Sciences Lectures

Janice Lord won this year's Leonard Cockayne prize from the New Zealand Royal Society. This is her commemorative lecture, outlining cutting edge work on the pollination of sub-antarctic plants. There's a number of large, brightly coloured flowering plants in the sub-antactic, which is a sharp contrast with NZ alpine plants with thei predominantly white flowers. Janice explores the reasons for both of these phenomena. The talk was given on the 3rd of September 2015.

Professor Christina Hulbe gave her Inaugural Professorial Lecture on the 1st of September 2015. She talked about her work on mapping deformations in West Antarctica, and how GPS technology has changed her work. Satellite imagery of meltwater ponds has led to a clearer understanding of the creation of deep crevasses and shattering of icesheets.

Professor David Bryant delivered his Inaugural Professorial lecture on July 21st 2015. He gave an overview of his work, modelling genetic information to assist with tracing points of origin for plants or animal species.

Professor Liz Slooten delivered her Inaugural Professorial Lecture to a packed theatre on Tuesday 24th of August. The lecture gave an overview of Professor Slooten's work documenting populations of Hector's and Maui dolphones aorund New Zealand's coast as well as tracking and documenting bahaviour of sperm whales and right whalee. Professor Slooten's work highlights the dangers of gill-net fishing and the impact it has on endangered species of marine mammals.

1997 Nobel Laureate Professor Stephen Chu talks about his role as Secretary for energy in the Obama administration, whether peak oil is the real problem, and what will make a difference in the uptake of sustainable energy technologies. This lecture was delivered on December 17th 2014

Professor Phil Seddon discusses the pros and cons of re-introducing species that have become extinct; the possibilities of reviving populations by translocation; the need to re-aquaint ourselves with the wildlife on our doorstep, in an increasingly urbanised world.

Professor Steve Wing's research explores the interconnectedness of ocean ecosystems - the physical and chemical processes and how they impact on the food webs, how spatial factors impact on population resilience and so on. This work has been applied with considerable success in the Fiordland area where marine reserves have led to stronger populations across the ecosystem.

Professor Phil Bishop talks about his lifelong fascination with amphibians in general and frogs in particular. He discusses the importance of frogs as an indicator species for the wellbeing of our environment, and delivers lessons in acoustic identification - as each species of frog has a unique sound. The inaugural professorial lecture was delivered on May the 5th 2015.

Professor Lyall Hanton is both HOD Chemistry and the Mellor Professor at University of Otago. In this talk he outlines the amazing life of Joseph Mellor - a man who overcame his circumstances to become one of Otago's brightest stars.

Professor Rod Jackson talks about the current debate over saturated fats,and the evidence some writers choose to ignore.He highlights the direct relationship between the drop in saturated fats in our diet and the drop of cardiovascular heart disease.This talk was delivered on the 19th of March.