Hawke’s Bay Branch of the Royal Society’s 2022 AGM will be held at EIT in Lecture Theatre 1, EIT at 5.30pm on Tuesday 14 June.
All members are welcome, and encouraged, to attend. We’ll tell you how the Society is doing, and listen to your ideas for our Society and its programme.
An invitation and Agenda will be sent to all members prior to the meeting.
The Branch will hold its 2022 Annual General Meeting at 5.30pm, followed by:
Charlotte Drury: Director of View, a Resource Management consultancy
Date: Tuesday, 14 June
Admission: Gold coin donation
Venue: Lecture Theatre 1, EIT Taradale
To attend this lecture at EIT, masks are required.
In New Zealand, two groups of actors are particularly involved in freshwater governing: namely farmers, who manage large areas of the countryside, and regional councils – the governing entity that has the legislative responsibility to manage the freshwater resources of a region.
Based on the findings of her doctoral research, Charlotte will talk about freshwater management practices in the Tukituki Catchment region of Hawke’s Bay, and the regional council’s governance of farmland. The unexpected findings illustrate the raft of factors that shape freshwater governance, and provide some explanation as to why improvements in freshwater quality are yet to be fully realised.
Charlotte grew up on a sheep farm in West Otago, and studied geography and planning at university. Upon graduation she took up a job with the Hawke’s Bay Regional Council, where for 12 years she worked within the policy, consents and land management teams. In 2017, Charlotte left to set up her own planning consultancy, View Consult. She undertook her PhD study at Massey University, while continuing to live and work here in Hawke’s Bay. She is passionate about freshwater and farming, having been involved with both topics both personally and professionally throughout her life, and was keen to draw those together in her study and career.
Sally Brooker: Professor of University of Otago
Date: 6pm, Thursday, 19 May 2022
Venue: Lecture Theatre 1, Eastern Institute of Technology, Taradale
To attend this lecture at EIT, masks are required.
Admission: Gold coin donation
Professor Sally Brooker will give a general introduction to the hydrogen eco-system. This talk will include several aspects:
Sally Brooker is Professor of Chemistry at the University of Otago. Undergraduate and post graduate studies at the University of Canterbury were followed by post-doctorate work at the University of Göttingen in Germany. The recipient of numerous awards, Sally has wide ranging research interests (otago.ac.nz/brooker). Relevant to this talk, some of her research team are making catalysts for hydrogen production from water (and for the selective reduction of carbon dioxide) and she is a co-leader of the German-NZ green hydrogen team.
A video is available for this kōrerorero public discussion held on Friday 4 Poutū-te-rangi March 2022 on the findings of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) Sixth Assessment Report Working Group I and Working Group II. What do they mean for Aotearoa New Zealand?
Dr Emre Erturk, EIT researcher and Principal Academic in the School of Computing, gave an interview on Radio Kidnappers about his research and career.
Where you can find the story:
Direct Audio Link
Facebook Link
Dr Heloise Stevence: Research Fellow of the University of Auckland
Date: 2.00pm Sunday, 27 February 2022
Venue: Hawke’s Bay Holt Planetarium, Chambers Street, Napier
Admission: Gold coin donation
Now, Heloise’s lecture is available in YouTube, click here.
What happens when the densest objects in the universe collide at half the speed of light? It starts with a stretch of a wobble in the fabric of spacetime, and sometime sends in cosmic explosions that create some of the rarest and shiniest elements in the Universe. Together we’ll learn how some of the most massive stars in the cosmos live and die with bang, to create the black hole and neutron star mergers we can “hear” colliding a hundred million light years away. This 45 minute “lecture” will combine cutting edge science and wacky humour to make the mysteries of merging black holes and neutron stars accessible to all ages and backgrounds.
Dr Heloise Stevence is an energetic, enthusiastic, educational and entertaining speaker well able to reach out to audiences of all ages and levels. Heloise, born and raised in France, moved to the UK to study Physics and Astronomy at the University of Sheffield. After working as a support astronomer at the Isaac Newton Group in La Palma for a year, she obtained her Masters of Physics in 2015 and subsequently started a PhD studying the 3D shape of Core Collapse Supernovae. She completed her PhD in 2019 and joined the University of Auckland as a Research Fellow to research the evolution of massive stars to better understand how they die and produce Supernovae and Kilonovae.
Royal Astronomical Society of New Zealand
Rick Wentz: Geotechnical Engineer
Date: 5.30pm Wednesday, 16 February 2022
Venue: The National Aquarium of New Zealand – 546 Marine Parade, Napier
This lecture has been advertised as part of Napier’s Art Deco Festival and is therefore likely to be popular. Under the red traffic light, our venue The Aquarium has applied a capacity limit of 50 attendees. Please come early to ensure a seat.
Admission: Gold coin donation
This is the commemorative lecture for 1931 Hawke’s Bay Earthquake, also known as the Napier earthquake, which occurred at 10:47am on 3 February 1931, killing 256, injuring thousands and devastating the Hawke’s Bay region.
