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ContentsVice-Chancellor’s welcome10 Adventure ambassadorsWho are the Ed Hillarys and Peter Blakes of the newmillennium? Graham Charles, Mark Jones and Marcus Watersare giving it their best shot as they become the first team tosea kayak around the sub-Antarctic island of South Georgia.12 African outpostThe University of Canterbury’s newest field station hasopened in eastern Nigeria.16 Behind the barriersPhD student Jarrod Gilbert breaks new ground researchingthe history of New Zealand gangs.19 Health checkWith the opening of the GeoHealth Laboratory, theUniversity of Canterbury is establishing itself as the preeminentcentre studying academic health geography inthe southern hemisphere.20 Forestry from a totally different angleEvery year a group of University of Canterbury studentsexplore one of the world’s largest timber producing areas asguests of the Sarawak Timber Association.24 A career by negotiationIn July 2005 Rosemary Banks was appointed New Zealand’sPermanent Representative to the United Nations, a roleto which she has been gravitating for much of herdiplomatic career.26 Media mogulKiwi Brent Hansen sits at the helm of MTV NetworksInternational, shaping the tastes, trends and desires of youthculture around the world.30 The only way is upThe University of Canterbury’s Master of BusinessAdministration celebrates 21 years.34 Blooming at BloomsburyPublishing phenomenon Liz Calder has significantly shapedthe face of 20 th and 21 st century literature.36 Motivated by mysteryMurder mysteries and robotic games are part of a new wave ofinnovative teaching methods at the University of Canterbury.Regular features38 Books in Brief40 Alumni Activities44 Class Notes45 Alumni Networks46 Obituaries47 Alumni BenefitsCanterburyVolume 2, No. 2 — Summer 2005Editor: Jeanette ColmanCo-Editor: Chanel HughesSub-Editor: Roy HughesDesigners: Brenna Sharpe and Leanne MolloyPhotographers: Duncan Shaw-Brown and Eve Welch(unless stated otherwise)Print Production: The Caxton PressContributors: Anne-Marie Brady, Maria De Cort,John MacDonald, Norma Odendaal, Paula Travagliaand Marita Vandenberg.Advertising: Rates available on enquiry to the Editor.Submissions: Correspondence should be addressed to theEditor at:Communications and DevelopmentUniversity of CanterburyPrivate Bag 4800Christchurch, New ZealandPh: +64 364 2922Fax: +64 364 2679Email: comms@canterbury.ac.nzCover: Dr Hazel Chapman collecting plant specimens in the montaneforest of eastern Nigeria, where the University recently established itsnewest field station (Photo: Matthew Walters).Canterbury is the biannual magazine for the alumni and friendsof the University of Canterbury. It is distributed to 32,000 peopleworldwide. Views expressed are those of the contributors and notnecessarily those of the University. Articles may be reproduced withthe Editor’s permission.Welcome to the summer2005 issue of Canterbury,the magazine for alumni,friends and supporters of theUniversity of Canterbury.Canterbury has a circulationof 35,000 copies, severalthousand of which are mailedoverseas, so our readership isspread across many countriesaround the world.I had the pleasure recently of meeting someof our overseas readers at functions inMalaysia, Britain and the United States.Not only was the opportunity to catch upwith alumni and supporters in these countriespersonally rewarding, it also allowed theUniversity to promote its internationalcharities and fundraising projects.We were particularly keen to highlight ourcampaign to secure matching funding forthe Government’s $9.7 million investment inthe College of Engineering’s ICT InnovationInstitute. College of Engineering Pro-Vice-Chancellor, Professor Peter Jackson, outlineshis vision for the institute on page 5 in thisissue of Canterbury.This purpose-built research facility will be thefirst of its kind in New Zealand, producing thekind of entrepreneurial graduates desperatelyneeded in the ICT sector.We were delighted that our applicationfor support through the Government’sPartnerships for Excellence scheme wassuccessful. It was the product of a lot of hardwork by many people.When visiting the campus to announce thatour funding bid had been successful, thethen Education Minister, Trevor Mallard, saidhe shared our belief that the proposal was a“no brainer”.We are currently involved in discussions withpotential supporters. The University’s Alumniand Development Manager Shelagh Murraywould be happy to handle any enquiries aboutthe project.Naturally, there are expectations that theinstitute will be a hothouse of ideas — someof which will have significant commercialpotential.We are well placed to capitalise on intellectualproperty developed at the University with ourcommercialisation arm, Canterprise.By its very nature Canterprise works in thebackground. However, it was justifiably in thelimelight at this year’s Champion CanterburyAwards which celebrate the excellence andenterprise of business in the Canterburyregion. Canterprise won this year’s ServiceSmall Enterprise category prize and The PressSupreme Award for Small Enterprise.It was excellent to see Canterprise honouredin this way before an audience of about 900people, which included many prominentmembers of the Canterbury businesscommunity. Its CEO Dr John Chang was agracious winner and told the gathering thatCanterprise is only able to achieve what itdoes through the support of Universitymanagement and the ideas generated anddeveloped by our staff.The Press Supreme Award for Medium/LargeEnterprise was awarded to HumanWare, theelectronics company co-founded by Canterburyalumnus Dr Russell Smith.Russell and his wife Marian D’Eve, who weregreat supporters of the University, were tragicallykilled in a plane crash in August.Russell was a member of the University Council,a member of the Engineering Faculty and aformer staff member in the Department ofElectrical and Computer Engineering.The kind of drive and determination that madehim so successful in developing technologies toimprove the quality of life for people with visualimpairments is common here at Canterbury.This year our students continued UC’sdomination of the prestigious MacDiarmid YoungScientists of the Year Awards, won hundreds ofthousand of dollars worth of scholarships andenjoyed successes in international competitions.Similarly, our staff — academic and general— secured millions of dollars in research grantsand enjoyed success in all manner of awardsand competitions.At this time of year, as hundreds of ourstudents graduate, we all get to share in theirsense of achievement.One notable feature of this year’s Decembergraduation is the new Registrar’s signature onour degrees. It belongs to Jeff Field, the formerDirector of Communications and Development.At the end of July, Alan Hayward retired after 38years at the University — 18 of them as Registrar.Alan’s loyalty was extraordinary and wasreflected in the sentiments expressed at variousfarewell functions.It is the kind of loyalty shown by so many of ouralumni. I trust you will enjoy the news stories,alumni profiles and features on teaching andresearch in this edition of Canterbury.Professor Roy SharpVice-Chancellor Canterbury Magazine Summer 2005

NewsCanterbury University students dominate science awardsGreat ideas expected to grow in ICT hothouseFor the second year in a row, theprestigious MacDiarmid Young Scientistsof the Year Awards have been dominatedby University of Canterbury students.Of the seven category prizes awardedthis year, three have gone to CanterburyUniversity postgraduate students — ShelleyScott, who was also named overall runnerup,Roger Dungan, who was also given aspecial commendation by the judges, andMatthew Keir. It follows the scooping oflast year’s awards by Canterbury Universitystudents who won the majority of categoryprizes and the overall prize.Scott, winner of the Manufacturing andMaterials prize, has been recognised for hernanotechnology research in which she hasdrawn on environmental phenomena forinspiration.“I’ve taken some ideas from nature— like the way a snowflake grows — andthought about how we can mimic thissort of process to self assemble nanoscalestructures,” she says.“Basically, a snowflake forms by absorbingmoisture from the atmosphere and howbig it gets depends on how quickly themoisture is absorbed into it and how coldthe atmosphere and cloud is.“What we want to do is fire atoms into aspace and let them do their own thing.They have certain things they like to doby themselves but by changing theirenvironment a little bit we can coax theminto forming structures that are useful.”She says nanotechnology developments arekey to improving computer technologies,but believes it is just the tip of the iceberg.In order to meet increasing studentinquiries from the greater Aucklandregion, the University of Canterburyis establishing an information centrein Auckland.Hana-Maree Lambert has been appointedSenior Liaison Officer (Auckland) and is inthe process of setting up the new officein Symonds Street. Staff in the AucklandLiaison Office will be available to provideadvice to prospective and new studentsabout courses and other aspects ofuniversity life.“Nanotechnology can also be used in thelikes of drug deliveries so there is goingto be a lot of medical advances with it aswell. At the moment we’re right at thebeginning, so we really don’t know just howfar it’s going to go. But certainly it’s goingto have a major impact on the way we liveour lives.”Dungan was named first equal winner ofthe Environmental Sciences category prizefor his research into tiny scale insects livingin beech trees, which are helping forestsabsorb more carbon. Keir, winner of the ICTand Creative Industries category prize, isUC establishes an Auckland Liaison OfficePhD student Shelley Scott was named runner-up in the MacDiarmid Young Scientists Awards.Lambert said it was timely that UC wasestablishing an office in Auckland. UC’sposition as one of the top two universitiesin New Zealand (Performance-BasedResearch Fund Report, 2004), its continuedreputation for student success, combinedwith an appealing and affordable studentlifestyle had seen a growth in inquiries andthe number of students from the Aucklandregion choosing to study at UC.“The University has recognised the need toprovide better support to parents, schoolsand students in this region. I’m here toworking with augmented reality and thedevelopment of low-cost technologiescapable of overlaying virtual images overwhat a person sees through their eyes.The prestigious awards, organised bythe Foundation for Research, Scienceand Technology, are named after NewZealand-born Nobel Prize-winning scientistProfessor Alan MacDiarmid. A panel ofjudges selected this year’s winners from arecord 127 entries from around the country.Each category winner receives a cashprize of $2000.help with their inquiries, ensure studentshave all the information and advice theyneed, and assist with this big decision.“We’ve signed the lease on a great groundfloor space, so we’ll be easily accessible forvisitors. We should be fully operational byDecember and we encourage students tocontact us for help with course planningand advice.”An official launch for the Auckland officeis planned for 2006. The University alsohas liaison offices in Nelson, Timaru andon campus.A hothouse of new ideas that marries highleveltechnological advancements withpractical applications for daily life is howthe University of Canterbury is describingits Information and CommunicationsTechnology (ICT) Innovation Institute.Plans for the purpose-built researchfacility are well advanced after a successfulmulti-million dollar bid for funding fromthe Government’s Partnerships forExcellence scheme.The scheme was established to enhanceinnovation, encourage greater privatesector investment in tertiary education andto foster relationships between tertiaryinstitutions, business and industry. It allowstertiary institutions to seek funding forlarge-scale investment projects that willdevelop teaching and research partnershipswith business.A fundraising programme is currentlyunderway to match the $9.7 millionawarded through the scheme, which makescontributions on the proviso that matchingfunding is secured from other sources.When announcing the government fundingin August, the then Minister of Education,Trevor Mallard, said the Governmentbelieved the proposal for the ICT InnovationInstitute (UCi 3 ) was a perfect fit with theGovernment’s Growth and InnovationStrategy.