64.5% if they earn over $48,000. moderated, for example by tinkering with frozen The implication of tight targeting worried They may also lose their accommodation thresholds. Treasury greatly because overlapping clawbacks supplement at a rate of 25%, and there may be The monumental task ahead, for the next can leave almost nothing in the hand. other losses such as child care subsidies and child government, is to unpick the underlying ideology The sum of tax and other losses as a fraction of support to pay, leaving very little for all the extra and reverse its detrimental effects. the extra dollar earned is the Effective Marginal effort. Over time, poor families use up their assets Tax Rate (EMTR). The EMTR for those who live and go into debt to feed and clothe their children. n Susan St John is an Associate Professor and Director at the margins of benefit thresholds can be over At the other end of the scale wealth compounds. of the Retirement Policy and Research Centre at the University of Auckland Business School. 80%. For low income “working” families the EMTR We see the end result in wide wealth disparities,