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Current NZ Time: 12:33:53 PM Thursday, 17 May 2012
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• From the Vice-Chancellor
• Honours for lifetime of coastal work
• New Zealand universities alumni reception in Shanghai
• Foundation Trustee focus
• New CD for Chamber Soloists: Elegy
• Waikato titanium research a key part of new facility

From the Vice-Chancellor

Professor Roy Crawford

Welcome to this latest issue of E-News. It has been a busy couple of months showcasing the University’s achievements here at the National Agricultural Fieldays and overseas at the Shanghai World Expo. Both occasions have provided excellent opportunities to reconnect with alumni and friends.

Fieldays is the largest agribusiness exhibition in the Southern Hemisphere, and the University is now in its fourth year as a Fieldays strategic partner. This year’s Fieldays theme, Innovation for Future Profit, gave us a unique opportunity to demonstrate the range and breadth of our innovative research at the University’s display stand and seminar series.

One of the key researchers featured on our stand, Professor Terry Healy, was the recipient of an MNZM in this year’s Queen’s Birthday honours list. Professor Healy died in late July; his Queen’s Birthday honour came just days after he was awarded the prestigious University of Waikato Medal in recognition of his lifetime contribution to coastal science. I know many of his former students will agree with me that this University and the country have benefited immensely from his expertise. 

I was proud to introduce Prime Minister John Key to Professor Healy’s work and to other examples of our groundbreaking environmental research when he visited our Fieldays stand. I also had the pleasure of hosting a special Fieldays breakfast for the University’s stakeholders and international guests.

In addition, I had the opportunity recently to visit Shanghai for the World Expo together with all other New Zealand university vice-chancellors and the Minister of Tertiary Education, Steven Joyce. We held a series of top-level meetings with senior Chinese educators and officials, as well as a joint alumni function where Waikato was well represented by more than 80 of our former students.

Their presence is a tribute to the strong links we currently have and are continuing to develop with a range of Chinese universities, enabling students to pathway into a world-class Waikato University qualification.

The trip was also a chance to cement our relationships with Shanghai International Studies University (SISU) and the Zhejiang University City College (ZUCC) who study at our Management School and our Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences. I met a variety of students from there who are very excited about coming here in January.

I am also pleased to report that our brand-new Student Centre has garnered a coveted five-star Green Building rating – an indication of the store we set by our stated commitment to sustainability. I trust you will enjoy reading about these and some of the other achievements by our staff, students and alumni in this issue of E-news.

Honours for lifetime of coastal work

University honour: Professor Terry Healy (centre) with his University of Waikato medal, and Vice-Chancellor Professor Roy Crawford and Council member John Gallagher.

Coastal scientist Professor Terry Healy passed away in July after a courageous battle with cancer.  Earlier this year his work was acknowledged with a New Zealand Order of Merit in the Queen’s Birthday Honours, a University of Waikato Medal and a life membership of the NZ Coastal Society.

Widely regarded as New Zealand’s pre-eminent coastal scientist, Professor Healy was only the third person – and the first scientist - to be awarded life membership of the Society, a technical group of the Institution of Professional Engineers New Zealand (IPENZ) which represents a wide range of coastal science, engineering, management and planning disciplines.

Deputy Vice-Chancellor Professor Doug Sutton says the three honours for Professor Healy were an important recognition of a lifetime’s work. Professor Healy researched coastal erosion, sedimentation and hazard management, including tsunami, and applied his environmental expertise to port and marina developments around New Zealand.

When he was made professor in 1990, he set about establishing the University’s Coastal Marine Group as the leading research group of its kind in a New Zealand university. His professorial Chair, sponsored by the Port of Tauranga Ltd since 1990, was the first Chair in Science to be sponsored by industry in New Zealand. From 1995, he was also Adjunct Professor at Nanjing University, China.

Professor Healy was the major driver behind the New Zealand and Germany INTERCOAST initiative, and his research has helped port and regional authorities across New Zealand to run their operations efficiently and maintain the environmental health of harbour and coastal environments.

In the 1980s, his cutting-edge advocacy for using knowledge of tides and currents to dump sand dredged from navigation channels in order to build adjacent beaches is now a commonplace strategy. He is particularly credited with making a significant and ongoing contribution to the sustainable growth of the Western Bay of Plenty economy.

International recognition for Professor Healy’s work includes acknowledgement as a “Top 100 Scientist” by the International Biographical Centre, Cambridge, UK. He was the first New Zealander to receive the Alexander von Humboldt (AvH) Foundation Preistrager Award in 1997, and he had a string of other fellowships to his name.

