ISSUE 9 20 May 2011 OTAGO BULLETIN FORTNIGHTLY NEWSLETTER FOR UNIVERSITY STAFF AND POSTGRADUATE STUDENTS Researchers showcase their work Photo: Sharron Bennett Photo: Participants and audience members at a public event to showcase Otago’s cutting-edge research last month. The symposium, For the Public Good, attracted a record 30 early to mid-career staff from across the four academic Divisions to the Barnett Lecture Theatre.The group volunteered to boil down their work into mere four-minute presentations, creating a series of snapshots of the exciting research under way at Otago. A member of the public audience commented afterwards that “it was better than going to the movies,” says organiser Dr Jacob Edmond, who was delighted with the turnout of researchers – double last year’s – and the extremely high standard of all the presentations. Continued on page 2... Next Research Deputy Vice-Chancellor named Otago’s next Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Research and Enterprise) in 1993. From 2002 he was the Deputy Director of the Professor Richard Blaikie is excited about returning to the MacDiarmid Institute, succeeding Sir Paul Callaghan as university at which his scientific career began. Director in 2008. Professor Blaikie, who is currently a Professor at the University In addition to his Deputy Vice-Chancellor role at Otago, of Canterbury and Director of the MacDiarmid Institute for Professor Blaikie will hold a personal Chair in Physics. Advanced Materials and Nanotechnology, will take up the He says he is looking forward to taking up his new position. position in December. He replaces Professor Harlene Hayne, whose appointment as Otago’s next Vice-Chancellor was “Otago is noted for the strength of its research and my goal is to announced earlier this year. maintain and enhance the University’s outstanding performance in this area.” After graduating with a first class honours degree in Physics from Otago in 1988, Professor Blaikie was a Rutherford For the intervening six months before Professor Blaikie begins, Memorial Scholar at the University of Cambridge, where Professor Helen Nicholson will be the Acting Deputy Vice- he received his PhD in Physics in 1992. He returned to New Chancellor. Professor Nicholson is currently the Dean of the Zealand to take up a position at the University of Canterbury Otago School of Medical Sciences. ABOUT THE Researchers showcase their work ... Continued from Page 1 Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Research and Enterprise) Professor BULLETIN Harlene Hayne said at the beginning of the event she was “extremely proud” of the researchers who had “bravely put their In this issue hands up to present”. “It is important that they present the results of their work to the public. It reflects one of the key strengths of the University 2 News of Otago – our ongoing commitment to our local and national 13 General Notices for all Staff communities,” she said. 14 Dunedin “We are all public servants to a certain extent, and we cannot be 21 Wellington complacent about the need to explain to the public that they’ve 21 Postgraduate Notices actually made a really good investment in both the people and the research at the University of Otago.” Seven of the 30 researchers were selected to go to Wellington Sharron Bennett Photo: Next Issue: to present their work to Parliament next month: Jonathan Dr Caroline Larsen presents her research in four minutes during a Friday 3 June. The deadline for Broadbent of Dentistry, Elspeth Gold of Anatomy and public event to showcase Otago’s notices and advertisements is Structural Biology, Dione Healey of Psychology, Anne-Louise cutting-edge research. midday, Friday 27 May. The Heath of Human Nutrition, Pete Jones of Physiology, Caroline Bulletin is published fortnightly. Orchiston of Tourism and Robert Thompson of Mathematics and Statistics. Advertising: This is the second year that a group from Otago has visited Parliament to showcase their research. Go to www.otago.ac.nz/news/ Dr Edmond says the event at Parliament last year was so well received the University had been bulletin/ fill in the details in the asked to visit again. template and submit. But he says the symposium in Dunedin was also one he hoped would become popular in its own Advertising in classifieds is free to right and become an annual event. staff and postgraduate students only. To Electronically Subscribe: Otago launches MEntr in Queenstown Go to: http://lists.otago.ac.nz/list- info/otago-bulletin, enter email ad- Otago is launching a new stream of its people wishing to set up innovative new dress and then click on subscribe. popular Master of Entrepreneurship degree in ventures in the tourism and hospitality Queenstown in July. sectors. Website: The Master of Entrepreneurship programme