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UNIVERSITY OF MAGAZINEOtago ISSUE 11: JUNE 2005 NATURAL THE SCIENCE ANDhigh ART OF NATURAL HISTORY FILMMAKING DENTAL DETECTIVE: THE FASCINATING WORLD OF DENTAL FORENSICS OUR MAN IN AICHI CONFRONTING CANCER FACE-TO-FACE UNIVERSITY of OTAGO SAPERE AUDE Te Whare Wänanga o Otägo 22 UNIVERSITY OF OTAGO magazine CONTENTS 5 27 Vice-Chancellor’s comment ’Til death us do part . Nicola Peart discusses the death provisions 6 of the Property (Relationships) Act Natural high Otago’s Postgraduate Diploma in 28 Natural History Filmmaking leads the way Advancement The Carney Centre for Pharmacogenomics 12 Dental detective 30 Dental forensics takes Jules Kieser InBrief from clinics to catastrophes Academic highlights 16 36 Our man in Aichi Hocken legacy Phillip Gibson, Commissioner-General of the NZ Pavilion at the 2005 World Expo 37 19 UniNews Who cares? 39 Annette Milligan: History graduate, holistic UniClippings health-care advocate and businesswoman 40 22 Books Investing in the future The University’s 2004 Annual Appeal 43 Alumni news 24 Confronting cancer face-to-face 46 The Hugh Adam Epidemiology Unit Whatever happened to… turns interview data into information the Capping Magazine 3 TOTALLY WIRED THE INTELLIGENT CHOICE FOR THE QUALITY CONSCIOUS UNIVERSITY OF OTAGO magazine Get the BIG PICTURE A MAGAZINE FOR ALUMNI AND FRIENDS OF THE UNIVERSITY OF OTAGO The World’s Best Cinema in Your Own Home University of Otago Magazine Issue 11 June 2005 ISSN - 1175-8147 SCREENPLAY DLP PROJECTORS Editor Karen Hogg If you want the latest technology Designer Peter Scott for vivid colour and exceptional Contributing writers Simon Ancell brightness now Laura Black is the time to Simon Cunliffe learn about Claire Finlayson ScreenPlay. Sean Flaherty A range of models Karen Hogg from just $2995. Graham McKerracher Nicola Mutch Catherine Pattison ROTEL CINEMA Nicola Peart SOUND SYSTEMS Vivien Pullar The clearest picture Claire Ramsay deserves sound to Ainslie Talbot match. Rotel are a Karin Warnaar 40 year old, family Nigel Zega owned organisation dedicated to the Photography Cynthia Casey design and Ross Coombes manufacture of the Alan Dove finest in affordable, Michael McArthur high performance Graham McKerracher systems. Bill Nichol Advertising Ruth Mackenzie-White Printing Southern Colour Print Circulation Alumni and Development Office LOEWE LCD SCREENS To update or change delivery address Thin TV displays Tel 0800 80 80 98 from Germany Email [email protected] deliver elegant Web www.otago.ac.nz/alumni/changedetails high definition images for today’s Editorial contact details selective viewer. University of Otago Magazine Marketing and Communications PO Box 56 Dunedin VISIT Totally Wired in Dunedin’s historic Stuart Street Terrace Houses. New Zealand EXPLORE our web site. CALL or e-mail us for information. Tel 64 3 479 8679 Fax 64 3 479 5417 Email [email protected] John Ransley BSc (Hons) Otago and Sharon Guytonbeck BA Otago. Web www.otago.ac.nz/otagomagazine www.totallywired.co.nz Cover image: Alan Dove Totally Wired Ltd. The Terrace Houses Submissions 217 Stuart Street, DUNEDIN Contributed articles and letters should be addressed to: The Editor, University of Otago Magazine, at the above address or email [email protected] e-mail address to [email protected] Copyright Phone (+64) 3 479 0444 You are welcome to reproduce material from the magazine after gaining permission from the editor. NZ Toll Free 0800 909 101 The University of Otago Magazine is published by the Marketing and Communications Division of the University. The opinions expressed are not necessarily those of the University. Totally Wired support the World Wide Fund for Nature. 4 VC’s COMMENT Last year the University of Otago enrolled 2,604 international students. They came from 82 countries, with the largest numbers being from the USA, China, Malaysia and Germany (in that order). Many of these students came for either a semester or a year of study, as part of their degree programme at a university in their own country. Others came to study for their whole undergraduate or postgraduate degree at Otago. The majority of these students paid international fees, but many came under one of the student exchange agreements which we now hold with 84 overseas universities. We also encourage our own students to grasp the opportunity provided by such agreements and, indeed, we send more students abroad than any other New Zealand university. Our international roll does not include students from Australia, who are regarded as equivalent to domestic students. I was interested to learn that quite a number of the excellent students who come to us from Australia are in fact sons and daughters of Otago alumni. That brings me to the point of this message. Recently I had the pleasure of attending Otago alumni functions in Los Angeles and Dublin. Several alumni said to me that they