Wednesday 7 March 2018 at 7.30pm

Helen Cadwallader MSc, PhD student, Waikato University

Venue: National Aquarium, Marine Parade, Napier

Admission: Gold coin donation

Stingrays in New Zealand are largely understudied, but as large coastal elasmobranch species, they are potentially exposed to some of the greatest anthropogenic risks. This talk will describe what we know about them, why they are important, and how we as humans are affecting them, from removal of habitat to their portrayal in the media. It will also highlight why we in New Zealand are in an excellent position to study them, and describe Helen’s current study on New Zealand’s rays, including how the rays here in the Aquarium have joined in the research.

Helen Cadwallader is a PhD candidate with the University of Waikato based at the Coastal Marine Field Station in Tauranga. She completed her MSc at Bangor University in her home country of Wales, where she specialised in cleaner-client interactions between tropical wrasse and pelagic thresher sharks, and her BSc at the University of Bristol, where her honours research concentrated on the behavioural reactions of freshwater fish to anthropogenic underwater noise. Helen specialises in elasmobranch behaviour and ecology and her PhD focuses on the stingray species in New Zealand, their spatial and feeding ecology in the Tauranga Harbour, and the potential impacts that the urbanisation of this area may be having on them.

Thursday 1 March 2018 at 6.00pm

The LAB, National Aquarium, Marine Parade, Napier

Dr Yoshihiro Ito & Dr Kimihiro Mochizuki, Universities of Kyoto and Tokyo

What can New Zealand learn from the 2011 earthquake and tsunami in Japan, and the subsequent establishment of an early warning system?

6.30pm on Tuesday 13 February 2018

National Aquarium, Marine Parade, Napier

Marcus Eriksen & Anna Cummins from 5 Gyres Institute

World Plastic Pollution Experts speak on Plastic Pollution and Solutions in the South Pacific

Marcus Eriksen and Anna Cummins from 5 Gyres Institute and guest speakers will explore the issue of plastic pollution with you. Through the science and real life experiences within the sub-tropical gyres they will bring you up to date on the current state of the issue, as well as sharing the latest global and local approaches towards solutions.

For more detail see PURE Speaking Tour and this website

5:30pm on Wednesday 14 February 2018

National Aquarium, Marine Parade, Napier

Russ van Dissen, Earthquake Geologist, GNS Science

The 7.8 Kaikōura earthquake was associated with a complex array of surface ruptures that caused damage to engineered structures, particularly the transportation network. The fault rupture mechanism was a complex system that involved at least 21 faults along an approx. 180 km zone. Many were already mapped as active or geological faults prior to the earthquake, although some specific surface traces were previously unknown. The earthquake ruptured the entire mapped lengths of some faults, and the partial lengths of others. This talk is about geological and seismological characteristics of the complex multi-fault rupture.

Russ van Dissen was born, raised and educated in the western USA. He moved to New Zealand about 25 years ago to take up a position with the then Earth Deformation Section of the New Zealand Geological Survey. His research specialties include earthquake geology and seismic hazard assessment and he has had significant involvement in the development of the Ministry for the Environment’s “Active Fault Guidelines”; characterisation of the surface fault rupture along the Greendale Fault during the September 2010 Darfield earthquake; and the “It’s Our Fault” project that aimed to better define earthquake risk in the Wellington Region. He is currently working on the Kaikōura earthquake response.

6.00pm Tuesday 30 January 2018

Lecture Theatre 2, EIT, Gloucester Street, Taradale

Admission: Gold coin donation

Professor Bob Marshall, EIT Director of Research

EIT works closely with a range of industries and institutions in Hawke’s Bay, providing research and evaluation support.  This talk will outline some of those projects as well as others.

Professor Bob Marshall is EIT’s Research Director with responsibility for the overall direction of EIT’s research, and for organising appropriate research infrastructure and support.

Caring for our coastal waters: the appliance of science

Tuesday 12 December 2017 at 6pm

Hawke’s Bay Regional Council
Cnr. Dalton and Vautier Streets, Napier

Under the chairmanship of team leader Stephen Swabey, three scientists from HBRC’s Coastal Team will present talks of 20 minutes each:

Anna Madarasz-Smith                The rise and fall of the Ahuriri Estuary
Shane Gilmer                                Jump in! Recreational water quality in Hawke’s Bay
Oliver Wade                                  Is it a bird? Is it a plane? Using new technologies in Science

Please then stay for some conviviality: we will lay on the nibbles, cake and a glass of something to celebrate the end of a very busy and successful year for the HB Branch of the Royal Society!

Thursday 16 November 2017, 6pm

ABB, 111 Main North Rd, Hawke’s Bay Airport

30 people maximum, members only please

To secure your place, please send an email to:
hawkesbay.rsnz@gmail.com

ABB is a pioneering technology leader that is writing the future of industrial digitalization. For more than four decades, they have been at the forefront, innovating digitally connected and enabled industrial equipment and systems. Every day, they drive efficiency, safety and productivity in utilities, industry, transport and infrastructure globally. With a heritage spanning more than 130 years, ABB operates in more than 100 countries and employs around 132,000 people.

The ABB site in Napier designs and manufactures power conditioning products, which are used by customers worldwide, who need a reliable power supply 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. Their customers include:

• semiconductor / automotive / textile industries
• data centres / supercomputers
• shore-to-ship / marine / oil & gas industries
• plastics / cable extrusion / pharmaceutical manufacturers.

We will be hosted by Nick Elliott, R&D Manager and Scott Styles, Principal Engineer, for a presentation on the business, including latest developments, and a factory tour.

Please note dress code:

• flat (i.e. no heels), close fitting (i.e. not loose fitting ballet-type), fully closed-in shoes
• trousers (shorts are not acceptable).

ABB will provide safety glasses and hearing protection.

http://new.abb.com/about

6.00pm on Thursday 26 October 2017

Hawke’s Bay Regional Council, cnr. Vautier & Dalton Streets, Napier

Dr Stephen Swabey, Manager, Environmental Science, HBRC

Speleology is one of Stephen Swabey’s many passions, and in this talk he will share with us his enthusiasm with an illustrated talk about limestone cave systems in Australia, where Stephen lived and worked for five years before coming to New Zealand.

Stephen graduated from Oxford University with an MA in Geography, and the Open University with a PhD in Paleoclimate change, geochemistry and caves.

At HBRC he manages a team of 32 scientists, with 5 team leaders coordinating work across surface water and groundwater hydrology, coastal science, freshwater ecology, air quality, climate and climate change, land science and environmental monitoring.

Wednesday 11 October at 6.00pm

National Aquarium, Marine Parade, Napier

(Entry by gold coin donation)

Dr Elspeth MacRae, General Manager Manufacturing & Bloproducts, Scion

People have been improving plants and animals for many centuries. Most of the foods we eat and drink have been changed (domesticated) by humans. For many centuries this was done by selecting naturally occurring changes (or mutations) and using them to breed improved plants or animals – a very slow process. More recently we have been able to use biotechnology to make the same sort of changes in a much faster and more predictable way.

This talk will describe these Genetic Modification technologies, including the recent developments in gene editing (CRISPR-cas9). Examples of improved products will be highlighted, and the potential of gene editing to revolutionise food production will be discussed.

Dr Elspeth MacRae is the General Manager Manufacturing & Bioproducts at Scion in Rotorua. She is a member of the management group for the 2014 New Zealand National Science Challenge in Science and Technology for Industry, and leads the design, materials and manufacturing portfolio.

Scion is a Crown Research Institute that specialises in research, science and technology development for the forestry, wood product, wood-derived materials, and other biomaterial sectors.