30 Jan 2019 The Story of Polio: the disease, vaccines and hopes for eradication

Wednesday 30 January 2019 at 7.00pm

Holt’s Planetarium, NBHS, Chambers Street, Napier

Michelle Tanner

Rotary District Polio Chair
Projects Facilitator,
Immunisation Advisory Centre

Admission: Gold coin donation

This year marks the fortieth anniversary of Rotary’s first project to vaccinate children against Polio, and the dream of a polio-free world has motivated their work ever since. They became the driving force behind the Global Polio Eradication Initiative, the biggest public health initiative the world has ever seen. Today, rates of polio have been reduced by 99.9% and the disease remains endemic in only two countries. The last case of polio the world will ever see seems imminent.

Come and listen to the story of polio: the disease, its vaccines and how close we are to eradication, from immunisation expert nurse and Rotarian, Michelle Tanner.

Michelle has nursed for over 40 years, initially in intensive care in South Africa and UK, then in child health. For the last 15 years, since immigrating to New Zealand, she has worked in various roles with the Immunisation Advisory Centre.

Michelle joined Rotary in 2008, plays a key role locally in polio eradication and has visited Pakistan twice undertaking a range of polio eradication activities.

She is the recipient of the NZ College of Primary Healthcare Nurses Tall Poppy Award and Rotary International’s Regional Service Above Self Award, both for services to polio eradication.

13 Feb 2019 1931 Earthquake Commemorative lecture: Shaky Times – The Christchurch earthquakes and all that followed

Wednesday 13 February at 5.30pm

National Aquarium, Marine Parade, Napier

Associate Professor Caroline Bell

Department of Psychological Medicine, University of Canterbury
Clinical Head of the Anxiety Disorders Service, Canterbury District Health Board.

Gold coin admission

Over an 18 month period between 2010 and 2011 there were 4 major earthquakes and over 12,000 aftershocks in Christchurch, New Zealand. This resulted in 185 deaths and huge damage to the city.  There were also widespread secondary stressors including complex economic and practical consequences which compounded the difficulties of many.

As a result some people developed mental health disorders, some reported subsyndromal problems, some post-traumatic growth but most just soldiered on. This highlights the enigma of understanding why some people develop PTSD after exposure to a traumatic life event while others, exposed to the same experiences, do not.

From her experience as a psychiatrist dealing with the spectrum of responses over this period, Dr Bell will discuss the psychological impact of the Christchurch earthquakes. This includes how people were affected, the phases of what was seen, what was helpful and the challenges of working in a chaotic, post-disaster environment.

Since the Canterbury earthquakes Caroline has been the clinical lead of a specialist mental health service set up to treat people with post traumatic earthquake related distress. She has been studying the psychological and neurobiological effects of the earthquakes in both people presenting with significant earthquake related distress and those identifying as resilient.

26 Feb 2019 Dancing with Atoms – a film by Shirley Horrocks

Tuesday 26 February 2019 at 6pm

EIT Lecture Theatre 1

Admission by Gold coin donation

Sir Paul Callaghan was a great scientist who was honoured internationally but also became a famous local figure through his talks about science with Kim Hill, his work for the environment, his links with writers and artists, and his great campaign to make New Zealand ‘A place where talent wants to live.’

In this film director Shirley Horrocks focuses on the microscopic world that so entranced Sir Paul. He became a world expert on magnetic resonance, like a choreographer able to direct the dance of atoms. The film includes a beautifully composed mosaic of memories and anecdotes by his brother Jim, friends, students, colleagues, scientists and artists, eager to record his unique personality and vision.

See a trailer here: https://www.nziff.co.nz/2018/film/paul-callaghan-dancing-with-atoms/

This film has been funded by the MacDiarmid Institute, Callaghan Innovation, Massey University, Kiwibank, Ministry of Business Innovation and Employment, Royal Society Te Aparangi, University of Auckland, Victoria University of Wellington, University of Otago, AUT, Waikato University and University of Canterbury.

102 minutes

27 Nov 2018: Nano Girl is Back!

Whilst not a branch meeting of the Royal Society, we are happy to promote this event aimed at promoting an interest in science in young people. Last year’s shows were warmly received

Meridian Energy and Nanogirl Labs are proud to present Nanogirl Live! “Out of this World” – A Live Science Spectatular.

Following our last two sell-out tours, join Nanogirl, Boris (her trusty lab assistant), and CLAIR (Constantly Learning Artificial Intelligence Repository) for science and engineering as you have never seen them before. An action packed adventure with rockets, explosions and even a live tornado – come see science and engineering come to life in the coolest way possible, right before your eyes.

This international touring science show is suitable for the whole family. This brand new script features all-new experiments and all-new explosions – all inspired by New Zealand’s own space programme!

“Educational, Entertaining and Explosions!” – 5 Stars

For tickets and more information: Out of this World – Nano Girl

6 Nov 2018 Exploration of the deep sea around New Zealand: progress and promise

Tuesday 6 November 2018 at 6.00pm

National Aquarium, Marine Parade, Napier

Dr Dave Pawson

Emeritus Senior Scientist
National Museum of Natural History
Smithsonian Institution, Washington DC, USA

Admission: Gold coin donation

 

The great ocean depths affect our day-to-day lives in many ways, and they are home to mysteries, monsters, and minerals that capture our imagination. New Zealand, with its immense Exclusive Economic Zone, has played a large part in the 150-year history of deep-sea exploration. How much do we know today about the deep sea, and what do we need to know?