“By establishing UCi 3 , CanterburyUniversity and its partners are creatingan environment where innovation andinvention can thrive. In doing this, theinstitute will ensure the ICT industry hasgraduates with relevant skills as well asaccess to world-class knowledge andresources,” Mallard said.ICT has been identified as one of three areaswith the potential to make the greatestpositive impact on the economy. But thatoptimism has often been tempered byconcerns among those within the sectorthat its potential might not be realisedunless more is done to increase the numberof ICT qualified people and encourageinnovative thought and creativity.While addressing the graduate issuewas an early motivation for establishingthe institute, Canterbury University hasidentified numerous other likely benefits.It is envisaged the environment created bythe ICT Innovation Institute will generatenew start-up companies.(Clockwise from left) Cabinet Minister Trevor Mallard, Vice-Chanceller Professor Roy Sharp and Pro-Vice-Chancellor(Engineering) Professor Peter Jackson celebrate the announcement of the new ICT Innovation Institute.Pro-Vice-Chancellor (Engineering) ProfessorPeter Jackson is one of the main drivers ofthe project. He says Canterbury University isthe natural home for such a facility.“Not only do we have a great deal ofresearch talent in ICT, but the fact thatwe’ve had degrees in engineering andcomputer science for a very long time isprecisely the reason that Christchurch hasbecome the ICT centre of New Zealand.“A high proportion of ICT companies aroundChristchurch were started up by our owngraduates, as has happened in many otheruniversity towns around the world. Havingrecognised this outcome, we want toaccelerate it.”Jackson says innovation and entrepreneurshipfind strong appeal among students andhe believes the institute’s time has come.“My vision is to have a hothouse of talentin one space where we mix up graduatestudents from different but relateddisciplines, rather than having themisolated in their own research groups.“It’s widely recognised that breakthroughtechnologies come from the boundaries ofdisciplines, not from within them. I guessthat’s why I’m keen to mix the differenttalents up.”He cites an example where the biologicalimplications of nanotechnology could beexplored under the one roof.“Until you put a nanotechnology PhDstudent next to a biological sciences PhDstudent you’re not likely to get themrecognising that they can assist each otherand maybe develop a nanotech sensor thatsolves a medical problem.”Jackson sees the institute as being morethan a research facility. He wants it to sellICT as a career option.“The biggest constraint to the supply ofICT graduates is students taking the rightsubjects at school. So what we’ve got to dois get kids at a very early age to see what’sgoing on at the ICT Innovation Institute andget so impressed by it that they say ‘I wantto be in that industry’ and then start on theright path to get them there.” Canterbury Magazine Summer 2005

NewsRobed bear a reminder of Registrar’s long reignResearchers awarded millions in latest Marsden Fund roundAlan and Viv Hayward with the specially-attiredgraduate bear.Alan Hayward may have hung up hisregistrarial robes but a specially-attiredgraduate bear will be a permanentreminder of his 18 years in the job.The bear was presented to Hayward onbehalf of the UC Alumni Association byPresident Sylvia Lukey.Nearly 200 current and former staffattended a special farewell function in Julyto mark Hayward’s retirement from theUniversity after 38 years on the staff.His service spanned five decades of theUniversity’s history, from his town site startin 1967 to his time as Registrar, stretchingfrom 1987 into the 21st century. As Registrar,he worked with three vice-chancellors andfive chancellors.Known to all as a true gentleman, hiscourtesy, human decency and calmnesswere extremely effective in a complex anddemanding role.Hayward could well be described as partof a registrarial dynasty given his fatherJock’s 26 years of service as Registrar ofOtago University.When the position of Registrar becamevacant at Canterbury in 1987, Haywardspoke to his father about applying for thejob and received good advice.“He saw the reality of what I was gettinginto, but he was also very encouraging.”Awards recognise value of innovative University-business linksThe Registrar’s role is a broad one, workingwith the Vice-Chancellor, Council andSenior Management Team on statutoryand legal matters and grievance anddispute resolution. It can be anythingand everything.“You have to tackle just about everythingand sometimes you’re facilitating what’shappening and sometimes you’re makingsure that there is a bit more thinkinggoing on.”Graduations have provided some ofHayward’s most enjoyable moments. Alongwith the Chancellor of the day, his signatureis on some 45,000 degree certificates. Thecolour and pageantry of the occasion is ahighlight. The Registrar wears one of theUniversity’s four ceremonial gowns, but itdoes not pay to take things too seriously hediscovered at a ceremony this year.“As we came in there was a little voice fromthe back saying ‘Mummy, why are they allwearing dresses?’”Replacing Hayward as Registrar is Jeff Fieldwho was previously the University’sDirector of Communications andDevelopment.Professor John Hearnshaw will be co-leading the first censusof planets within our galaxy.University of Canterbury researchers havebeen allocated nearly $6 million in thisyear’s Marsden Fund awards, including theround’s largest single grant.The awards, which are Government funded,are administered by the Royal Society ofNew Zealand.The largest single grant ($900,000 overthree years) has been awarded to a projectco-led by Professor John Hearnshaw(Physics and Astronomy).He will collaborate with Dr William Tobin(Physics and Astronomy) and colleaguesfrom Auckland, Massey and Victoriauniversities to search for planets similarto Earth and to carry out the first censusof all types of planets within our galaxy.Results of the survey will help guide futureEuropean and American astronomicalsatellites to target the most promisingplanets for additional study.The researchers will be using the new1.8m diameter telescope at CanterburyUniversity’s Mt John Observatory.Other UC researchers who received grantsin this year’s round work in the areas ofeconomics, chemistry, mathematics andstatistics, philosophy, political science,geological sciences and biologicalsciences. Projects range from a studyinto how the Chinese Communist Partycan maintain its monopoly on politicalpower while dismantling the socialistsystem, to research into the driving forcebeneath caldera volcanoes to gain a betterunderstanding of the processes that drivetheir eruptions.Meanwhile the University of Canterbury’sMarine Ecology Research Group hasreceived significant funding in an aquaticresearch package announced by theFoundation for Research, Science andTechnology (FRST).Professor David Schiel and his team ofresearchers will be an integral part of thecoasts and oceans programme led by theNational Institute of Water and AtmosphericResearch (NIWA). The programme, worthalmost $60 million over 12 years, seeks tounderstand all the factors influencing thehealth and productivity of New Zealand’soceans. It is a world-first in bringingtogether experts in climate, oceanography,animal ecology, remote sensing, fisheries,social science and economics for such aresearch project.Schiel said UC researchers would workprimarily on the ecology of rocky coastlines,its interactions with other components ofthe marine ecosystems and the factors thataffect its communities, productivity andhealth.In a separately funded FRST project, theMarine Ecology Research Group is to receivemore than $1 million over four years toresearch the environmental pathways ofnative fish from stream to open ocean.“By understanding the linkages betweenrivers, estuaries and coastal habitats, thisresearch will provide essential knowledgefor effective management,” said Schiel.Canterprise, the University of Canterbury’scommercialisation arm, scooped one ofthe top prizes at this year’s ChampionCanterbury Awards.In the annual awards which celebratethe excellence and enterprise of businessin the Canterbury region, Canterprise wonthe Service Small Enterprise categoryprize and The Press Supreme Award forSmall Enterprise.Canterprise Chief Executive Dr John Changsays the prizes recognise the work ofmany people.“Without the commitment of Canterprisestaff, the wonderful innovation ofthe academics and the support of theUniversity management, this would nothave been possible.”Canterprise’s main role is commercialisingintellectual property developed atCanterbury University.The University has produced successfulspin-off companies such as WhisperTech,which manufactures combined heat andpower generation units; Syft Technologies,which is marketing technology capable ofdetecting volatile substances; and NanoCluster Devices, which is refining novelmethods of manipulating atom clustersand forming them into electricallyconducting wire.Chang says Canterprise is a complexbusiness with multifaceted operationsinvolving contract research and consultancywork in addition to commercialisation ofUniversity inventions.“In 2004 Canterprise worked with 47overseas companies and more than 220New Zealand companies, helping themaccess the high tech expertise ofUniversity academics.“Canterprise is the bridge to link businessand academia. We play a vital role withinthe Canterbury business community andNew Zealand business in general. We turnideas into real economic benefits forthe region.”Chair of the Canterprise Board of Directors John Walley (left)and Canterprise Chief Executive Dr John Chang show off ThePress Supreme Award for Small Enterprise won at this year’sChampion Canterbury Awards.Queen’s Counsel conferred on popular law lecturerProfessor John Burrows (above) of theUniversity of Canterbury’s School of Lawhas been appointed a Queen’s Counsel.It is believed to be the first time the honourhas been conferred on a full-time academic.Burrows said it was a big surprise as hehad been unaware that someone hadnominated him for QC.“I first heard the news from the Attorney-General when he left a message on myanswerphone. I simply wasn’t expecting itat all. You could have knocked me over witha feather,” said the popular law lecturer.The role of QC dates back many centuriesto a time when lawyers in Britain wereappointed to advise the Crown, but it hassince lost its original purpose, Burrows said.It is now seen as recognition of servicesto the profession and has moved inrecent years from only being bestowedupon senior barristers to being given tonon-court people.Colleagues in the School of Law weredelighted with Burrows’ appointment asa QC, Pro-Vice-Chancellor Professor ScottDavidson said.“There is nobody within the legal academiccommunity who deserves this honourmore. John is not only a legal scholar ofnational and international eminence, but hehas also made a significant contribution toprofessional legal education in New Zealandover the years.”Burrows graduated from the University ofCanterbury with a Master of Laws in 1964,having won the Gold Medal in Law in 1961.As a Commonwealth Scholar, he went onto complete a PhD at the London School ofEconomics. He has been lecturing at theUniversity of Canterbury since 1967 and wasmade a Professor in 1974. Canterbury Magazine Summer 2005