This year Rick Wentz is invited to give a lecture on liquefaction. The focus of this lecture will be to define liquefaction, describe the cause and the conditions under which it typically occurs, and to highlight its potential impacts on the built environment. Also discussed will be some things that individuals and communities can consider doing to reduce the impacts of liquefaction on homes and infrastructure.
Mr Wentz grew up in Northern California and completed his MS in Civil Engineering at the University of California – Berkeley where he got to experience the 1989 magnitude 6.9 Loma Prieta earthquake first hand. He has been a practising geotechnical engineer for 30 years and has worked on a range of projects from residential subdivisions to nuclear power plants in the U.S., South America and New Zealand. He spent several years working in the corporate world before starting his own consultancy in Northern California in 2005. His career focus has been geotechnical earthquake engineering including design, forensic investigation of post-event ground and foundation performance, project / peer review, and applied research. Mr. Wentz came to New Zealand “for 1 year” in 2011 to work in the Christchurch Rebuild and recently celebrated his 10th anniversary of living and working here. Notable NZ projects include serving as an expert on the Government-appointed panel that investigated the performance of the Wellington Statistics House during the 2016 Kaikoura earthquake, and helping to develop the MBIE document Planning and engineering guidance for potentially liquefaction-prone land. When not pondering liquefaction and other geotechnical issues, Mr Wentz enjoys flyfishing, cycling and tramping with the family.
Greg Hart, owner of Mangarara Farm and Eco Lodge
Date: cancelled
Venue: Lecture Theatre 1, EIT Taradale, Napier
Admission: Gold coin donation
Regenerative Agriculture (RA) is an ecological model that aims to correct perceived failings in our current systems of agriculture. The RA movement acknowledges that farmers can mitigate or reverse the negative impacts of the way that animals and plants are currently raised and grown for food production but suggests that they can benefit themselves at the same time. RA is touted as a part of the solution to reverse climate change, biodiversity loss and declining water quality, whilst improving the wellbeing of rural and farming communities and the quality of the food produced.
However, there is a lack of clarity about what RA actually is, scepticism about its claimed benefits, and uncertainty whether or not it is relevant to New Zealand farmers and agricultural production.
In this lecture, Greg Hart will talk about his practical experience of applying regenerative agriculture at Mangarara, how to provide a stable financial platform for the continued restoration of the ecosystem, and innovating regenerative farming practices.
Greg Hart has made the switch from a traditional sheep station with typically 3,000 ewes to a diverse stock of approximately 1000 ewes, 500-1,500 lambs, 20-40 dairy cows, 60-100 Berkshire pigs, 150 Angus heifers and 100-200 other cattle. Meat is sold both locally and in Auckland. Over 100,000 trees have been planted and the quality of the soil is actively monitored and managed.
At the end of this lecture, you will have an idea about how a diverse and integrated farm can maintain the balance between ecosystem restoration and the production of healthy, nutritious food.
Dr Jenny Malmström: Principal Investigator at the MacDiarmid Institute and Lecturer at the Department of Chemical and Materials Engineering at the University of Auckland.
Dr Kim McKelvey: Associate Investigator at the MacDiarmid Institute and Senior Lecturer at Victoria University of Wellington.
Assoc Prof Mark Waterland: Associate Investigator at the MacDiarmid Institute and Associate Professor in the Institute of Fundamental Sciences at Massey University.
Date: 6.00pm Monday 15 November 2021
Venue: Lecture Theatre 1, EIT Taradale
Admission: Gold coin donation
Dr Jason Johnston: the Science Team Leader for Quality and Storage Insights at Plant & Food Research
Date: 6.00pm Tuesday 2 November 2021
Venue: Lecture Theatre 1, EIT Taradale
Admission: Gold coin donation
New Zealand’s (NZ) long distance to export markets means it has one of the most sophisticated supply chain systems in the world. The meat industry in NZ pioneered the use of refrigeration for exports, and since then refrigeration has enabled the export of several other perishable items, including fruit. At first this sounds easy, but unlike processed products, fruit is still metabolically active and respiring (breathing) after harvest. Every piece of fruit (even those from the same tree or vine) is metabolically different and changing at different rates when exposed to the same supply chain conditions.
In this lecture, Jason will highlight some of the biological processes taking place after harvest, and the tools used to manage those processes. He will also cover current research areas such as conservation of energy in coolstores; reduced reliance on plastic packaging; technologies and sensors for maintaining quality and reducing waste; and potential for digital technologies including robotics to automate horticulture. By the end of the lecture it should also be clear why tomatoes or bananas should not be stored in the fridge once at home!
Dr Jason Johnston is the Science Team Leader for Quality and Storage Insights at Plant & Food Research. He has 20 years’ research experience, and aims to develop new systems, technologies and knowledge that enhance the quality and supply chain resilience of fresh produce from NZ. His passion for horticulture started at a young age whilst growing up in a market garden in Bay of Plenty, and then merged with an interest in science whilst at Massey University. Jason’s research mainly focuses on apples and pears, but is increasingly working on other fruit and berry crops such as kiwifruit, blueberries, apricots and cherries. He enjoys the challenge of problem-based research for the benefit of NZ’s fruit industries.