Dave Pawson was born and raised in Napier, and he received M.Sc. and Ph.D. degrees in Zoology from Victoria University, Wellington. He joined the National Museum of Natural History, Smithsonian Institution, Washington D.C., USA, in 1964. Now retired, he was a Senior Research Scientist for many years. He has taught courses at several universities, published 300 scientific papers, presented more than 200 public lectures.

SONY DSC

During a long career in research in the deep sea, making more than 200 dives in manned research submersibles to depths in excess of 4,000 metres, Dave has had many deep-sea adventures, involving new and amazing animals, sunken ships, unexploded ammunition from two World Wars, and piles of automobiles!

 

 

Dr. Pawson is a marine biologist, specialising in deep-sea biology and the marine biology of isolated oceanic islands, and his research specialty is the echinoderms – sea stars, sea urchins, sea cucumbers and their relatives and has had this starfish named after him.

 

 

20 Nov 2018: What does the future hold for plant-based protein foods?

6.00pm Tuesday 20 November 2018

Lecture Theatre 1, EIT, Gloucester Street, Taradale

Dr Marian McKenzie

Senior Scientist, Food Innovation

NZ Institute of Plant & Food Research

Admission:   Gold coin donation

Consumers have changing attitudes toward the food they eat, and are increasingly focused on flexibility of food choice, aligned to their lifestyle, the environment and personalising foods to their own health drivers. New Zealand is moving beyond commodity-based food production and into the production of premium foods. Within this space we need to consider the importance of consumer thinking and drivers, particularly around protein-rich foods.

This talk will firstly consider the future of protein-rich, plant-based foods and the opportunities for New Zealand to diversify from our traditional meat and dairy production base. Secondly, it will focus, as a case study, on current research from the Premium Potato Foods research programme, which investigates consumer desired traits and the production of added-value potato products for the benefit of New Zealand’s potato industry.

Dr Marian McKenzie is a member of Plant & Food Research’s Food Innovation portfolio and leads the Premium Potato Foods programme. In recent years the programme has focused on investigating consumer perception of potato flavour and identifying the metabolome that informs that flavour, as well as identifying mechanisms that lower the glycaemic impact of potato.

Dr McKenzie completed a PhD in plant physiology and molecular biology at the University of Otago, before taking up a Postdoc at Massey University and then a permanent position at Plant & Food Research. She has a background in plant biochemistry and molecular biology and has recently sought to align these areas with human sensory and health research.

1 Oct 2018 The Trouble with Memory

Monday, 1 October 2018 at 6pm

EIT Taradale
Lecture Theatre 2

Professor Maryanne Garry,
NZ Institute of Security and Crime Science,
University of Waikato

Admission: gold coin donation

The Trouble with Memory

Most people think memory is a faithful recorder and archiver of experience. But memory is a liar, a con artist, and a self-serving autobiographer. Memory causes trouble for us, and for others. Yet without memory, we couldn’t function, and our institutions would collapse. In this lecture, Professor Garry will present some of the science of memory, and talk about when and how memory causes trouble.

Maryanne Garry received her PhD in 1993 from the University of Connecticut, and did postdoctoral work at the University of Washington. In 1996 she moved to Victoria University of Wellington, where she worked for 20 years before taking up a joint appointment in 2016 at the University of Waikato, as a Professor of Psychology and a Professor in the New Zealand Institute for Security and Crime Science (one of only two in the world) at The University of Waikato.

She studies a puzzle of memory: how is that otherwise intelligent, rational people can remember things they never really saw, or experiences they never really had? Over the years, she has amassed a solid body of theoretically-grounded applied research that helps us shed light on the causes and consequences of these false memories. Her work has been funded by granting agencies in the US, Japan, and in New Zealand, where she has been awarded four Marsden grants from the Royal Society.

17 Sep 2018 Hochstetter lecture: The Pounamu Terrane

The Geoscience Society of New Zealand’s 2018 Hochstetter Lecture

The Pounamu Terrane: a new component in the assembly of Zealandia

 

Emeritus Professor Alan Cooper,

Geology Department, University of Otago

Date: Monday, 17th of September, at 7.30pm

Venue: Hawke’s Bay Regional Council,

corner Vautier and Dalton Streets, Napier

Admission: Gold coin donation


Stretching from the Hokitika River in Westland through to the Dunstan Range in Central Otago, the Pounamu terrane is a newly-identified component of the ancient Zealandia continent. Zealandia now is largely submerged (excepting the islands of New Zealand and New Caledonia), but it broke away from Australia and Antarctica between 85 and 60 million years ago.
Professor Cooper details how the Pounamu terrane is much younger than the adjoining components of New Zealand’s Eastern Province and formed after the original subduction zone, situated at the Chatham Rise, was blocked by collision of the Hikurangi Plateau approximately 105 million years ago. This collision ended a 200 million year phase of west-dipping subduction during which marine sediments scraped off the subducting oceanic crust were assembled to form the Eastern Province of New Zealand. The deeper levels of these off-scraped sediments were metamorphosed by extreme heat and pressure, producing the Haast Schist (dominated by Otago, Alpine and Marlborough schists).
However, new evidence suggests that a second subduction zone developed subsequently on the western margin of the South Island with off-scraped sediments, making up the Pounamu terrane, accumulating above an east-dipping subduction zone. Deep in the subduction zone, the Pounamu terrane underwent metamorphism at around 70 million years ago forming this younger component of the Alpine Schist.