Classes will be held in the modern and well- The Bulletin can be viewed at www.otago.ac.nz/news/bulletin/ is designed to provide emergent entrepreneurs appointed Queenstown Resort College. with the skills they need to succeed and thrive The degree is three semesters long, with the Copyright: in business, and is ideally suited for people first two spent doing seven six-week papers. We welcome reprinting if wanting to turn a new business idea into Each paper begins with an intensive three permission is sought. Contact commercial reality or for those exploring new the Editor. day on-campus course, followed by a number venture opportunities. of assignments which students complete Printed By: Queenstown is New Zealand’s “adventure off-campus. The final semester consists of a Taieri Print. capital” and is therefore ideally suited to business incubation report. iTunes U – pick of the month The Bulletin is produced by: Marketing and Communications, Business Lectures: Associate Professor Jeremy Kees – University of Otago, Scott/Shand House, The Elusive Goal of Good Health: Common Barriers and 90 St David Street, Dunedin Innovative Solutions In March Associate Professor Jeremy Kees (Villanova School of Business) visited the University of Otago as the recipient of the Australian and New Zealand Marketing Academy (ANZMAC) International Visiting Scholar Award. In this podcast Associate Professor Kees looks at the relationship between marketing and public health, and in particular how the social sciences can be used to help understand and then positively influence people’s decision making process with regards to obesity. He explains how for many of us the short-term pain of exercising is seen as a negative, while it is hard to place a ‘worth’ on long-term benefits of that exercise when those Contact details benefits may be two, six, or 12 months away. In contrast, ITS Teaching and Learning Editor: Lisa Dick and Jo Register certain fatty foods may have long-term negative effects but Facilities Manager Emerson Pratt Ph: 03 479 4378 these normally only eventuate over time while the food www.otago.ac.nz/itunesu Email: [email protected] tastes good in the here and now. This is something I have Address: PO Box 56, Dunedin experienced, making his discussion particularly interesting. 2 WHAT’S NEW Globe The very entertaining Director of Education at visitor Shakespeare’s Globe Theatre in London, Patrick Spottiswoode, will visit Otago next week. Mr Spottiswoode oversees a department of 25 full-time staff and 65 freelance practitioners that provide lectures, workshops, courses and productions for over 100,000 people at the Globe every year and many more through outreach and distance learning. He will present a public lecture Shakespeare and the Globe Theatre on Thursday 26 May at 5.30pm in the Burns 1 Lecture Theatre. The University is a major sponsor of the annual University of Otago Sheilah Winn Shakespeare Festival for secondary schools, and Mr Spottiswoode’s visit is in association A new analysis rates Otago as one of the world’s best research institutions for oceanography. with Shakespeare Globe Theatre New Zealand. Top oceanography ranking Recycling A survey examining how Otago’s various A new analysis of scientific articles published in international results departments, divisions, residential colleges journals since 2000 has judged the University of Otago as being and food and drink outlets are recycling has amongst the best research institutions in the world for oceanography. revealed broad support for sustainability at the University. After analysing the top one percent of oceanography-related The survey by Property Services staff papers published in journals since that year, the UK Times Higher showed that most departments are using the Education magazine ranked Otago as the institution with the existing central campus recycling programme highest average citations per paper in the world. The second placed to some extent, although there is certainly institution was the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). room for improvement. In the analysis, oceanography was defined as encompassing many In addition, Campus Resource Planner Katrina specific disciplines and their journals, including marine biology, Roos says it has also revealed some of the limnology (study of inland waters), fisheries science, ecology and innovative things people are doing. geophysics. Papers published in multidisciplinary journals such as “We have people running worm farms, Science and Nature relating to the discipline were also included. donating old computer equipment to schools, Pro-Vice-Chancellor (Sciences) Professor Keith Hunter says even collecting food scraps for stock feed.” that while caution is required against reading too much into The results will be used