THE UNIVERSITY OF AUCKLAND ALUMNI MAGAZINE Ingenioauckland.ac.nz/ingenio WINTER 2020 GRASPING CHALLENGES A LAND OF OPPORTUNITY IN A COVID-19 WORLD Fade to black Raising entrepreneurs Boost your brain Diana Wichtel invokes How our future-focused Professor Cathy Stinear’s the spirit of resistance graduates are thriving seven tips to stay sharp BIG PICTURE SPECIAL MOMENT Photographer Richard Ng captured Anahera Rawiri at the dawn blessing ceremony for the opening of the new Te Herenga Mātai Pūkaha/Engineering Building. The pou whenua was carved by master craftsman Delani Brown and sits at the Grafton Road entrance. Anahera’s mother, Rangimarie Rawiri, runs Waipapa Marae. this issue REGULARS 14 23 6 With healthcare, let’s Raising Editorial focus on science entrepreneurs Opinion: Kris Vette says the problem with this An alumni survey and real-life examples 13 pandemic is we haven’t learnt many lessons reveal the value of graduates having an Guest columnist: from the past entrepreneurial mindset Diana Wichtel 18 16 36 News 20 Q & A with alumnus Kupe scholars Research Dr Ashley Bloomfield update The Director-General of Health answers After winning Kupe Leadership Scholarships in questions about his career 2019 for postgraduate study this year, how are 26 Taking Issue: our scholars faring in light of Covid-19? Covid-19 lockdowns and personal freedom 32 17 40 Around the Globe Long-term thinking Arts & Culture Opinion: Sir Peter Gluckman says a Featuring poet Michele Leggott, pianist Jason 34 7 tips to … keep your short-term focus for policymaking interferes Bae, historian Neill Atkinson and up-and- mind sharp with finding solutions to tackle issues with coming poet Sophie van Waardenberg. Plus long-term horizons alumni books 35 Golden Graduates 38 Connection Points SUSTAINABLE The ‘plastic’ used to wrap Ingenio is 100 percent degradable and recyclable. Ingenio is also printed on environmentally friendly paper stocks. 4 | Ingenio magazine 28 37 Susan Morton: research for life Ane Tonga: Pacific art in focus 7 Cover story: Grasping challenges A land of opportunity in a Covid-19 world auckland.ac.nz/ingenio | 5 Ingenio Editorial The University of Auckland Alumni and Friends magazine Winter 2020 ISSN 1176-211X Editor Denise Montgomery Executive editor A SENSE OF Helen Borne Art design Stephen Wang OPTIMISM Feature photos Elise Manahan, Billy Wong, Dean Carruthers, Richard Ng ia ora koutou. It’s my pleasure to economic growth that puts unsustainable Ingenio editorial contacts welcome you to the Winter 2020 pressure on the environment. Communications issue of Ingenio, dedicated to keeping Against this backdrop, the focus of the SDGs and Marketing, our valued alumni engaged and on sustainability in its broadest sense has become The University of Auckland Kinformed about your university and each other. even more important and relevant. The Impact Private Bag 92019, It is no exaggeration to say much has Rankings demonstrate how universities, such Auckland 1142, New Zealand. happened in the past four months. While the as Auckland, can play a key role in thought Level 3, Alfred Nathan House times have been turbulent and dynamic, I am leadership, germane research and sustainable 24 Princes Street, Auckland. learning just how much there is to admire about operations. As a civic institution, it is in our Telephone: +64 9 923 6061 the University and its people: staff, students, remit to provide direction and leadership Email: alumni and supporters. The 2021 QS World and to contribute to the solutions needed to [email protected] Web: auckland.ac.nz/ingenio University Rankings accentuated this with weather the Covid-19 environment. What the University’s rise two places to 81st in the we do now matters. I am proud of all those How alumni keep in touch To continue to receive Ingenio world, solidifying our position as New Zealand’s contributing innovative solutions and services and subscribe to @auckland, highest-ranked university. and inspirational ways to continue to deliver the University’s email newsletter Recognition of those strengths and attributes our core business – answering the challenge for alumni and friends, enter comes also from other agencies. In 2019, Times of taking teaching and learning online for our your details at: alumni. Higher Education (THE) ranked the University 40,000-plus students. auckland.ac.nz/update of Auckland No. 1 in its first University Impact Without diminishing the difficulties we all face, Alumni Relations Office The University of Auckland Rankings of 850 universities from 89 countries. and recognising the emotional and financial 19A Princes Street, In April, THE released its Impact Rankings for distress many are experiencing, I believe we Private Bag 92019 2020 and the University of Auckland retained can also have a sense of optimism. The future Auckland 1142, New Zealand its top spot. The rankings are matched against is not inherently dark. We have already seen Telephone: +64 9 923 4653 the United Nations Sustainable Development innovation across a range of sectors. We