Alan was educated in Burton-on-Trent and Sheffield, England. He came to New Zealand in 1966 as a Teaching Fellow to undertake PhD study at the University of Otago, under Professor Douglas Coombs. His thesis area was the Haast River, south Westland, where he investigated the structure and progressive metamorphism of greenschists and amphibolites in the Alpine Schist. In 1970, he was appointed a Lecturer at the University of Otago, from where he retired in 2012 after 46 years service.

Alan continues to do research work in the Southern Alps. Subjects of his research include: a lamprophyre-carbonatite dyke swarm intruding the schist (first documented by Julius von Haast); the Pounamu Ultramafics and correlative rocks; marine terrace remnants and uplifted Holocene sedimentary sequences; mapping of the Alpine Fault; anatectic pegmatites; ages of detrital zircons within the Alpine Schists. He has undertaken experimental work on carbonate minerals in Canada, and mapping of carbonatites in Antarctica, Namibia and Turkey. He has spent eight field seasons in Antarctica: supervising students and investigating the basement geology of the Transantarctic Mountains and the Neogene to Recent alkaline volcanic rocks of the Erebus Province of the McMurdo Volcanics.

The Hochstetter Lecture is named in honour of Ferdinand von Hochstetter and a speaker is chosen annually by the GeoScience Society of New Zealand. Hochstetter is known for the geological maps of the Auckland and Nelson areas produced in conjunction with colleague Julias Haast whilst on a scientific voyage in 1859.

6 Sep 2018 The Theory and Practice of Culinary Arts

Thursday 6 September 2018 at 6.00pm

Mark Caves, Culinary Arts Tutor, EIT 

Venue: Scholars Restaurant, EIT Taradale

Cost: $35 per head for a 4 course meal
Cash bar
No BYO
Pay at door

We have booked the restaurant, seating 60, exclusively for this event. Level 4 student Chefs will prepare our meal.

First come, first served; non-members welcome.

Book your places now with an email to: secretary@hawkesbay.rsnzbranch.org.nz

As the restaurant needs to know in advance, please advise of any special dietary requirements (e.g. vegetarian, vegan, gluten-free, dairy-free) when you make your booking

 

Mark started his career in a five star resort in Noosa, Queensland in 1990 and went on to cook in a fine dining seafood restaurant in Sydney and an Australian ski chalet, before returning to Napier. He has been teaching Culinary Arts at EIT since 1999. Mark has a passion for teaching people the craft of cooking, enjoys using the high quality produce available in Hawke’s Bay and introducing his students to modern trends in gastronomy.

Whilst loving to teach the artisan crafts of bread, charcuterie, fermentation & cheese making, Mark also delivers programmes on modernist molecular gastronomy. He has built 2 wood-fired pizza ovens from the ground up and the third is in the planning stage!

Mark has implemented E-portfolios for level 5 chef students, entailing the use of ICT tools, food photography, social media, capturing video and posting online.

In his down time Mark consults to UNESCO developing and designing Occupational standards, Curriculum and teaching and learning material for the hospitality sector. In this role he has completed three trips to Iraq, helping re-build the hospitality sector destroyed in the long war against ISIS. At the same time, he has brought back inspiration for dishes prepared back in NZ, including at this year’s Hawke’s Bay F.A.W.C. event

28 Aug 2018 Rutherford lecture: The Life and Times of Supervolcanoes

Tuesday 28 August at 6pm

Ballroom, Napier Conference Centre, Marine Parade Napier

Professor Colin Wilson FRS FRSNZ Victoria University of Wellington

2017 Rutherford Medal winner for research into understanding large, explosive supervolcanoes and the hazards they pose.

All Welcome. Free Admission. Please register: royalsociety.org.nz/events

Aotearoa New Zealand sits astride the Indo-Australian and Pacific tectonic plates and is subject to tremendous natural forces. Usually experienced as earthquakes, Kiwis also need to keep in mind that Lake Taupō was created by the world’s most violent volcanic eruption within the last 50,000 years! Colin Wilson has gathered many accolades for studying volcanoes, and in particular, supervolcanoes. He likens his work to that of a crime scene investigator, piecing together the dual puzzle of why such cataclysmic explosions occur and why they are joined by much smaller eruptions. His aim is to forecast volcanic phenomena with enough warning so that communities can respond. But although Colin is digging deep in the Earth’s crust to find the triggering mechanisms, volcanic systems are not letting their secrets go easily…

This nationwide tour is proudly presented in partnership with