Category Archives: Coming Events

Monday, 28 November: To Industry and Beyond, the 2022 regional lecture from the MacDiarmid Institute

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Dr Laura Domigan and Prof Aaron Marshall: Principal Investigators of the MacDiarmid Institute

Date: 6pm, Monday, 28 November 2022

Venue: Lecture Theatre 1, Eastern Institute of Technology, Taradale

How do you go from a Research Lab to a new start-up company? The topic for this year’s MacDiarmid Institute Regional Lecture Series is ‘To Industry and Beyond’, which focuses on pathways from science to industry.

Aaron Marshall and Laura Domigan will give a talk about the way that materials science spins into the hi-tech sector, as well as show careers for science students outside of the traditional university pathways. They will also talk about the role of technology in sustainability and how they are trying to encourage greater participation by young people in science and science-led careers.

Professor Aaron Marshall is a Professor in Chemical and Process Engineering at the University of Canterbury and a Principal Investigator in the MacDiarmid Institute. He is also Co-Founder and CTO of Zincovery, an award-winning start-up company that recycles the zinc from industrial waste.

Dr Laura Domigan is a Lecturer at the University of Auckland, a Principal Investigator in the MacDiarmid Institute and also sits on the MBIE Science Board. Laura’s current research involves creating biomaterials derived from natural polymers strong enough to replace or repair elements of the eye.

Tuesday, 6 December: Join us for drinks and nibbles accompanied by a talk on wine science

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Places are limited to 60 people. To secure your place, please email: secretary@hawkesbay.rsnzbranch.org.nz, to which we will respond with a confirmation giving payment details

Deficit irrigation as a way to modulate Syrah quality parameters: Does less water make better wine?

Dr Chandré Honeth: Viticulture and Wine Science Lecturer

Date: 6:15pm, Tuesday, 6 December

Venue: A101, Eastern Institute of Technology, Taradale

Image from: https://winefolly.com/grapes/syrah/

Syrah is of specific economic interest to the Hawke‘s Bay wine industry. However, investigation into the production of Syrah has highlighted specific problems faced by producers in terms of ripening and quality. Imposing water stress during berry ripening has become a routine strategy for the modulation of grape berry composition and wine characteristics but responses of Syrah to deficit irrigation have been variable. Syrah is anisohydric in nature and therefore typically keeps its stomata open during soil drying, thus maintaining its growth and photosynthetic rate even in deteriorating conditions. This makes deficit irrigation management more challenging as a fine line exists between moderate stress which elicits positive fruit attributes and severe stress which leads to defoliation and a reduction in photosynthesis.

To have a better understanding of how Syrah vines respond to soil drying, and how best to schedule irrigation for optimising quality would benefit all growers in the Hawke’s Bay region in terms of both conserving increasingly scarce water resources and improving fruit quality for winemaking. Two Syrah vineyards, one in the Gimblett Gravels and one in the Bridge Pa Triangle sub-region were selected and monitored during the 2020 and 2021 season.

Dr Honeth will talk about the results from this trial and also give further insights into using deficit irrigation as a tool for improving quality parameters in Syrah in Hawkes Bay. She received her PhD from the University of Stellenbosch (South Africa) where she investigated the influence of UVB radiation on berry metabolites in Sauvignon Blanc grapes, and she is currently a lecturer and researcher in Viticulture at the New Zealand Institute of Skills and Technology.