Professor Healy was a director of the US-based International Coastal Educational Research Foundation. He also served as Vice-President of the Scientific Committee for Oceanic Research of the International Council of Science, UNESCO.

In New Zealand, he was a leading member of the Royal Society, and served as New Zealand’s primary adviser to Civil Defence on tsunamis. In 2003 he was elected a Fellow of IPENZ – one of only a select few non-engineering graduates to be accorded the honour.

Professor Healy had a prodigious publication record and won 150 research contracts totaling more than $10 million. He led 21 major projects and expeditions including two to the Antarctic.

During the 1990s when coastal issues became important under the Resource Management Act, Professor Healy’s third year paper on coastal processes and management became the largest in the School of Science. He said his main forte was supervising student research, and that he encouraged his students to treat him like “a sports coach”.  In total, he supervised 119 students undertaking research at masters and doctoral level.

He counted his body of work for the Port of Tauranga, which spanned 36 years, as his greatest achievement but said he wanted to be remembered for his exacting work over many years to support graduate and postgraduate student researchers to achieve their goals.

New Zealand universities alumni reception in Shanghai

Vice-Chancellor Prof. Roy Crawford (centre) with alumni Lance Jin, Lu Dao, Yinuo Jin and Hui Wang

Vice-Chancellor Professor Roy Crawford met more than 80 University of Waikato alumni at the joint New Zealand Alumni Reception in Shanghai recently.  Considering the total attendance was more than 300, the Waikato contingent was considerable, so thank you to all our alumni who came to show their support!

The New Zealand universities event in Shanghai was organised by the Ministry of Education with Education Minister Anne Tolley in attendance to address the gathered alumni.  Ms Tolley’s emphasis was on the special connection developed through studying abroad and that this association to New Zealand should be nurtured for the academic, economic and social benefit of both countries. Also in attendance was Steven Joyce the Minister of Tertiary Education.

China is an increasingly important country for New Zealand universities recruiting overseas students.  With the World Expo being held in Shanghai, attracting hundreds of thousands of visitors every day, this was a perfect opportunity to visit the region and showcase the great work being carried out at Waikato.

During his stay, Professor Crawford was able to make his first official visit to the Shanghai International Studies University (SISU) where he signed a new agreement allowing the Waikato Management School to partner with SISU in the development of their MBA programme.  This is a major coup for WMS.

Click here to view photo gallery.

University of Waikato Alumni

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Foundation Trustee Focus

Mark Donovan, CEO, Donovans Chocolates

It’s not many of us who can say we own a chocolate factory, but that’s exactly what University of Waikato Foundation Trustee Mark Donovan does.  He’s CEO of Donovans Chocolates, a family firm based in Te Rapa sending its chocolate delights around the world.

Mark’s been on the University Foundation for two years and he’s also a Waikato alumnus.  He has a Postgraduate Diploma in Management Studies from Waikato, and his wife and brother are also Waikato graduates. “I’m very aware of the benefits the University brings to the Waikato region, and to New Zealand, and by becoming a trustee I felt I was going to be a part of something special,” says Mark.  The Foundation is an independent charitable trust that works to raise financial support for scholarships and other key University projects.

“I think all New Zealanders, and especially alumni, should take great pride in the networks, knowledge and positive economic impact created by universities,” says Mark.  “I know people who’ve spent up to six years at university, and if they’ve maintained their links, they retain friendships and also have very useful networking opportunities that can benefit their businesses and careers. ”

Mark’s family has owned Donovans Chocolates for 20 years and he’s been with the company for 18.    They started with three staff and now have 25 and production has grown from 20 tonnes of chocolate a year to 500 tonnes.  “And that’s just a blip on the New Zealand chocolate radar,” says Mark.  “New Zealanders are amongst some of the biggest consumers of chocolates in the world.  The world average consumption is around 3.5kg per capita with the top 5 currently Switzerland, Austria, Ireland, Germany and Norway. Naturally the USA is amongst one of the biggest too! “

And with an increasing drive for efficiency, Donovans has just purchased the latest in chocolate technology – direct from Switzerland, they’re the proud new owners of a one-shot depositer.  That’s the machine that puts the caramel inside the chocolate.  Previously they’ve injected the delicious gooey using the old fashioned and traditional hand piped method.

While the bulk of Donovans Chocolates is found on New Zealand supermarket shelves, the company is also leaving its chocolate fingerprints in Australia, the US and Japan. 