would dearly like their children to experience the unique academic and student life of Otago. Of course, it will not always be possible for such students to come to Otago for the whole of their university education, but you might want to encourage your daughter or son to spend a semester or a year at Otago, while earning credit towards a degree at their home university. If your son or daughter is eligible for one of the exchange schemes, they would just continue to pay fees to their home university. Otherwise they would pay fees to Otago, but those who hold New Zealand citizenship qualify for the lower domestic fees. Whatever the fee structure, you can be assured of value for money! If you would like to explore opportunities of this kind, our International Office would be pleased to give advice. It is always a pleasure to welcome the sons and daughters of Otago alumni to this University. Professor David Skegg Vice-Chancellor – University of Otago 5 NATURAL high Otago’s Postgraduate Diploma in Natural History Filmmaking was the first of its kind in the world. At the forefront of the inaugural WildSouth International Wildlife Film Festival, it combines science and art, promoting a genre that is increasingly fast-paced. IT TAKES A RARE COMBINATION OF TALENTS TO MAKE Otago’s course is the result of an unusual partnership good natural history and science documentaries. between town and gown, being taught in association with Telling stories about wildlife requires an understanding of Dunedin’s world-renowned television documentary producer, both animal behaviour and the techniques of good filmmaking Natural History New Zealand (nhnz). – skills usually acquired only after years of on-the-job Course director and Department of Zoology Associate experience. Professor Lloyd Davis had made a number of wildlife Now the University of Otago is offering would-be documentaries with nhnz over the years. When a colleague raised filmmakers a head start. the idea for a filmmaking course, Davis worked with Richard As its Postgraduate Diploma in Natural History Thomas, an executive producer at nhnz, to develop a format. Filmmaking and Communication (PGDipNHFC) enters The idea was to turn scientists into filmmakers, says Davis. its fifth year, a new master’s programme is starting and the “nhnz said that the best natural history filmmakers were often University is seeking to establish a Chair in Natural History the people who understood the biology and the behaviour of and Science Filmmaking. This will cement Otago’s position as the animals, but initially they don’t have the film skills. And the premier place in the world for the study, development and people with film skills don’t necessarily understand animal critical analysis of wildlife and science documentaries. behaviour. We planned to take graduates from subjects such The University’s diploma was a world first and, even now, as biology and zoology and add value by giving them editing there is only one other similar academic path to the world of and camera and storytelling skills so they could make natural wildlife documentaries. history, science and wildlife documentaries.” Photo: Alan Dove Photo: 6 Scientist, writer and filmmaker Associate Professor Lloyd Davis with students Michael Booth and Chris Kugelman: “. what sets us apart is our connection with nhnz and our storytelling. Storytelling remains the core aspect of the course.” 7 “As soon as we started, the whole field of natural history filmmaking changed, especially after 9/11 when things got really tight for broadcasters. Blue chip gave way to more fast-paced, reality-based, people-based programmes. We had to look at the whole rationale of what we were trying to teach our students. You can’t teach them the abacus when they need computer skills, so we went with the change.” When the course was approved, Davis successfully applied University year, but the best animal behaviour tended to be for the directorship. Even he was surprised by the response to in spring and summer, so we changed the course again in the the launch. third year to run from July to June. It opened up a wider range “We were inundated with applications. We’d tapped into of filmmaking possibilities.” something we had never realised was there. We had anticipated Internationally, television audiences were changing lots of undergraduates looking at an attractive option, but we too, and the course had to respond to that. Traditional blue found a whole lot of people in New Zealand and worldwide chip natural history films, with high production values and who really wanted to make natural history films. featuring nothing but animals, were considered too slow for “Many were muddling along trying to get an ‘in’ to the developing market. wildlife filmmaking in their own way. This course was “Almost as soon as we started, the whole field of natural perfectly tailored to their dreams and aspirations.