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.

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.

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