NewsTeam Thinking Cactus – Chang Liu (left), Billy Chang and Tony Chang – celebrate being named the inaugural winner of theUniversity of Canterbury’s Entrepreneurship Challenge (entré).Competition serves up a feast of innovationsTeam Thinking Cactus is the inauguralwinner of the University of Canterbury’sEntrepreneurship Challenge (entré).Modelled on successful competitions run byuniversities worldwide, entré helps studentsturn their ideas into real businesses andallows them to test their business plansagainst other competitors.Billy Chang, Tony Chang and Chang Liu tookout the top honours with their idea of a lineof USB driven desktop companions thatinteract with computer users in a humorousand user-friendly way.CyKiK, a moving robot, salutes when thecomputer starts, informs the user of newemails and dances to tell the operator totake a break after a two-hour working stint.Team Thinking Cactus has won $10,000 seedcapital and another $20,000 of hands-onassistance from the Canterbury InnovationIncubator. Runner-up, Greenbird Systems(John Stowers and Hugo Vincent), has won$10,000 seed capital for their unpilotedaerial vehicle (UAV) known as TerraHawk.TerraHawk is equipped with a digitalimaging system suitable for general-purposeaerial photography, remote monitoringor surveillance, and is targeted at thecommercial market. The TerraHawk systemeliminates the need for a skilled pilot.The competition attracted entries from 16teams and six were selected as finalists.The judges were looking for ideas thatwere novel and likely to produce a highreturn on investment.Chris Hartley, chief executive officer of entré,said he was delighted with the standard ofentries and the diverse range of ideas.“Our industry judges found it really hard tonarrow the entrants down to just six but weneeded to concentrate on the projects whichoffered something new and that we felt hadthe most commercial potential.“Canterbury is regarded as a centre ofinnovation in New Zealand and I think thesefinalists underpin that reputation. It’s a hugeask for students to juggle their own studieswith the demands of putting together aviable business plan for their ideas.”Hartley says entré topped its sponsorshiptarget of $80,000 with backing fromnational and trans-Tasman law firm DuncanCotterill; international business advisorsPricewaterhouseCoopers; giant engineeringconsultancy GHD; and the Government’seconomic development agency, NewZealand Trade and Enterprise.“It’s great to see how businesses of thiscalibre have got in behind entré. They have alot to offer us, not just in terms of financialsupport, but advice and practical support.“The whole idea of entré is to put what we’velearnt at varsity as students into practice.entré gives real relevance to our studies.”Le Grew portraitunveiledArtist Martin Ball stands beside his portrait of formerVice-Chancellor Professor Daryl Le Grew.A portrait of former Vice-ChancellorProfessor Daryl Le Grew now hangs inthe University Council Room alongsideportraits of other former rectors andvice-chancellors.The portrait is the work of Aucklandartist Martin Ball and was commissionedby the University Council.Le Grew was Vice-Chancellor of theUniversity of Canterbury from July 1998to October 2002.The portrait, based on photographstaken by the artist, is an example ofBall’s carefully observed and hauntinglyevocative photorealist style.Over the past five years, Ball hascompleted a number of portraits of NewZealand artists, including Lisa Reihana,Ralph Hotere and Stanley Palmer. Theworks’ photorealist style engages withnotions of realism and representation,while the portraits’ large size allowsBall to explore ideas surrounding the“appropriate” scale for portrait works.The Le Grew portrait received its firstpublic viewing in June as part of theSOFA Gallery exhibition Martin Ball:Selected Portraits 2000-2005.Meanwhile, the University Councilhas commissioned Ball to paint aportrait of the current Vice-ChancellorProfessor Roy Sharp.Scholarship success for UC studentsTwo Canterbury University sciencestudents have been awarded prestigiousscholarships, worth $100,000 a year, tostudy for doctorates at either Oxford orCambridge universities.Chemistry honours student AnnaMcConnell and ecology honours graduateRobert Holdaway are two of four 2006Woolf Fisher Scholarship recipients andboth will start studying for their PhDs inOctober next year. The scholarship coversthree to four years of study, depending onthe length of the doctoral course.McConnell, who is graduating at the endof this year, has chosen to go to OxfordUniversity where she plans to study coordinationand supramolecular chemistry.Holdaway, who graduated at the end of2004, is going to Cambridge Universitywhere he will investigate energy andcarbon fluxes in forest communities.The scholarships are awarded by theWoolf Fisher Trust, a New Zealand-basedorganisation that recognises and rewardsexcellence in education. It is the first timethere have been four recipients in one year.Each student receives a maintenanceallowance of $30,000 per year, fullpayment of their university and collegefees and an annual return airfare fromLondon to New Zealand.McConnell, recipient of the 2005 AlumniAssociation Scholarship, said she hasalways wanted to go to England to study.“Oxford has a really good chemistrydepartment and they have very interestingprojects in the area that I want tospecialise in, which is co-ordinationchemistry. It’s one of the reasons whyI chose Oxford.”Holdaway said he was “blown away”by his selection.“To get to study at Cambridge, which isone of the most prestigious and highlyrespected universities in the world, is adream come true.”Meanwhile, Seven University of CanterburyPhD students have collectively securedabout $700,000 worth of scholarships inthe latest round of the Government’s TopAchiever Doctoral Scholarships.A Top Achiever Doctoral Scholarshipprovides a PhD student with $28,000per annum for three years. The student’suniversity fees are also paid for.The scholarships are fully-funded by theGovernment and are designed to signalthe value of high-level intellectual skillsand abilities and their importance toNew Zealand.The Canterbury University students whohave been awarded the scholarships areUC graduate joins Rhodes Roll of HonourRosara Joseph with her father Professor Philip Joseph at hergraduation ceremony in April.Canterbury University Law graduate RosaraJoseph has been named a Rhodes Scholar.Joseph becomes only the fourth Canterburywoman graduate to join an illustrious listof successful New Zealanders who havewon Rhodes Scholarships. The scholarships,which are tenable at Oxford University,are administered by the New ZealandVice-Chancellors’ Committee.One of three scholars named this year,Joseph says she was “a little dazedand overwhelmed” by her selectionwhich followed a gruelling interview atGovernment House in October.“When the names were read out — my onelast — I was shocked and excited and also alittle disbelieving.”Joseph, who is currently working inWellington as a clerk for the President ofthe Court of Appeal, will head to Oxford inAnna McConnellSheree Gibb (Behavioural Neuroscience),Julian Maclaren (Electrical and ComputerEngineering), Katherine Moorhead (Bio-Medical Engineering), Brigid Moriarty(Clinical Sciences), Briar Wait (AntarcticStudies), Timothy Kerr (Hydrology) andSamuel Edwards (Physical Chemistry).Edwards said winning the scholarship wasa huge relief.“You don’t have to worry about moneyanymore. You can just get on with doingthe research and you don’t have to gohome and think ‘spaghetti for tea again’.”October 2006. She plans to study for a BCL(an equivalent of a Master of Law degree)and perhaps stay on to complete an MPhilthe following year.Joining the Rhodes Roll of Honour hascapped a remarkable year of achievementsfor the 23-year-old who graduated with aBA and LLB (First Class Honours) in Apriland was awarded the Butterworth’s GoldMedal for the top law graduate. Away fromthe law books, she has taken top honoursin competitive mountain biking and hasher sights set on the 2006 CommonwealthGames in Melbourne.Her proud father is Professor Philip Josephfrom Canterbury’s School of Law.“She is a pretty amazing young person witha bright future. She has worked hard andcan feel justifiably proud.” Canterbury Magazine Summer 2005

Adventure ambassadorsBy Maria De CortAdventure. It’s what we Kiwis are known for,right? But how adventurous a spirit do wereally possess these days? Who are theEd Hillarys and Peter Blakes ofour new millennium?Photos: Graham Charles, Adventure Philosophy.Two men who are happy to take on the roleof adventure ambassadors and inspire othersto seek their own adventures are CanterburyUniversity alumni Graham Charles andMarcus Waters.Charles, a freelance outdoor photographerand writer, and Waters, a human resourcemanager at Christchurch City Council, aretwo-thirds of the Adventure Philosophyteam. Mark Jones, a senior lecturer in sportand recreation at Auckland’s Universityof Technology, is the third member of theteam of friends who have adventured andexplored together in one way, shape or form,for the past 20 years. All three were outdoorinstructors together at the Sir Edmund HillaryOutdoor Pursuits Centre in Turangi from1989 to 1995.Since 1999, the trio have completed threemajor expeditions under the AdventurePhilosophy brand, the most recent achievedjust as this magazine goes to print with theirsuccess in becoming the first team to seakayak around the sub-Antarctic island ofSouth Georgia.“You couldn’t put a pin in a globe and hita more isolated, exposed coastline,” saidWaters in an interview a week out from“The Unclaimed Coast” expedition.Twice in the 1990s British teams tried andfailed a circumnavigation of South GeorgiaIsland and Adventure Philosophy knewin their two years of preparation for theexpedition that a British four-man team washot on their heels for the coveted world first.They were banking on being able to show,like Hillary before them, that Kiwis areahead of the pack.The team says that South Georgia was oneof the last great adventures. It is to seakayaking what the mighty Tsangpo Gorge isto white water kayaking and what summitingK2 is to mountaineering.If anyone had the credentials “to knock thebastard off” (to quote Sir Ed) it was thesethree. They had already proven themselvesworld-class adventurers, first in January 2001by paddling down the length of the AntarcticPeninsula, one of the most inhospitablecoasts on earth, and two years later theywere in the Tierra del Fuego region inSouth America on a world first sea kayak/mountaineering expedition inspired byeminent British adventurers Charles Darwinand Eric Shipton.Waters lists the Tierra del Fuego trip asone of the most intimidating challengeshe has faced.“For a lot of it we were traversing countrythat had never seen humans before and wewere navigating from a satellite photo thatwas taken about 10 years ago on a cloudy dayfrom about 5km up in space.”While there are many outdoors professionalswho could technically slot into the teamit would be almost impossible to implantsomeone new and get the same dynamic,Charles says. The team has come so fartogether and shared so much. In fact, heand Waters have known each other sincethey were 13, and they flatted together in the1980s when they were students at Canterbury— Waters doing a BA in English and Charles aBSc in Geography.“We were into mountaineering, kayaking,rock climbing, tramping. Back then therewasn’t an adventure philosophy behind it,if you like, it was just ‘this feels good, it’sfun, we’re good at it’. Marcus, another guy,Will, and I were three guys from small-townBlenheim that didn’t play cricket or rugby, orride motorbikes or play boom boxes aroundtown. We were this weirdo threesome wholived for this stuff.”Waters says nowadays it is the fact thatCharles, Jones and he are three musketeersof adventuring that makes them unique.“Across the world there are no otheradventure people who actively marketthemselves as a team like we do. I thinkthat’s unique, and one of the things thatunderpins that is a shared belief in thepositiveness of getting out there andpushing the boundaries and then sharingthose stories with other people. Our sharedsense of values is what, I think, has held ustogether through lots of difficult times whenthere were plenty of opportunities to fallapart as a team.”Adventure Philosophy began life as simplya team name for an expedition but hassnowballed into a concept for inspiringothers through adventurous exploits, andnow its mission is attracting support frommajor international sponsors.The value of adventure is a message Watersand Charles are keen to hammer homeas widely as they can. They even have an“adventure manifesto” on their website(www.adventurephilosophy.com) whichspells out their philosophy to “inspire othersto seek their own adventures, pursue theirdreams, be creative and value the worldaround them”.One of the ways they reach people to firetheir imaginations is by storytelling via allforms of media.“We actively share our story and journeywith other people because we believe thatadventure is one of the key elements of theKiwi culture and it’s an important part thatwe want to keep alive,” says Waters. “If weweren’t prepared to do that it would be a hellof a lot less work, but at the end of the dayit would be three guys going off and havinggood fun by themselves, so to speak.”(From left) Graham Charles, Mark Jones and Marcus Waters.In this year’s Montana New Zealand BookAwards their account of their AntarcticPeninsula journey, The Frozen Coast, was afinalist in the Environment section.Another way Adventure Philosophy plan torevive the adventure ethic in New Zealandis through the GORE-TEX “Good for Life”Scholarship. The annual cash scholarshipoffered through Adventure Philosophy isgiven to young New Zealanders to help thempursue their own outdoor adventures.With outdoor clothing giant W L GOREcoming on board as a naming sponsor thisyear, Adventure Philosophy can now giveprizes worth in excess of $11,000 each yearto three teams.“The scholarship is going from strengthto strength. There is nothing else like it inNew Zealand and very few of its kind inthe world. Each year we are getting moreapplicants and they are inspiring expeditionsin their own right,” says Waters.When people tout Charles, Waters and Jonesas the next national adventure heroes tofollow in the footsteps of Sir Edmund Hillary,Graham Dingle and the late Sir Peter Blake,that mantle sits okay on their shoulders.“Probably a couple of years ago I would havesaid ‘Nuh, it’s not going to happen’ but now Ithink ‘Bring it on’,” says Charles. “And I mean,it doesn’t even have to be me, I’m happy forsomeone else to do it, but no-one is puttingup their hands and time is passing. Whetherit is one of us or all of the team, I believethe values and the things we stand for haveenough integrity to hold up.”Waters agrees that it would be a tragedyif the Kiwi adventurer was added to theendangered species list.“Those guys — Ed Hillary, Graham Dingle andso on — they embodied part of what it usedto be to be kiwi, in terms of that ‘go out thereand do it with a number eight wire’ attitude,relying on your wits to make things happen.If we did not have successors, it wouldperhaps be a wake-up call that some of thosecore values are being eroded, and make usquestion whether we are being globalisedinto a value set that is totally based aroundmaking money and watching reality showson TV rather than living our own adventures.”10 Canterbury Magazine Summer 2005 11

