Speakers - Day 1
Ruth Barton, Honorary Research Fellow, School of Humanities, University of Auckland
Ruth Barton is a historian of science and technology whose major work has been on science and culture in Victorian England. She has also published on the history of New Zealand science, and on family life, domestic technology and housework in twentieth-century Australia. Her book on The X Club: Power and Authority in Victorian Science is in press (University of Chicago Press, 2018).
Kristal Cain, Lecturer, School of Biological Sciences, University of Auckland
Kristal Cain studies the evolutionary dynamics of animal behaviour. She focuses on testing entrenched assumptions about those dynamics, with a particular emphasis on sex-differences. She did her university study at Texas A&M University (Bachelor: Wildlife Ecology), Indiana University (PhD: Biology), and Australian National University (Postdoc: Ecology, Evolution and Behaviour).
Kim Dirks, University of Auckland
Kim is Associate Professor in the School of Population Health in the Faculty of Medical and Health Sciences at the University of Auckland. Her current research interests lie in environmental health, and specifically on the ways in which the design of urban areas and individual behaviour impact on human health. She has held a number of significant leadership roles within the university, including being Academic Director responsible for the delivery of the School’s teaching programmes, and is currently a member of the University Staffing Committee. Since 2009, Kim has been a member of the working party of the University of Auckland’s Women in Leadership, a programme aimed at least in part, at increasing the number of women in senior roles within the university.
Chris Duggan, House of Science
Chris spent 15 years teaching secondary Science before leaving her position as Science HOD at Tauranga Girls’ College in 2013 to set up the House of Science (HoS). This is a nationwide education system that nurtures curiosity, by resourcing and connecting local science communities. Currently there are seven HoS branches, each delivering science resource kits and professional development to their local schools. Chris brings a wealth of knowledge as well as a passion for hands-on science in primary classrooms. She is the senior vice president of the NZ Association of Science Educators.
Jean Fleming
Jean Fleming is Professor Emerita of Science Communication at the University of Otago and now lives on the Kapiti Coast, north of Wellington. She worked in the Centre for Science Communication in Dunedin from 2008 to 2014, leading the Popularising Science stream (now called Science in Society). Over that time she supervised two PhD students and 25 MSciComm students in various aspects of science communication.
Ashleigh Fox, Family Science Workshops
Ashleigh is the Director of Family Science Workshops. She has a MSc in Forensic Science, and 12 years of analytical laboratory experience. She currently manages the Biological Anthropology laboratory at the University of Auckland. Ashleigh is passionate about science communication, and attending the 2013 International FEAST training course in Amsterdam inspired her to start up her own science outreach programme, which has now been running for nearly 3 years.
Steven Fox, MOTAT
Steven Fox is currently General Manager, Museum Experience at the Museum of Transport and Technology (MOTAT) in Auckland. Steven is a member of the team leading the transformation of MOTAT moving from a collection of things to a ‘light bulb’ institution. Steven and his team work across many disciplines including learning, exhibitions, public programs and events, marketing and communications, digital engagement and partnerships and commercial development. Steven has worked in the museums sector for more than twenty years in both New Zealand and Australia in leadership roles at national and regional museums including the National Museum of Australia and Te Manawa Museum of Art, Science and History.
Louise Furey, Curator of Archaeology, Auckland Museum
Louise Furey is involved in several research projects including the Ahuahu Great Mercury Island Archaeological Project in partnership with the University of Auckland. Louise is a New Zealand trained archaeologist, specializing in Maori archaeology and Maori material culture.
Alexia Hilbertidou, GirlBoss
Alexia is 18-years-old, just finished high-school, yet her love of Women’s empowerment and STEM (Science, Technology Engineering, and Math) has led her to a level of influence well beyond her years. Bypassing the slow, traditional path to leadership she acted on her passions and established GirlBoss NZ, an organisation which encourages young women to embrace STEM, Entrepreneurship and higher leadership. In just 18 months GirlBoss has over 7000 members across the country. Alexia’s passion for future-focussed education is why she was named the most influential woman under the age of 25 at the 2016 Westpac Women of Influence Awards.
Andrea Kwakowsky, Research Fellow Medical and Health Sciences, University of Auckland
Developing new therapeutic strategies for Alzheimer`s disease.
Mark McSherry, Plant & Food Research
Mark McSherry is the Organisation Development Leader at Plant &Food Research. Mark works with individuals and teams with the aim of strengthening the organisation through the development of its people. Over the last nine years at Plant & Food Research Mark has promoted feedforward coaching as a tool to help people develop their leadership strengths.
