Pdfdownload Victorious
Total Page:16
File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb
MAGAZINE FOR FRIENDS AND ALUMNI OF VICTORIA UNIVERSITY OF WELLINGTON Autumn 2002 Ocean Mercier Sea of Opportunities 100 years of hi-jinks VUWSA launches history Merging migrants Integration the aim of the game Victoria International Touches down with export award Computers at home Supporting community development Immunity research trail These snails, Biomphlaria glabrata, play a lead role in A medical curiosity involving some of the immunity to illness whereas Anne specialises Anne La Flamme’s study of a tropical human pathogen world’s poorest people could potentially in the innate immunity that some enjoy. that may hold the key to understanding immunity to benefit many in developed countries who Anne says the preliminary study is inflammatory diseases. suffer from diseases such as multiple assessing whether there is any sort of sclerosis (MS). protection that people in tropical regions Biological Sciences lecturer, Dr Anne La have from chronic inflammatory diseases. Flamme, has won US funding for her Funding for the research has come from the research project into the apparent absence of National Multiple Sclerosis Society in the chronic inflammatory diseases such as MS in United States. the tropics. If the research suggests that a chronic Anne, who arrived in New Zealand last parasitic infection such as schistosomiasis year from New York’s Cornell University, is can protect against the development of a a specialist in tropical parasitic infections. chronic inflammatory disease, then this may One such disease, schistomsomiasis, a worm point the way to benefits for MS and other which infests the blood, afflicts 200 million disease sufferers. “The idea is, can we people. But Anne says people living in the somehow mimic that response,” Anne says. tropics appear to have a significantly The joint Victoria/Malaghan Institute reduced risk of developing chronic research project runs until October. By that inflammatory diseases, such as asthma, time, a decision will have been made on diabetes and multiple sclerosis. further research. She has embarked on a research project with Dr Thomas Bachstrom of the Malaghan Contact: Tel +64-4-463 6093 Institute of Medical Research in Wellington. E-mail [email protected] His interest is in how people can acquire Contents From the Vice-Chancellor 1 From the Vice-Chancellor 10 Gift for the future Victoria University is going from strength Meeting of beautiful minds to strength. We have been highly 2 Graduation party time Muldoon still casts a shadow successful at competing for recognition in Mana mentor the Centres of Research Excellence Music for the gods 11 IIML superstars process, many of our staff have received IT big chief Police youth diversion awards and professional accolades, we TV policy goes to air have exceeded most of our Strategic Plan 3 CoRE blimey! targets for 2001, and our domestic and 12 New programmes international student numbers have 4 Honoured alumni One for the road increased. Most universities have static or A Doctor in the house declining domestic enrolments. Our 13 Changes in the moral market Strategic Plan, which is designed to take 5 A sea of opportunities A conflicting issue us forward for the next ten years, has set Mature Mäori embracing education an objective of two percent growth per 6 On the ball annum in domestic students. This year Merging migrants ahead 14 From cow to customer we expect to achieve that, and more. Sir Ivor comes home We also have an objective for 20 7 PCs @ home Morena Vietnam percent of revenue to come from international activities and we are on 8 Politics and policy 15 Victoria University Press Books track to achieving that too. At the same Beijing-Taipei relations time, Victoria University has been FRST chariot off the rank 16 Life after Vic honoured, through a TradeNZ Export Award, for the quality care provided to 9 Digitising book trade history 17 Adam Art Gallery update international students. It is unfortunate 100 years of hi-jinks that recent publicity about poor international student services in parts of the secondary school sector and in some private training institutions has tarnished the reputations of universities who strive to provide excellent services. In May 1,500 students graduated. We were also able to award honorary doctorates to three significant New Zealanders. The smiles on the faces of staff, students, families and friends as we marched through the streets of Wellington, Victorious is published three times a year by Victoria University of Wellington, Te Whare confirms that our students are proud to be Wänanga o te Üpoko o te Ika a Mäui, PO Box 600, Wellington, New Zealand. associated with Victoria University. We www.vuw.ac.nz To notify a change of address: Tel +64-4-463 5128, Fax +64-4-463 5108. now welcome them as members of the E-mail [email protected] Editorial team: Juliet Montague, Jude Urlich, Melanie Alumni