African outpostThousands of miles from the Ilam campus is the University of Canterbury’s newest field station.Laura Sessions reports on the completion of the facility at Ngel Nyaki, Nigeria.Photos courtesy of Hazel Chapman.Three years after initiating the NigerianMontane Forest Project (NMFP), Dr HazelChapman (Biological Sciences) now has apermanent presence in the mountainousregion of eastern Nigeria with thecompletion of a research station atNgel Nyaki.The research station will enable Chapmanand her team to conduct year-roundfieldwork, even in the difficult conditionsof the rainy season, and to maintaincomputer, laboratory and library facilitiesthat will enhance on-site research.The station was built entirely by the localcommunity using local materials (mostlymud bricks). The many jobs created byNMFP in building and maintaining thisfacility have created community supportfor the project and for conservation. Theproject’s presence and the introduction ofpermanent watchmen and patrollers havealso contributed to a decline in hunting andpoaching in the forest.Chapman plans to spend the summer at thefield station, along with her University ofCanterbury MSc student, Arne Mattheus,UC volunteers, and her two Nigerianpostgraduate students from the FederalUniversity of Technology at Yola (FUTY),with which UC has a Memorandum ofUnderstanding. In addition, Chapmancurrently has three permanent researchassistants from a neighbouring village, twopermanent watchmen, and six patrollers.Ngel Nyaki was chosen as the locationof the new field station because thesurrounding forest is the only vegetationof its type left on the heavily populatedMambilla Plateau. The forest has the richestplant diversity of any montane forest inNigeria, with more than 24 endangeredplant species, and it is an importantbird area and home to several primates,including the endangered Nigerianchimpanzee (Pan troglodytes vellerosus).Chapman and her students and assistantsare undertaking a number of researchprojects in order to understand this forestbetter and, in turn, to develop strategiesfor long-term sustainable management ofNigeria’s montane forests.Most of the team’s research projectsfocus on some aspect of tree reproduction(fruiting, flowering and seed dispersal).One project has involved the labelling andidentification of more than 2000 treesthroughout the forest, which are monitoredevery month in order to determine theirpatterns of fruiting and flowering throughtime. These patterns are then comparedto other forest types in lowland Nigeriaand the Congo, in order to understand therole of food availability in the evolutionof chimpanzee versus bonobo ape socialstructure. This research is being done incollaboration with a group from UniversityCollege London.Other members of the team are examiningthe effect of forest fragmentation onseed dispersal and what role primates,especially putty nose monkeys, play in seeddispersal. More broadly, the team is testingwhether seed dispersal is a significantforce in maintaining plant species diversityby measuring seedling composition bothunder and away from parent plants.The success of the NMFP is due in part to itsstrong collaborations with both local andinternational organisations and researchers.In particular, the Leventis Foundation, theNigerian Conservation Foundation, and theTaraba State Forest Service have providedcrucial logistical support.The research station was funded withgenerous support from various groups,including Nexen Nigeria, the LeventisFoundation, Chester Zoo, DHL Nigeriaand the American Women’s Community,Lagos. School children at the AmericanInternational School in Lagos held awalkathon to raise US$10,000 towardsbooks for the new station’s library.Chapman hopes that the project will alsolead to collaborations across colleges at theUniversity of Canterbury. Discussions arealready under way with Dr Richard Vokes(Sociology and Anthropology) to create aresearch project combining ecology withsocial anthropology.Dr Hazel Chapman in Nigeria.Canterbury University’s research station at Ngel Nyaki.12 Canterbury Magazine Summer 2005 13

When the pumps run dry By Paula TravagliaResearch obsession By Maria De CortRecord prices at the pumps have everyonetalking about petrol but what would happenif fuel supplies dried up? Two University ofCanterbury academics hope their researchwill help cities prepare for a future wheretransportation could be affected by limitedfuel supplies.Dr Susan Krumdieck, a senior lecturer inMechanical Engineering, and Dr AndreDantas, a lecturer in Civil Engineering, haveteamed up for the 15-month project, fundedby Land Transport New Zealand.The goal of the project is to develop ananalysis method that will help city andtransport planners work toward citiesthat better handle disruptions to theirfuel supply.A city’s layout and density will affecthow well it can respond to a fuel shortage.Where people live farther from where theywork, shop and go to school, they are morelikely to feel the effect of supply fluctuations.The pair says there has yet to be anyinvestigation into the relationship betweentransportation and energy from a planningperspective. Krumdieck says transportationplanners assume there will always be a fuelsource allowing people to travel as much asthey wish, believing “if there’s a shortage,the price will go up and that will bring newsupply into the market”.But Krumdieck says data frommany sources indicatesthat the world hasnow hit peak oilproduction, which isreflected in high oilprices. Oil refineriesare at full capacityand will never beable to produce more. In fact, she says, thesupply will gradually decline.Dantas says when — not if — it declines, thereis no theory available to help plan, designand operate transportation systems.Krumdieck and Dantas aim to illustratethe nature and likelihood of certain petrolinterruptions or shortages, as well ascalculate how likely they are to occur over thenext 20 years. The nature of the event willdetermine how significant its impact will be.Small, short-term disruptions will cause fewproblems. However, more significant supplyproblems could lead the International EnergyAgency to order member countries to reduceconsumption. If the government chooses tocontrol supply with petrol rationing, peoplein sprawling cities are more likely to feelthe impact than those in smaller or morecompact communities, both because theirfuel needs are greater and because they mayhave fewer alternative transport options.These shortages might seriously affectpeople’s well-being, particularly the elderlyor those with lesser mobility or smallchildren to care for. Krumdieck says part ofthe research will be to determine just whichgroups will feel the greatest impact.The research will also try to determinewhat types of cities would be the mostresilient, that is, able to use other forms oftransportation to carry on with theirnormal activities.The nature of a shortage is just as importantas its length in determining how people willbe able to cope.A shortage brought about by a politicalhiccup or natural disaster might have lessimpact than other types of shortage. IfAustralia decided not to allow us some oilbecause they took a dislike to one of NewZealand’s political policies “we could actuallyhave a strong national sentiment about that,and would hang together and do what thegovernment asks us to do,” says Krumdieck.This would contrast with a situation wherefuel is in limited supply, causing extremelyhigh prices. “It’s possible that what you’ll seeis just a really different distribution systemto what you have now, because there’ll bewhole segments of society who drop out ofthat system, as opposed to everybody beingin the same boat with a rationing system.”This could create tension within a communitybetween the haves and the have-nots, withthose on lower incomes most affected.The research will also try to place values ondifferent transport activities, somethingthat transportation planners have alsooverlooked. “They don’t delineate that someactivities and some trips that people take areessential while some aren’t,” Krumdieck says.Getting to the doctor and getting food willbe more important to ensuring people’s wellbeingthan taking a trip to the mall to shopwith friends.At this stage of the research, Dantas saysthey are being fairly arbitrary in decidingwhat is essential and what is not. “Thisis because we just want to have an initialidea of what is going to happen to urbandevelopment and the transportation system.In subsequent research efforts, we shouldget more money to study what exactly isessential.”The models created will be applied totwo different urban forms, based on twocity scenarios outlined in the GreaterChristchurch Urban Development Strategy.One is a Christchurch where developmenthas been concentrated within the city andat satellite points such as Rangiora andRolleston. The other is where developmenthas spread out across the Canterbury Plains.“Those two urban forms we’re looking at arerather abstract. But the point here is, if thisanalysis method does work out then we canapply it to existing forms to get some idea ofhow they need to change to be more resilient,to be more reliable,” says Krumdieck.If the research showed that certain types ofcities did not function well in the face of oilshortages, then this would help both city andtransport planners prepare for the future.Both the Christchurch City Council and thecontractors the city hires to design andbuild infrastructure systems are involvedin the research. The council can then usethe findings to regulate for a city that willbest deal with the consequences of fuelshortages.Krumdieck says the research is alsoimportant for city residents, because it couldgive them a basis to lobby against certaintypes of cities. Many people do not like urbansprawl, but feel they have no real leverage toprevent it from happening.But if the research shows residents ofsprawling cities are more likely to be affectedby fuel shortages than those living in smallercities, then residents could oppose sprawl onpractical grounds as well as emotional.Even when the project has finished, Dantassays there will still be more research tocomplete. “Susan and I have to write a bookabout the theory and concepts that we aredeveloping.” After that it is a SimCity type ofgame showing the link between energy andtransport. “Then we will get people to realisethat what we are talking about will work andit won’t hurt. It will be much better; but weought to start ASAP.”Groundbreaking research being completedby a doctoral student at the University ofCanterbury could help improve the treatmentof a disabling psychological disorderwhich affects two to three per cent of thepopulation.Emily O’Leary (Psychology) is investigatingthe cognitive processes associated withspecific subtypes of Obsessive CompulsiveDisorder (OCD), which is characterisedby recurrent unwanted and unpleasantthoughts (obsessions), and/or repetitiveritualistic behaviours sufferers feel driven toperform (compulsions).Probably the most recognised “face” ofthe disorder is Melvin Udall, the obsessivecompulsiveauthor played by Jack Nicholsonin the 1997 movie, As Good As It Gets.