Sarah Morgan, SouthSci
Dr Sarah Morgan is the Project Manager for the Science in Society, Participatory Science Platform (PSP): South Auckland pilot, hosted by COMET Auckland and the Auckland STEM Alliance. Many of our young people do not see a career or skills in science to be valuable in their life. The PSP is a new way of connecting communities with science, supporting groups to develop research projects around questions that matter to them. We want to show the value of science and science skills to our young people, and hopefully highlight some local career pathways within the science sector, while building relationships between local science businesses, researchers and communities.
Fiona Petchey, Senior Research Fellow, University of Waikato
Trained originally in Anthropology and Geology at Auckland University Dr Fiona Petchey now manages the Accelerator Mass Spectrometry Radiocarbon Laboratory at Waikato University. Her research addresses issues of chronology with a specific focus on problems associated with the dating of bone and shell; sample types closely associated with natural ecosystems and human economy.
Claire Postlethwaite, University of Auckland
Claire Postlethwaite is a Associate Professor in Applied Mathematics at the University of Auckland. She was awarded her PhD from the University of Cambridge in 2006, and moved to New Zealand after two years of post-docs in the USA. Her training is in the area of applied dynamical systems, but her interests range from theoretical studies of differential equations to applications of mathematics to understand animal behaviour and navigation. Since 2013, she has taken parental leave twice and now works part time, spending her days “off” chasing two pre-school children.
Heidi Schlumpf, Auckland Museum
Heidi has worked in museums managing predominantly natural science collections for 13 years. Currently she is managing a programme in the Natural Sciences department at Auckland War Memorial Museum, to digitise all of the data from the backlog collections, with a default to putting this data on open access online. The Natural Science collections, including the Herbarium, Entomology, Land Vertebrates and Marine departments hold countless historic collections, some going back to the original museum, established in 1852. It is extremely exciting to be bringing visibility and access to all of these collections, through open source data, and including also high resolution images.”
Lara Shepherd, Research Scientist, Te Papa
Lara Shepherd is a research scientist who runs Te Papa’s genetics laboratory. Her research interests include the origins and relationships of New Zealand’s plants and animals, pre-European domestication of New Zealand plants and using DNA to identify biological materials in cultural objects.
Cather Simpson, University of Auckland
Cather Simpson is founding director of the Photon Factory at the University of Auckland, a multi-user laser and microfabrication facility that provides advanced laser technology to all NZ researchers. She received her Ph.D. in the US, and after a DOE Distinguished Postdoctoral Fellowship, earned tenure at Case Western Reserve University. She is a Principal Investigator in the MacDiarmid Institute and the Dodd-Walls Centre, where she also serves on the Executive Committee. She is the founding Chief Science Officer of Engender Technologies and co-founding scientist of Orbis Diagnostics, both spin-offs from the Photon Factory.
Jill Stanley, Plant & Food Research
Dr Jill Stanley is the Science Group Leader for the Fruit Crops Physiology & Pollination Group at Plant & Food Research, and is based at the Clyde Research Centre in Central Otago. She started her career as a technician and has worked her way up to her present position over the past 36 years. She is married and has two grown up sons. She only decided to enrol in a PhD in 2010 and completed it part time in 2015. She has had experience in managing work life balance as a young researcher, then as a mother and lastly as a busy scientist/science leader, not always as successfully as she would like. She has learnt from her own mistakes and developed her own strategies to help.
Sarah Trotman, AUT
Sarah is a well-respected New Zealand business leader who has been recognised in the Queen’s Honours List for her services to Business and the Community. Sarah is currently Director of Business Relations and Executive Education at AUT University’s Business School. Sarah oversees the prestigious AUT Business School Excellence in Business Support Awards, their student leadership initiatives, ENGAGE magazine and other industry engagement strategies. Sarah has run her own fast growth businesses for 18 years. Sarah was CEO of the Business Mentor Programme and has been an advocate for the nation’s business owners. Sarah has been recognised by Westpac’s Women of Influence programme and is a recipient of a prestigious Sir Peter Blake Trust Leadership Award.
Willow van As, Bone Lady
When she's not being a mother to her three young girls, Willow van As becomes the Bone Lady, taking her collection of animal skulls and skeletons out on tour to teach children about zoology, anatomy and conservation. Willow has a Masters degree in Behavioural Ecology, runs the Zoological Society of Auckland, and has a passion for education.
Alison Wade, PhD Candidate, School of Social Sciences, University of Auckland
Alison Wade studies biological anthropology at the University of Auckland. Her current research examines the ecological interrelationships between local communities, the Cross River Gorilla, and the Nigerian-Cameroon chimpanzee in Cameroon. Alison endeavours to elucidate how broader political, economic and historical processes affect these interrelationships.