2013 May

Next Lecture

Plant Breeding for Disease Resistance

Dr Vincent Bus Principal Scientist, Plant and Food Research, Havelock North

7.30 pm, Thursday 20 June Hawke’s Bay Holt Planetarium Chambers St, Napier

Vincent Bus gained a Master’s degree from Wageningen Agricultural University and worked for 4.5 years in postharvest pathology for the USDA-ARS in the Netherlands before joining HortResearch in a pest- and disease resistance breeding role in pipfruit in 1993 and gaining a PhD on the job in 2006. Now he is the Science Group Leader for the Pip- & Summerfruit Breeding, and the Colour & Health research teams of Plant & Food Research. He has made considerable advances in breeding pipfruit for resistance to black spot and other diseases.

In this lecture Vincent will cover how to set realistic breeding objectives, the role of germplasm collections, breeding & selection processes, incl. the use of molecular technologies. He will illustrate this with breeding for disease and pest resistance in apples and kiwifruit. He will also cover some wider aspects of plant breeding such as developing apple varieties with red flesh.

139th Annual General Meeting of the Branch

7.00 pm Thursday 20 June Hawke’s Bay Holt Planetarium Chambers St, Napier

(on the grounds of Napier Boys High School).

The AGM will be held prior to the lecture by Dr Bus.

The Agenda and other supporting documents for the AGM will be sent to members with a copy of  this newsletter.

Upcoming lectures and events

“Einstein’s Universe”

Tuesday 16 July  at 5.30 pm at the Municipal Theatre Napier Professor Brian Foster (Oxford and Hamburg universities) will present a lecture entitled “Einstein’s Universe”, and at 8 pm at the same venue there will be a 100 minute concert of chamber music that Einstein played and loved.

This special event is organized by Chamber Music New Zealand and the Royal Society of New Zealand. This event is not free – tickets can be bought from Ticketek.

We will hand out flyers for the event at the branch AGM on 20 June. In the meantime, members can get more information at www.chambermusic.co.nz or by calling 0800 CONCERT (266 2378).

“The 2010-2012 Canterbury Earthquake Sequence: pushing the limits of geological seismology using backyard science”

Monday 22 July  at 7.30 pm at the Hawke’s Bay Holt Planetarium,.Dr Mark Quigley will present the 2012 Hochstetter Lecture “The 2010-2012 Canterbury Earthquake Sequence: pushing the limits of geological seismology using backyard science”.

Dr Quigley is a Senior Lecturer in Active Tectonics and Geomorphology at the University of Canterbury.

“Science, innovation and economic prosperity”

Wednesday 31 July Sir Peter Gluckman Chief Science Advisor to the Prime Minister will present to us two lectures entitled “Science, innovation and economic prosperity”. The first lecture will be pitched for educationists and students and will be at Lindisfarne School Auditorium. The second will be hosted by EIT and will be aimed at our members, community and business leaders and the general public.

“Plants that changed history”

Tuesday 27 August  Dr Ross Ferguson ONZM FRSNZ, will address us on “Plants that changed history”. Ross’s research contributed greatly to kiwifruit becoming NZ’s most important horticultural export. The lecture will be illustrated with many paintings and engravings. And apparently Ross will also discuss the implications of some “socially acceptable addictions”!

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