“When most people think of OCD it iswashing hands, avoiding stepping oncracks, checking and rechecking locks (likeNicholson’s character). People don’t realisethe intrinsic nature of how complex andcovert the obsessions and compulsions canget, how disabling it is for people and howmuch energy it takes for a person with OCDto get through their day,” O’Leary said.It is this lack of understanding of theheterogeneity of the illness that O’Learyhopes will be reversed by a documentaryon OCD being made by Production Linewhich will feature her research. The crewfilmed participants taking part in O’Leary’sbehavioural study in May, and Touch Woodis scheduled for screening on TV1 as part ofits “Documentary New Zealand” series inearly 2006.O’Leary has nearly completed herdissertation, having spent four yearsresearching the etiological componentsof the disorder.Her research is heavily driven by cognitiveappraisalmodels. Although differingin emphasis, these theories posit thatcertain predisposing beliefs lead to amisinterpretation of the significance of theintrusive thoughts or obsessions. Compulsiverituals are seen as attempts to reduce theassociated distress.In 2001 a group of international researchers,known as the Obsessive CompulsiveCognitions Working Group (OCCWG),proposed that six beliefs are critical to thepersistence of OCD: inflated responsibility;importance of controlling one’s thoughts;intolerance to uncertainty; perfectionism;importance of thoughts; and over-estimationof threat.As part of her PhD research, O’Learyinvestigated whether these beliefs couldbe profiled according to OCD subtype. Forexample, she looked at whether individualswith hoarding obsessions have strongerbeliefs about the need to control one’sthoughts compared to those with aggressiveobsessions (intrusive thoughts aboutharming others).In the largest study into OCD in New Zealandto date, O’Leary conducted a series oftests with 70 individuals diagnosed withthe disorder.For the third and final study participantswere selected on the basis of their OCDsymptom subtype (aggressive, symmetry,contamination or hoarding obsessions) andcompleted six behavioural tasks tappinginto certain beliefs. One scenario involvedparticipants approaching and putting theirhands in a rubbish bin containing pseudocontaminants.Their anxiety levels were measured as theyapproached and when they put their handsin to touch the contaminants (which untilthe completion of the exercise they wereled to believe were things like food scrapsand animal hair). O’Leary clinically observedaspects of their behaviour and, in particular,how long they could keep their hands in thebin and for how long they washed their handsafter the test.The results supported previous conclusions,as strong correlations between certainbeliefs and the individual’s primaryobsessional complaint (subtype) wereobserved. The use of experimental methodsalso proved extremely useful in allowingO’Leary to examine the subtleties inparticipants’ responses.“The use of experimental methodologywas crucial, as the tasks really showed thestrength of these people’s beliefs. In somecases, the individual was unaware they hadthese beliefs until the experiment, as theyhad not endorsed them in earlier pen andpencil-type tests.”O’Leary’s studies revealed that while the sixbeliefs were present in all OCD subtypes, eachOCD subtype could be profiled according toprominence of belief types. For instance,the profile that emerged for the symmetrysubtype was a strong preoccupation withperfectionism and control beliefs, and thosewith a contamination obsession exhibitedinflated responsibility beliefs and overestimatedthreat.O’Leary believes that clarifying the roleof cognitive processes in the disorder willenhance the treatment of people with OCD.“By showing through my research thatpeople display distinct styles of responsedepending on subtype, utilising theseprofiles will hopefully cut down time intreatment, make treatment more efficient,and basically give us, as psychologists, moreof an idea about where to target.”14 Canterbury Magazine Summer 2005 15

BEHIND THEBARRIERSBy Maria De CortWhen you think “field research” and the list oflocations at which you might expect to find aPhD student conducting it, a gang clubhouseprobably does not feature. But clubhouses, andmany other gang haunts, are where University ofCanterbury postgraduate student Jarrod Gilberthas spent a great deal of time undertakinggroundbreaking research into thehistory of New Zealand gangs.The sociology researcher has spent thepast three years studying the rise anddevelopment of gangs in New Zealand, fromthe bodgies and widgies era of the 1950sthrough to the present day gang scene. Theproject is the first of its type ever done inNew Zealand and will shed light on a facet ofNew Zealand history that has been neglectedby researchers up until this point.So what made Gilbert, a former UCSApresident who grew up on Auckland’s NorthShore and had never crossed paths with agang member, decide to immerse himself inthe gang underworld for his PhD thesis?He points to the Harassment and CriminalAssociations Bill of 1998, a package ofmeasures introduced to deal with gangs thatincluded an explanatory note stating “there(was) no independent data or research aboutgang activities”.“I thought, how can we bring in laws in theabsence of no real research? It was a greatopportunity to do some,” says Gilbert.Gilbert says the value of his study willbe in its understanding of how and whygangs come to exist and what factors havecontributed to their endurance and growth.Such research, he says, is vital to building thefoundations of sound social policy.His thesis will look at the changing faceof gangs — from being a part-time hobbyor phase of life for rebellious youth in thepost-World War II period to something muchmore a life focus from the 1970s onwards;from the heyday of the biker gangs to therise of the ethnic patch-wearing gangs. Hewill examine specific elements of gangs suchas the significance of the clubhouse, theimportance of the patch, how individualsprospect for a gang, and attitudes towardspolice and authority.While the dictates of fashion might be seeingthe rise of ethnic and “homie” gangs overbike gangs which are not pulling in the samerecruits as they once did, Gilbert says onething hasn’t changed about gangs since theearly days.“The raison d’être is still brotherhood, asense of belonging. If you’ve got very littlein your life and you don’t perceive society’sdoors are open to you, then you put on thatpatch and suddenly you are not just one ofthe masses, you are suddenly something.”Gilbert began his PhD research back in2002 and the primary sources have beeninterviews with police, politicians, policymakers and current and former members ofgangs themselves.It took Gilbert the better part of two-anda-halfyears to build up the network ofconnections he has today and he admits ithas been a challenge.Photo: IWC MediaDennis Makalio, member of the Rougue Chapter of the Mongrel Mob (left), and presenter Ross Kemp during filming for adocumentary for Sky UK.“You’ve got to understand that gangs don’tspeak to the media. They’re inherentlysuspicious of people like me, outsiders or‘baldheads’ as they might call me.”Looking back, he says he realises how “green”he was, asking ridiculous questions andtrying hard not to look conspicuous.“When I first started seeing the ethnic gangsI grew this terrible scraggy beard just tomake myself look a little less like a baldheadand when I started seeing the white bikeclubs I shaved my head; and yes, you drink atruckload of liquor and you learn that it’s notabout asking the right questions as muchas it is about shutting your mouth untilyou are trusted.”After making some initial contacts Gilbertsaid it was a “snowball” process — oneintroduction led to a few more, evenbetween rival gangs.It was Gilbert’s research and his extensiveconnections which led a televisionproduction company, IWC Media, to hisdoor and saw him score a stint as associateproducer with a British documentary crewearlier this year.IWC Media had been contracted by Sky UKto work on a series of four documentarieson gangs around the world, fronted by RossKemp, the actor best known for playingEastEnders hard man Grant Mitchell. NewZealand’s Mongrel Mob gang was the first inthe “Ross Kemp on Gangs” series screened onSky One in July this year.In the one-hour documentary Kemp getsa guided tour of various clubhouses andMob events from a member of the MongrelMob’s Rogue Chapter. Kemp also interviewspolice and victims of Mob violence and looksback on historical footage of gang-relatedincidents in New Zealand history.“The idea was to say ‘Here is the MongrelMob, this violent sort of outfit. Here is whatthe police and media say about them. Let’stry to get inside them and see what they arereally like’.”Gilbert is quick to stress that there is muchmore to gangs than is portrayed in thepapers or on our screens.“To categorise them solely as a criminalenterprise is a long way from the truth andit is something that the police, politiciansand the media tend to do. But it is a genuinemisrepresentation and I think I was just assurprised as anybody by that.“One of the most curious features of thisstudy is that when you get to know manyof these people within the gangs they’resurprisingly normal — a little rough roundthe edges it would be fair to say, and perhapswith a criminal inclination, but neverthelesswhen you see them with their son ordaughter bouncing on their knee or at homemowing the lawns you realise that they’vegot very similar sorts of lifestyles to the restof us on the whole.”Despite the fact that Gilbert would nowgenuinely call some gang associates hisfriends, his path to earning his PhD has notbeen a smooth one.“I’ve had a couple of what they’d call ‘blues’and I’ve been threatened more than you’dcare to imagine. But I was aware it’s just partof the territory and while there have beenmoments that have been frightening, a lotof it is just everyday life — it is not alwaysdodging bullets and knives.”Continued on page 1816 Canterbury Magazine Summer 2005 17

Continued from page 17Health checkBy Norma OdendaalIn cases where conflict has arisen, Gilbertsays there is no winning formula for everysituation but a quick wit can come in handy.“I remember diffusing a situation one timewhere a guy came charging around a barabsolutely intent on taking my head offbecause he thought, through some terriblemiscommunication, that I was challenginghim to a fight. In the end I challenged himto a spelling bee which just made everybodylaugh and made him lose track and thingscalmed down. But often humour doesn’twork and I’ve found myself on the wrong endof a bar stool on occasions. There are a lot ofJake the Musses out there.”Gilbert is in the process of writing up hisPhD thesis and hopes to have it published asa book, which he thinks will not only make“a gripping read” but also go a long waytowards providing a foundation for futurepolicy making.He believes that in New Zealand the onlyavenue that has been travelled down to solvethe problem of gangs has been staunchdeterrent legislation and that is dangerous.“To think you can bust the gangs throughstronger and stronger law is just false. Thepolice are charged with solving a problemthat on their own they simply cannot. Peoplejoin gangs because they want to rebelagainst society. Unless you can change themwanting to do that you are not going tochange gangs.”While it is easy to see how Gilbert’s researchwill help police and policy makers, what isnot so obvious initially is how the gangsthemselves benefit from letting him intotheir circle to conduct research. He says thatit comes down to a natural desire to havetheir place in the historic record.