see our Email: [email protected] Goals (SDGs). The University’s performance own teams in health and medical sciences and in Web: alumni.auckland.ac.nz is a fantastic achievement and a reflection of mathematical modelling respond, and the work Disclaimer world-class work done by staff and students. around ethical decision-making and morality Articles may reflect personal The Impact Rankings’ focus on sustainability come to the fore – an integration of disciplines opinion that is not that of the has become even more relevant as we consider we might not have imagined in the past when we University of Auckland. what a post-Covid world might look like, and talked of artificial intelligence and automation. Audited by abc.org.nz how the enforced ‘pause’ might be used as an And our alumni, now 200,000 strong, have Copyright opportunity to reshape economies in more proved equally innovative, bringing skills and No parts of this publication sustainable ways. expertise to contribute to the civic good, building may be reproduced without prior consent of the University There is a growing call for countries to use support networks of peers and providing of Auckland. All rights this crisis to radically rethink economic and practical, emotional and financial support to the reserved. © The University social models. This includes concerns about University’s staff and students. of Auckland 2020 increasing reliance on fragile global supply As we work through the unpredictability of chains, dependence on single countries for the coming months, I believe there are fantastic essential manufacturing, precarious health opportunities for us all. The future is here, and systems, and placing too much emphasis on we are living it. PROFESSOR DAWN FRESHWATER Vice-Chancellor Cover design: Jacinda Torrance Illustration: Nina Fox/Shutterstock Cover Story “Businesses must be convinced that their future prospects are good.” – Professor Prasanna Gai, University of Auckland Business School Professor Prasanna Gai says Covid-19 revealed the world’s over-reliance on suppliers located in China. Photo: Elise Manahan GRASPING CHALLENGES A LAND OF OPPORTUNITY IN A COVID-19 WORLD By Gilbert Wong, Miranda Playfair, Margo White and Julianne Evans Covid-19 will continue to change and challenge our economy, culture and society for years to come. But New Zealand has some real advantages as we move beyond the initial disruption and fallout from the pandemic. enry Kissinger, the former US conundrum. As a small nation at the Secretary of State, shared his end of the world, with a limited internal pronouncement on the post- economy, this country makes its living Covid-19 world in The Wall from global trade and the free movement HStreet Journal. The influential diplomat of people. Yet to keep New Zealanders said: “The pandemic has prompted an safe, it became a fortress with the Pacific anachronism, a revival of the walled city and Tasman as its grand moats. in an age when prosperity depends on Ingenio looks at three of many areas global trade and movement of people.” hit hard during lockdown and beyond: New Zealand faces precisely this the economy, the arts and the media. auckland.ac.nz/ingenio | 7 chains, the circulatory system of global trade. THE ECONOMY Although many supply chains have shuddered, just as many have rebounded. Our apples, rasanna Gai, professor of milk and meat continue to find ready buyers in macroeconomics at the University, has overseas markets. High-quality food will remain advised international banks on how to a strong part of New Zealand’s future. stress-test their banking systems, and Prasanna says Covid-19 revealed the world’s Previewed monetary policy for our Reserve Bank. over-reliance on suppliers located in China. But, until now, he has never seen an economic Around 300 of the world’s top 500 companies crisis strike with such ferocity and speed. have facilities at ground zero, Wuhan. The lesson, Global GDP for the first quarter of 2020 he says, is that ‘just-in-time’ supply chains do dropped 20 percent. The World Trade not work in a crisis. The New Zealand economy Organisation expects global trading to contract also needs to diversify its supplier base, as a by 33 percent, almost three times more than in hedge against likely Covid-19 repercussions in the Global Financial Crisis (GFC) of 2009. countries we trade with, and build more robust Prasanna does not dismiss comparisons to the supply chains. Great Depression of the 1930s. Professor Tava Olsen, director of the Centre “This crisis is unusual in that it began with for Supply Chain Management at the Business a problem in China and got magnified, quite School, says New Zealand needs to audit its deliberately, as a result of government lockdown stockpiles of essential items. The pandemic policies. The global economic downturn that has proved it was not enough to have agreements unfolded hasn’t emanated from private choices, for supply when essential items faced global but as a result of governments choosing to lock demand from countries with deeper pockets.