Date: Tuesday, 12 August 2025
Time: 6:00 pm
Venue: Lecture Theatre 1, EIT Taradale, Napier
Free entry – booking essential

Reserve your seat now!

Royal Society Te Apārangi and the Hawke’s Bay Branch are delighted to present the 2024 Rutherford Medal winner in a special public talk. Don’t miss this opportunity to hear from one of New Zealand’s leading researchers – this promises to be a fascinating and thought-provoking evening.

Tales of the Unexpected: Surprising Discoveries that Changed Clinical Practice
Join us for an engaging session where Prof. Beasley shares unexpected findings from ten influential research programmes that:

• Challenged long-standing medical assumptions
• Advanced global clinical understanding
• Directly impacted patient care

Topics include:

• Should fever be treated?
• Is sitting for long periods a health risk?
• Are party pills safe for drivers?
• Does cannabis smoking cause lung cancer?
• What really caused the NZ asthma death epidemic?
• And more…

Speaker: Dr. Peter Heenan, Principal Scientist at the Bioeconomy Science Institute, Manaaki Whenua – Landcare Research
Date: Tuesday, 23 September 2024
Time: 6:00pm
Venue: Lecture Theatre 1, EIT Taradale, Napier
Free entry – reservation required to secure your seat

Royal Society Te Apārangi, together with the Hawke’s Bay Branch, is delighted to present a talk by Dr Peter Heenan, winner of the 2024 Leonard Cockayne Lecture Award, which commemorates the life and work of Leonard Cockayne, New Zealand’s greatest botanist.

In his decades-long career, Peter has explored and researched New Zealand flora, especially the alpine plants of New Zealand, studying how our native plants have evolved, spread, and adapted to their dramatic mountain landscapes. But recently, his journey has taken a tropical turn – to the small Pacific island of Niue.

In this presentation, Peter will share what he’s discovered so far about Niue’s plants and fungi: how many species there are, what kinds of forests grow there, which plants are unique to the island, and which ones are invasive. He’ll also look at how climate, culture, and conservation all come together to shape the island’s living landscape.

Peter will reflect on how the deep knowledge we’ve built in New Zealand could help support new research in Niue – like protecting rare species, tracking invasive weeds and insects, and understanding the crops and plants important to local people. In Niue, plants and people are closely connected, and both traditional knowledge and modern science are essential for future success.

With fresh insights from visits to other Pacific Islands, Peter will show how Niue – though small – is a powerful example of the challenges and wonders of tropical botany in the Pacific today.