“I think all people want their place in historywritten down or understood and I think thatthe gangs, by and large, are really frustratedby the continual misrepresentation withinthe media, so they figure if they’ve gotsomeone they can trust to portray the storyaccurately then that is in their favour.”With the opening of the GeoHealth Laboratory, the University of Canterbury is establishing itself as thepre-eminent centre studying academic health geography in the southern hemisphere.High suicide and child mortality rates, healthcareinequalities, and air quality-related diseases arebut a few of the current health and social issues inNew Zealand that are being researched by the GeoHealthLaboratory at the University of Canterbury.Begun as a joint venture by the Ministry of Health andthe Department of Geography late last year, the GeoHealthLaboratory undertakes policy-relevant research into social,environmental or geographical impacts on a range ofhealth issues.According to co-director Dr Jamie Pearce, the study of thegeographic determinants of health is becoming increasinglycritical. He is hopeful research done at the University ofCanterbury in collaboration with Public Health Intelligence— a key Ministry of Health unit that is leading the healthsector in the delivery of specialised expertise and advice— will feed into the health policy debate and lead to improvedpolicy formulation.“We have to look at the reasons behind geographicalvariation — how the place where you live affects your healthand why,” says Pearce.An example is the research currently being done tomeasure the health outcomes deriving from air pollution inChristchurch. The city’s smog is thought to hasten the deathof about 70 people per year. And already the study has foundthat there are also clear links between poverty and the effectsof air pollution, with residents of the poorer suburbs moreexposed to the smog problems.“So far we have been looking at the smog issue within aChristchurch context, but we are now ready to look at it on awider scale,” says Pearce. Eventually the outcome of this study,and others, may lead to effective policies that will hopefullyminimise smog-related health problems across New Zealand.Other areas of research for the GeoHealth Laboratoryare New Zealand’s higher than average suicide and childmortality rates.“Looking at geographical variations, researchers hope toultimately understand why New Zealand finds itself in thisposition, thereby creating a policy framework in which we canstart working on reducing them,” says Pearce.Despite New Zealand having a relatively small population,health inequalities are fast becoming a headache for both theauthorities and for those not receiving their fair share of thehealth pie.“The issue of health inequalities is a prime example of howgeographics are applied to our research,” says Pearce. “Weare seeing different health outcomes in different parts of thecountry and we, as researchers, are faced with the challenge offinding answers to an extremely complex problem.”The research means close co-operation with a variety ofhealthcare providers, including many grass roots organisations.Apart from research, one of the most important functionsof the GeoHealth Laboratory is to provide specialist publichealth training tailored to the needs of the health sector.“We are now in the process of organising training coursesand methodological workshops for people in the health sector,to point them towards geographical factors that may beimportant when putting policies together,” he says.Researchers at the GeoHealth Laboratory are also workingclosely with Ministry of Health researchers on a variety ofother issues. “Our research and that done by the Ministry ofHealth had a lot in common and it was only sensible to doublethe results of our efforts by working together in a partnership,”says Pearce.So far it has proven to be a profitable relationship forthe University, not only in financial terms, but also in puttingvaluable research into the public arena. “All too often researchsits hidden in some obscure academic journal or library —this way our research gets exposed to useful public debate,”Pearce says.The financial advantages of such a partnership are obvious.With academic institutions worldwide struggling to meet thecosts of thorough research, the GeoHealth Laboratory’s workis core-funded by the Ministry of Health and also receivesfunding from the Health Research Council, Ministry ofthe Environment, University of Canterbury and DiabetesNew Zealand.The partnership has also opened new doors for manystudents. Besides the fact that some of them are alreadyinvolved in current research by the laboratory, scholarships arenow being offered to Masters and PhD students who wish tofurther their studies in areas that fall within the focus of theGeoHealth Laboratory.The main advantage for New Zealand health authoritiesis the development of a practically-led research portfolio,focused on delivering high quality information to help betterthe understanding of the spatial patterns and determinants ofdisease in New Zealand.And with new challenges constantly arising, the GeoHealthLaboratory has its work cut out — like for instance last year’santi-smoking legislation that was (and still is) the subject ofpassionate, sometimes bitter, debate among various sectors ofNew Zealand society. Pearce says with the ban now almost ayear old, the laboratory is ready to start looking at the effectsof those laws.“Although research done in other countries would suggestthat a smoking-ban, such as the one that came into effect lastyear, reduces the incidence of heart disease and other smokingrelateddiseases, we will have to do our own research into theeffects it has in this country.”While it is too early yet for any conclusions, it is the type ofresearch that is bound to emphasise the importance of such astudy facility in years to come.And, although the partnership has been set up for an initialperiod of three years, Pearce foresees an ongoing and growingrelationship that should eventually lead to policies being putin place that ensure a healthier New Zealand.18 Canterbury Magazine Summer 2005 19

Forestryfrom atotallydifferentangleBy Norma OdendaalWith a rainforest the size of Austria, Sarawak hasthe world’s largest and most diverse ecosystem. Itprovides a home for the orang-utan, deer the sizeof cats, the world’s largest flower, and plants that eat smallmammals.Situated on the island of Borneo, Sarawak is Malaysia’slargest state and by far the most exotic. And every year a groupof forestry students from the University of Canterbury isgranted the opportunity to explore one of the world’s largesttimber producing areas as guests of the Sarawak TimberAssociation.The relationship between the Sarawak Timber Associationand the New Zealand School of Forestry at CanterburyUniversity dates back to 2000 when two UC alumni involvedin the association invited a group of students to experienceforestry from a totally different angle.And different it is. Dr Rob Douglas (Director of Studies,Forest Engineering), who accompanies the students, sayseverything there is the opposite of what his students arelearning and experiencing of forestry in New Zealand.“The situation is flipped,” he says. “We are talking about atemperate versus tropical climate, where logging takes place innatural forests as opposed to plantation forests like we have inNew Zealand.”He says it is an eye-opener for the students. “The idea is totake them way out of their comfort zone, because that is whereyou learn things.”Leaving New Zealand in the midst of winter, they moveout of their comfort zone the moment they set foot inthe sweltering equatorial heat of South East Asia. For thefollowing two weeks they experience an industry where amassive 13 million cubic metres of logs per year are harvested.Fourth-year student, Julia Stanley, who went on thisyear’s trip to Sarawak, describes the experience as a “hugerevelation”.“It opened my eyes to the very different approaches andattitudes towards forestry. Before we went, I thought everyonedid what we were learning to do at the School of Forestry,”she says.It is a busy two weeks for the students. Visiting a nationalpark, museums, a wildlife refuge and a cultural village maysound like a tourist itinerary, but the visits are essentially togather data and information. Although the Sarawak field tripis not a formal part of the course and is made strictly on avolunteer basis, it definitely involves the academic hard yards.A seminar is organised before the trip where a portfolio isallocated to each student, covering topics like marketing, soil,wildlife, plants and labour. Each student is responsible forgathering as much information as possible regarding his/herportfolio topic and the results are eventually shared with, andexplained to, the rest of the forestry students.But the main purpose of the field trip revolves aroundforestry. Many sawmills are visited where students are oftenoverwhelmed by the sheer size and volume of the wood beingprocessed. Douglas says that in New Zealand only aboutthree species are harvested commercially. In Sarawakthey are looking at between three and four hundredcommercial species.It is also the world’s second largest exporter of tropicalplywood, about 21 times New Zealand’s exports. That calls fora totally different operational process. There are also uniquelabour implications and totally different social challenges:people from 27 different ethnic groups living and workingtogether in difficult conditions where they are paid verylow wages compared to New Zealand workers and are notprotected by the strict safety regulations New Zealandersare used to.“I think it is safe to say they don’t have an equivalent ofOSH [Occupational Safety and Health] in Sarawak,” saysStanley. “The workers in the mills don’t have ear or eyeprotection and the few that were actually wearing footwearonly had jandals on.”Another of the students who took part in this year’s fieldtrip, John Soutar, says he now has a greater appreciation ofthe controls placed on development in New Zealand, andfor OSH.“I would view the Malaysian forest industry to be severaldecades behind that of New Zealand on ground leveloperations. It will help me professionally by allowing meto reflect upon what we are doing right in the industry andthe actions we need to take in order to remain competitiveglobally,” he says.Typically, the study tour also includes a briefing onsustainable forest management by the Sarawak TimberAssociation. This year the association asked some of thestudents to do a presentation about forestry in New Zealand.Students usually visit a forest nursery and a charcoal plantas well as plantations. Stanley describes the first viewing of theplantation forest near Bintulu in the interior of Sarawak as a“huge shock”. She says that the area where the trees are beingestablished is secondary jungle, which is similar to rain forest.“All merchantable species (timber with a commercialvalue) in this jungle are harvested and the remaining treesburnt. But then planting crews go in and plant into clearedland,” she says.The study tour group (only about seven to nine) typicallyconsists of third and fourth-year students, with the occasionalpostgraduate student joining them. All of them are volunteersand they have to raise the money through sponsorships andfundraising initiatives to be able to go.Douglas feels that exposing the students to everythingassociated with forestry on a global scale is worth the cost, andthe Sarawak Timber Association also benefits in the sense thatit exposes its staff to overseas people, thereby reminding themthat they are part of a global economic community.Sarawak Timber Association General Manager BarneyChan, a Canterbury University alumnus, says Sarawak isunder intense scrutiny in forestry circles around the world, sothe students obtain a first-hand insight into its complexities.To do so while sampling the vibrant culture, unfamiliarfood and fascinating scenery truly makes the study tour a tripof a lifetime for the students, and broadens their outlook justas they are embarking on their careers.(Above) Students tour the large acacia seedling nursery at Grand Perfect Co.’s forestplantation facility inland from Bintulu.(Below) Exotic flora and fauna are abundant in Bako National Park near Kuching.Photo: Delwyn Ledingham.Photo: Ryan D’Ath.20 Canterbury Magazine Summer 2005 21