As part of his University association, Mark allowed his company to be the subject of a national university business case competition.  Donovans opened up its doors and books to strategic management students who were tasked with coming up with a growth strategy for the company.

“We had our own strategy for growth but felt it could also help us to get some students’ perspectives as well,” says Mark. “It was a win-win situation.  We got some good ideas to consider, found that we were doing a lot of what some of the student teams proposed, and the students got to work on a real business project.  They need to learn the theory too, but you can’t beat working with a real-life situation.” 

The students also learnt a bit about chocolate during their study.  Dark chocolate provides the most health benefits, but those benefits are diminished as soon as you start adding flavours like peppermint, caramel or strawberry into the mix.   Mark’s noticed that people are developing more sophisticated palates.  “That’s been most evident during the last two years.  Purchasing trends have changed with people more likely to buy high quality chocolate, chocolate that’s high in cocoa, but they’re buying it less often.”   His two favourite flavours are feijoa and caramel.

Donovans was also the company employed to help “Josh” create Yellow chocolate for a Yellow Pages promotion.  Yellow was the fastest selling chocolate bar in supermarkets in 10 years with over 100,000 bars sold in less than two weeks.  “We employed 14 extra staff and ran two shifts to get the job done on time for Josh,” says Mark.  “It certainly raised our brand profile and reminded us you can do just about anything in the world of chocolate.”

As a Trustee of the Foundation, Mark donates chocolates for the annual black-tie, invitation-only Distinguished Alumni Dinner Awards and to other high-profile University events.  “I enjoy serving on the Foundation,” says Mark.  “We’re all there because we know and value the contribution the University of Waikato makes to employment and business in the region.  We’re tasked with finding funds to increase support for teaching, research and facilities. We encourage business and alumni to invest in Waikato’s future by supporting the University.  It makes good sense to me.”

New CD for Chamber Soloists: Elegy

Ian (centre) and Agi Graham (far left) with New Zealand Chamber Soloists Lara Hall (left), James Tennant (right) and Katherine Austin (far right).

The New Zealand Chamber Soloists launched a new CD at Waikato University’s Academy of Performing Arts in June.

Their first CD Ahi was a finalist in last year’s Vodafone Music Awards and featured the work of local composers.  The latest CD, Elegy, focuses on the Russians and the works include Rachmaninov’s single-movement Trio Elegiaque from which the CD gets its name, Shostakovitch’s dramatic E minor Trio that captures the unsettling years of the Second World War and the relatively unknown 1952 Piano Trio by Armenian composer Arno Babajanian.

The New Zealand Chamber Soloists are all musicians who have a link with the University of Waikato’s Music Department through teaching and research.  The key three are cellist James Tennant, pianist Katherine Austin and violinist Lara Hall.  They call in other musicians if a piece requires additional instruments or different combinations.

The CD was recorded over two years at Waikato University’s Academy of Performing Arts concert chamber and produced by Atoll Records with award-winning director Wayne Laird.

Last year, the New Zealand Chamber Soloists toured Europe, the US and Colombia, South America, with sponsorship from Ian and Agi Graham who’ve supported the group for a number of years. Dr Ian Graham is a former Dean of Computing and Mathematical Sciences at Waikato University and founder and chairman of international computer network security company Endace.  

Check out new books and CDs at Waikato University.

Waikato titanium research a key part of new facility

Dr Wayne Mapp, the Minister for Research, Science and Technology.

Research at the University of Waikato has played a key part in a new facility dedicated to creating a titanium industry in New Zealand.

The Titanium Industry Development Association (TiDA) opened its facility in Tauranga on July 2. The Applied Powder Metallurgy Centre is based at the Windermere Campus in Tauranga which is shared by the Bay of Plenty Polytechnic and the University of Waikato. The partnership between the two organisations means they are continually working together to increase tertiary education opportunities for the region.

The facility sprung from the work of Titanox Development Ltd, which was established in 1997 to develop market-ready products based on the work led by Waikato University’s Professor Deliang Zhang.  Waikato researchers are now working on technology for consolidating titanium powders into solid products using low-cost and internationally competitive methods.

Dr Wayne Mapp, the Minister for Research, Science and Technology, opened the building, saying the new Applied Powder Metallurgy Centre will be the innovative hub of New Zealand’s emerging titanium industry.

“The opening of this centre is an excellent example of the innovative ecosystem at work. The industry, the Bay of Plenty Polytechnic and the University of Waikato have pooled their resources to make this happen. It is exactly the sort of innovative project that will drive our economic growth,” Dr Mapp said.