Association, and look forward to MacDiarmid, Brendon Burns. Photographs (unless otherwise credited): Image Services, keeping in touch over the coming years. Victoria University of Wellington. Cover photo: Ocean Mercier, physics PhD graduate, at Industrial Research Ltd, Wellington. ISSN 1172-0387 © Victoria University, 2002 Stuart N McCutcheon Victorious Autumn 2002 1 Graduation party time This year saw the successful celebration of the night. A cake and ten introduction of a musical celebration of candles marked the anniversary of the graduation. Presented jointly by the Alumni Association and provided hungry Schools of Music and Law, the Bell Gully revellers with the sustenance to keep on Graduation Gala at the Michael Fowler partying! Centre was a musical extravaganza bursting with celebratory works selected in the spirit of the occasion. Lyell Cresswell, alumnus and honorary doctorate recipient, Photography by Woolf by Photography was paid tribute with a performance of his piece for the horn and strings, Pianto-In May’s graduating students swapped Memoria di Roger Cresswell. memories of late nights in the library and A few nights later in the Old Town Hall the lab for a spin on the dance floor and a the corks were popping and the music night of musical magnificence. The cranked up a notch for the hundreds of student clobber of t-shirts and trainers graduates and their friends at the was replaced with bow ties and ball Graduation Ball. Organised by VUWSA and gowns as friends and family joined in to sponsored by WestpacTrust and the Alumni Post The Evenning celebrate the good times. Association, graduation was not the only Conductor Professor Peter Walls and music graduates. Mana mentor Stormy Mohi always knew that he would tutoring scheme established by Heeni go to University—it was just his teachers Shortland, Victoria Community Co- who had their doubts! ordinator. Their aim is to increase Stormy’s grades weren’t good enough to participation and achievement amongst get straight into a degree programme but Mäori and Pacific college pupils and show after completing Tohu Mäoritanga—a them the value of a university qualification. bridging course at Victoria—and gaining a For five hours each week, Stormy joins diploma in Mäori Studies he was ready to Heeni to tutor groups of students at Mana forge ahead with a Bachelor’s qualification. and Porirua Colleges. “It’s just as important Now with a BA in Mäori Studies and for me to help them with their school work Linguistics and working at Te Taura Whiri i as it is to tell them that university study is a te Reo Mäori, the Mäori Language good and accessible option,” Stormy says. Commission, Stormy wants to help other college pupils succeed. He’s joined a group Contact: Tel +64-4-463 6673 Stormy Mohi (right) at Mana College. of volunteer graduates participating in a E-mail [email protected] Music for the gods IT big chief A sabbatical in Greece, original home and next host of the Professor Sid Huff, Head of the School of Information Olympics, inspired a new work by John Psathas which is to be Management, has been appointed as Australasia/Far East performed during July’s Commonwealth Games in Manchester. representative on the Council of the Association of Information John, Senior Lecturer in music, wrote View from Olympus: Double Systems (AIS). Sid, who has taught and researched Information Concerto for Piano, Percussion and Orchestra while on sabbatical in Systems (IS) for more than 20 years, was elected by his peers in a 2000. It will premiere at the Royal Gala finale concert of the worldwide web-based election. AIS serves as the premier global Commonwealth Games music festival. The piece will be performed organisation for academics specialising in IS and seeks to advance by internationally acclaimed percussionist Evelyn Glennie, pianist knowledge of information technology to improve organisational Philip Smith, and the Hallé Orchestra. performance and individual quality of work life. 2 Victorious Autumn 2002 CoRE blimey! Achieving critical mass through collaborative partnerships and passing on the talent are key themes shared by the University’s involvement in four successful Centres of Research Excellence (CoRE) projects. In a hotly-contested application process for $60 million of new Government funding, five applications of the 45 submitted were from Victoria University. Four of the University’s five made it to the initial shortlist of 16. In the final decision, only five projects were chosen and Victoria is represented in four of them. The CoRE funding process is described by Professor Paul Callaghan FRS, Director of the Alan MacDiarmid Institute for Advanced Materials and Nanotechnology, and President of the Academy of the Royal Society of NZ, as “…a reality check for the Professor Alan MacDiarmid & Steve Maharey Associate Minister of Education (Tertiary Education) unveil a University system that has put corporate commemorative photo at the new MacDiarmid Institute.