UC FoundationProvincial Finance directors investing in their pastAll Black great Colin Meads has alreadygiven his backing to Christchurch-basedProvincial Finance Ltd; now the companyfounded by two University of Canterburyalumni is giving its backing to a newprofessorial chair in the College ofBusiness and Economics.Provincial Finance has agreed to contribute$400,000 over the next five years towardsthe running costs of what will be known asthe Provincial Finance Chair in InvestmentFinance.Formed in 1987, Provincial Finance is led byCEO John Edilson, who graduated in 1985 witha BCom, and the company’s founder DavidLyall, who graduated with an LLB in 1987.Provincial Finance has grown to become oneof New Zealand’s most successful secondtierconsumer finance companies.The arrangement brokered by theUniversity’s own charitable trust, theUniversity of Canterbury Foundation, is thefirst of its kind at Canterbury University. Itwill allow Provincial Finance to contributefunds incrementally over the next fouryears instead of the traditional lump sumcontribution.The University will fund the core costs ofthe Chair, and the funding from ProvincialFinance will be used to supplement theprofessorial salary and to support a doctoralstudent and a personal research grant.UC Foundation’s Executive Officer, ShelaghMurray, says the arrangement with ProvincialFinance is a model the University hopes toemulate in the future for sponsored chairs.“The ability for companies to makecontributions without having to front upwith a lump sum is a win-win situation.We think an arrangement like this will beattractive to other companies and individualslooking to support the University.”Edilson’s passion for finance was fired wellbefore his days at Canterbury University.“I can remember when I was at high schoollending money to my fellow pupils to buytheir lunch. Lending money is the basis ofmaking society work. When you lend moneypeople can buy a house or people can buy abusiness and it makes the whole world goround. That’s the reality.”Edilson says Provincial Finance’s enthusiasmfor the new professorship is based on morethan just sentimentality.“The fact the arrangement is somethingdifferent and that it’s our old varsity was abig influence on us. But we want it to helpJohn Edilson (left) and Pro-Vice-Chancellor (Business and Economics) Professor Nigel Healey finalise the details of the newprofessorial chair, watched over by UC Foundation Chairman Colin Averill and Foundation Executive Officer Shelagh Murray.the College of Business and Economicsbecome more interactive with thebusiness community.“I think it is very important for the Universityand for the students to understand that whatthey learn here and what they do here doeshave some relevance for the market place.”Those views are shared by College of Businessand Economics Pro-Vice-Chancellor, ProfessorNigel Healey, who says the College wants toestablish itself as a leading research centrein the Asia-Pacific region. It also aims toproduce highly-employable students fromworld-class programmes and to make a majorcontribution to the economic developmentof the region.“This exciting new initiative with ProvincialFinance, in which a major investmentcompany will be sponsoring a chair ininvestment finance, represents a significantstep forward in achieving these goals.“Provincial Finance’s support will allow theCollege to attract a world-class academic tothe University, to lead the development ofnew research and teaching programmes inthe area of investment finance.”Healey hopes to make an appointment intime for the 2006 academic year.Fund launched in memory offormer forestry lecturerAn annual award fund has been set up bythe University of Canterbury Foundation inconjunction with Canterbury University’sNew Zealand School of Forestry in memoryof Dr Graham Whyte (above), who diedearlier this year.The establishment of the fund has alsobeen supported by the New Zealand Instituteof Forestry.Whyte, a specialist in forest managementsystems, forest planning and productionforecasting, died in June, aged 66, after along battle with leukaemia.Whyte retired in January 1995 after more than25 years at the University. He was the “firstto sign on the dotted line” in the recruitmentcampaign carried out by the School’sfounding professor, Peter McKelvey, in 1968.He was promoted to reader in 1981 and wasHead of School from 1992 until he retired.The purpose of the Graham Whyte Fund, inaccordance with Whyte’s wishes, is to providean annual prize to the best performingpostgraduate student after one year of study.University of Canterbury FoundationExecutive Officer Shelagh Murray saiddonations to the fund were flowing in.“We are very pleased with the level ofsupport that individuals and companies areproviding.”She said just over $5600 was raised withinthe first couple of weeks of the fund beingestablished.One company that donated to the fund saidmany of its consultants were well taught byWhyte “and they continue to appreciate theskills he imparted”.“We wish recipients of this award all thebest with their future studies and we thankyou for extending the invitation to make acontribution,” the donor said.Whyte, who knew the fund was being set upbefore he died, also made a contribution.Whyte was a graduate of Aberdeen andOxford universities, a Fellow of the NewZealand Institute of Forestry and a recipientof the institute’s Thomas Kirk Award in 2000.He will be remembered for his passion forforestry, his fearlessness in debate and hiscommitment to forestry education.• Those interested in making a donation tothe fund should contact:Shelagh Murray, Executive OfficerUniversity of Canterbury FoundationPrivate Bag 4800, ChristchurchPh: +64 3 364 2550Email: shelagh.murray@canterbury.ac.nzThe Gift of LearningThe University of Canterbury hasextended its official fundraisingactivities to the United States.Vice-Chancellor Professor Roy Sharpjoined alumni and prospective financialsupporters in New York, Washington andSan Francisco at functions in September2005 to promote the University ofCanterbury Foundation in America, Inc.Sharp, who visited the United Stateswith Chancellor Dr Robin Mann, RegistrarJeff Field and Alumni and DevelopmentManager Shelagh Murray, says thefunctions were an ideal way to promotethe new charity.“Aside from the fact that it is always apleasure meeting alumni wherever theyare in the world, these functions were agreat way of making our alumni in theUS aware of our charity and projects theymight want to support.”Sharp says the fundraising potential inthe United States is very exciting.“For a long time now the tax structure inthe United States, for example, has madeit easier for individuals and businessesto provide charitable financial support.We want to tap into this by providinga means for our supporters in theUS to contribute to the University ofCanterbury’s fundraising efforts.”Prior to visiting the United States, Sharpattended alumni events in Malaysia andthe UK (see page 40 for details).Making a bequest to the University of Canterbury FoundationSituated in Christchurch, the University of Canterbury is New Zealand’s second oldestuniversity. The Gift of Learning, a bequest to the University of Canterbury, is youropportunity to invest in future generations by helping to assure the world-class educationoffered at this University. It is an investment that requires no financial commitment now,yetensures a continuing contribution to higher education in the future.If you or your lawyer would like further information on making a bequest to the Universityof Canterbury Foundation, please contact the Executive Officer. In all cases we shall bepleased to discuss the possibility and options with you.We will ensure that your supportfor the University meets your requirements and will be applied in the most effective way.The Executive OfficerUniversity of Canterbury FoundationPrivate Bag 4800, Christchurch, NZTelephone: 64-3-364 2550 Facsimile: 64-3-364 2679Email: ucfoundation@canterbury.ac.nzUC seeks fundingin USA22 Canterbury Magazine Summer 2005 23

A career by negotiationBy Chanel HughesCareer diplomat Rosemary Banks steps onto the world stage with herlatest ambassadorial appointment.In July this year Rosemary Banks took upa role to which she has been gravitatingfor much of her diplomatic career, as NewZealand’s Permanent Representative to theUnited Nations (UN).She joins a select group of just 18 womenamongst the 191-strong membership, whichincludes the also recently appointed femaleambassador for Latvia and Croatia.However Banks is unfazed about being in thefeminine minority and is well accustomed tobeing the only woman in the room. Now 54,she has worked for the Ministry of ForeignAffairs and Trade since graduating fromthe University of Canterbury in 1975 witha Master of Arts in Russian. Among otherpositions with the ministry, she has beendeputy high commissioner to the SolomonIslands (1985-7) and Australia (1992-5), andfor the past four years, deputy secretary formultilateral affairs.The UN has been a recurring theme in hercareer. Banks’ first role was in the UnitedNations and Commonwealth Division;her first overseas experience was a sixmonthfellowship at the UNESCO (UnitedNations Educational, Scientific and CulturalOrganisation) Headquarters in Paris; andher first overseas posting was to the UnitedNations in Geneva. As deputy secretary, shehas been responsible for all of New Zealand’sUnited Nations-based multilateral efforts.Going into her new role Banks has clearobjectives. With the UN currently undergoingreform she wants New Zealand to makecontributions to the process, particularlyin areas of importance to our government,such as peacebuilding, human rights and thestrengthening of UN management.A second objective is to promote NewZealand candidate Sir Kenneth Keith’sappointment to the Court of InternationalJustice, which would be a Kiwi first.“Overall I hope to continue to build on NewZealand’s positive reputation at the UN, sowe can use this as leverage in pursuing ournational interests,” she says. A particularfocus over the next four years will be oceansmanagement and the challenges posed byover-fishing, illegal fishing and pollution.Banks says New Zealand’s reputation atthe UN has been won by the hard work andcreativity of generations of ministers andmultilateral diplomats.“We are seen as constructive in the way wetry to find solutions and flexible in our abilityto work with countries from all regions.“We are not powerful as a country inconventional ways, but we can exertconsiderable influence through being seenas independent-minded and objective in ourapproach to issues.”The reform initiative, launched in 2003 byUN Secretary-General Kofi Annan, followson the heels of criticism of the organisationby some of its major financial backers,including the United States, and a sense offrustration shared by many countries at howthe structure operates.“The UN, by its own admission, is at a turningpoint in the road,” Banks says. “What wehave right now is an organisation whoseunderlying processes and structures haveremained largely unchanged throughout its60-year history.“The purposes of the organisation set outin its Charter are just as fresh and relevanttoday as ever — to protect future generationsfrom the scourge of war and to promotedevelopment and individual freedom. Andthe core values need no updating: respect forhuman rights and human dignity, equality,tolerance, respect for nature, the rule of law,and non-resort to the threat or use of force.What does need to change is the way the UNgoes about its work and the way in which themember states support this.”Banks says that one of the many challengesthe UN faces is how it adapts its style ofoperation to the size of its membership,which has grown from 51 member statesat its establishment in 1945 to the current191, a sometimes unwieldy number fordecision-making.Another problem is the growing complexityof the issues that countries are facing — “themagnitude, on a global scale, of HIV Aids, forexample, has required the establishment of anew UN organisation to respond”.With growing complexity comes anincreasing demand for resources. “Responsesto humanitarian crises often appear to beslow,” Banks says, “but that is determinedby whether member states give the UNthe funds and resources it needs to carryout such missions. It is easy to blame theUN when we should be looking at memberstates’ reactions.”An important milestone in the reformprocess was the September 2005 WorldSummit at the UN Headquarters in New York,the largest gathering of world leaders inhistory, which established a starting pointfor a number of reforms, from human rights,terrorism and peacebuilding to economicdevelopment and management.One important outcome was the decisionto establish an advisory body to be knownas the Peacebuilding Commission. “This willsupport countries coming out of conflictand ensure a holistic and co-ordinatedinvolvement by UN agencies.”Banks says there will still be bumps ahead,as general commitments are translated intopractical details, “but most countries areoptimistic that there will be some genuineimprovements and commitments to updateand renew some of the creakier parts of theUN system”.A typical day for Banks in her New York officeinvolves a mixture of formal meetings and“behind the scenes” work. On this particulardiary day, she has a breakfast meetingwith Pacific Forum ambassadors to discusscounter-terrorism measures in the Pacific andthe regional co-ordination of Security Councilreporting obligations. Next on the agenda isan appearance before the Security Council todeliver a statement on the conclusion of theUN mission to Bougainville.Around noon there is a call on the Under-Secretary-General for Political Affairs in theUN Secretariat. “Acting together as we oftendo, the representatives of Australia, Canadaand New Zealand have, on instruction fromour governments, sought a discussion on therole the UN could play in Zimbabwe.“In the afternoon, I dip into so-calledinformal consultations on how to set up anew UN human rights body, as decided atthe September summit. These ‘informal’consultations are, despite the description,quite formal. Speakers take the microphoneat the Chair’s invitation and deliverstatements that have been carefully preparedand, in many cases, cleared with capitals.”After that she heads for a genuinely informalconsultation, a coffee in the delegates’lounge with a group of ambassadors whoare meeting to discuss ways to improve theworking methods of the Security Council.There is still time after this for two callson ambassadors — one African and oneCaribbean — to promote Keith’s candidacy forthe International Court of Justice.“Then it’s back to the office to catch up withstaff, clear away the work that has beenpiling up on my desk, and read the usualflood of emails. In the evening, I attend anational day reception hosted by Egypt. I setout with a checklist of the people I need tosee to get particular pieces of informationor to check perspectives on negotiations ofspecial interest to New Zealand.”Banks did not always have her sights set ona diplomatic career. It was friend and mentorAlex Lojkine, a lecturer in the University’sRussian Department, who encouraged her toconsider the foreign service.“He was aware that postgraduate studies inRussian did not automatically open doorsand took a close interest in his students’career options. I was aware that several otherstudents who had majored in Russian hadfollowed this path.”And it is a field she has clearly thrived in,excelling at times of high pressure, suchas during the New Zealand Government’sresponses to the Boxing Day Tsunami of 2004and the 2002 Bali bombings.“There is enormous satisfaction in being ableto use our well-oiled systems of governmentto get help to where it is needed,” shesays. “While stressful, these events testall systems — human resources andcommunications, information management,and co-ordination around the world withposts and partner countries.”Banks has also enjoyed the quieter moments,such as the opportunity to lay the wreathon ANZAC Day at the Australian NationalWar Memorial in Canberra when she wasacting high commissioner. “This is a momentof intense symbolism in the Australia-New Zealand relationship and of personalpoignancy for me in that my father wasproud to have had wartime service in theNew Zealand Army.”The only drawback Banks can identify aboutthe life of a diplomat is the high degree ofmobility. “Everything has to be portable,” shesays, “partners, pets and pastimes.”“Some people thrive on this; others grumbleand carry on, and some find they are notprepared to pay the price. I am well awarethat this has been a challenge for myhusband, Brian Lockstone, who has beenwonderfully adaptable and a constantsource of support.“You have to be able to hold onto theexcitement and keep the disruption to yourpersonal life in perspective. It is still a greatprivilege for a diplomat to represent his orher country, and everyone I know in ourMinistry of Foreign Affairs and Trade feelshighly motivated by this.”• Sir Kenneth Keith was successfullyappointed to the Court of InternationalJustice on 8 November.Rosemary Banks presents her credentials to His Excellency Mr Kofi Annan, Secretary-General of the United Nations.Photo courtesy of Rosemary Banks.24 Canterbury Magazine Summer 2005 25

Media mogulBy Chanel HughesMTV, Music Television: arbiter of fashion, shaper of contemporary global culture, and one of the biggestAmerican brands worldwide influencing the youth market is controlled outside of the US by 50-year-oldNew Zealander Brent Hansen.Based at the bustling MTV Europe headquarters in theheart of Camden, London, Hansen sits at the helm of abillion-dollar industry that shapes the tastes, trends anddesires of youth culture around the world, as Editor-in-Chiefand President of Creative for MTV Networks International(MTVNI). With eight channels alone in the UK, MTVEurope beams out to 132 million households, and 1 billionhouseholds are connected worldwide. Hansen is responsiblefor overseeing the creative and editorial for all 89 internationalchannels, as well as the branding and editorial output for allglobal initiatives led by MTVNI, covering the gamut fromT-shirts and awards shows to programming policy.“I’m kind of like the philosopher of the company,” hesays. “My job is to inspire people.” And it’s not difficult tosee how he came by that role. Easy-going, down-to-earth,Photo: Jonas Karlssoncharismatic and abundantly enthusiastic, he blends more than20 years’ experience in the music industry with a phenomenalknowledge of music and an enduring passion for the product.It’s a job that involves firing the creative energies of 2500staff worldwide (800 of them in Europe), a considerableamount of travel, and a lot of music — “I go to at least two orthree gigs a week”.And it just grew exponentially with the launch this year ofMTV’s first pan-African music channel, MTV base, a 24-hourchannel that airs in Uganda, Kenya, Nigeria, South Africa,Angola, Senegal, Cameroon, Ghana and Tanzania.It’s difficult to imagine Hansen in a more perfect role.Music has been such a central part of his life. “I’ve beendeeply interested in good music since the age of seven oreight,” he says. His precocious tastes for Jimi Hendrix andThe Who followed him to university where he first completeda Bachelor of Arts in English and History at Otago University,and then a Master of Arts in History at the University ofCanterbury (1978).While at Canterbury, he wrote music reviews, worked onthe student-run Radio U, booked the bands for the StudentUnion’s regular entertainment slots and indulged himselfwith frequent browsing through the University Bookshop’s“wonderful record collection”.“This whole experience set the tone for me in a way,”he says.A year at teacher’s college followed, where he enjoyed theteaching but not so much the theory. Meanwhile his musicreviews had attracted the attention of staff at South PacificTelevision and they offered him a weekend job as a “runner”,assisting with arrangements for the programming.Hansen took a job teaching at the end of his training, butshortly after was offered a full-time position at the TV stationas an assistant floor manager, or “floor sweeper”. Excited bythe new opportunity and eager to try something outside ofacademia for a while, Hansen set himself a three-year plan. Itturned out to be a pivotal experience.“I worked on lots of projects, had lots of training on thejob and ended up fairly quickly becoming a floor managerproper with much more responsibility. I worked on all sorts ofprogrammes, including A Week of It and That’s Country.However New Zealanders might cringe retrospectivelyabout That’s Country, it featured some surprisingly big hittersin the international music industry — Emmylou Harris, forexample. Through his involvement with this programme,Hansen undertook a considerable amount of music research,which he thrived on, and in 1982 he landed his dream job asthe producer of Radio With Pictures in Wellington.“It was the ultimate job,” he says, “and still is.” The threeyearplan was now out the window. “It was completely whereI wanted to be, because of my interest in music. I’d got myselfinto a whole different world.”Hansen says he sweated considerably over the one 45-minute programme a week (“At MTV they knock one of thoseoff in the 10 minutes before they have a coffee break”) and itwas a blow when the show was taken off air in 1986 becauseof video rights issues. When True Colours, the new show hecreated, was canned also, Hansen and wife Philippa Dann (aformer Shazam presenter) decided to take a six-month break inEurope.In a moment of surreal serendipity, Hansen wrote to MTVin America saying he would like to visit their offices duringhis travels, because what they were doing in the USA affectedwhat he was doing in New Zealand. He sent his résumé asproof of his credentials and the next minute was offered a job.“They said they were just about to start up their Europeoffice and would I like a job. It wasn’t part of my plan, but Ithought, I’ll test myself.“I think they thought, ‘You’re cheap, you work hard, youprobably won’t stay very long’.“They don’t take into account that [New Zealanders] arealso very competitive and that we want to prove ourselves tothe world.”In his first year, at the age of 30, Hansen found himselfrising rapidly through the ranks, through four or five positionsfrom news producer to programme director, planningthe programme for MTV’s pan-Europe operations. “TheAmericans hired lots of people for the Europe office who justleft after a very short space of time.”By 1996, he was president of MTV Networks Europe. Inthis role, Hansen began with a philosophy that has ensuredMTV Europe’s pre-eminence in an increasingly cut-throatmarket.“We had to find ways for small countries to feel like theywere part of the club. In this sort of context you can be veryneutral and irrelevant rather than exciting. We realised we hadto be relevant to everywhere. So the idea was to keep a centreof excellence and maintain brand excellence but have 85 percent of the decisions being made locally.”It is this approach that deflects detractors who might seeMTV as a cultural juggernaut, and where Hansen’s depthand breadth of musical interest plays an important part. Withthe new African channel, for example, a major part of theagenda will be to encourage and develop grassroots Africanmusic talent. Hansen’s ultimate goal is to have a 50 per centweighting of African sourced videos and music. “Africa is theroot of all modern popular music, there is no doubt aboutthat; it has influenced everything.”Hansen concedes he does sometimes feel uncomfortableabout working for a big corporation and about the currentstate of the music industry, which has become “more aboutmaking money than scaling the artistic heights”, with amarket that is frequently driven by 12-year-old girls.“A lot of good artists are below the radar now, which isdifficult, since MTV is a commercial network. In the ‘70s wehad much better artists. The best artists now have to bring offa large commercial hit within six months, unlike previouslywhen they might have had the luxury of three years. Even thebig artists like Madonna and Britney have to keep re-creatingthemselves, whereas the likes of Rod Stewart and Elton Johnbecame superstars for life.“We’re not just cookie-cutting music in the UK, though;we are bringing edgier, attitudinal music to the fore.”For all his international success, Hansen is still passionatelyattached to New Zealand and proud of his antipodean origins.It still amuses him enormously that MTV hired someone froma country at the bottom of the world with no business acumento run their European operation.Sitting in his office beneath a huge mural that was paintedspontaneously in a day for a Crowded House music video,Hansen talks animatedly about the landscape and the people.The boy who cycled regularly to the Robert McDougall ArtGallery has become an avid collector of New Zealand art— Hoteres, Hammonds, McCahons and Fomisons — and“lives and dies” on every All Blacks game, in spite of neverpreviously being a rugby fan.It is a proviso of his contract that he is allowed to travelback to New Zealand with his wife and two children once ayear, but Hansen still misses home “terribly”.“I’ve been in London for 18 years now and I hope to retiresoon. Now I feel like I should be able to make time for myrelationship with New Zealand.”26 Canterbury Magazine Summer 2005 27

Photo: SXCOutlook for Zana Feuchs By Marita VandenbergCataracts are the major cause of blindnessworldwide. Until now, the only option hasbeen corrective surgery.However, researchers from the University’sChemistry Department are trying to identifya compound which would act as an inhibitorand prevent cataracts from developing.Cataracts cause the lens of the eye tobecome cloudy and prevent the passage oflight. Scientists believe that an increase inactivity of calcium dependent proteases, orcalpains, break down the major lens proteins,the crystallins, leading to opaque lenses.The Canterbury team, led by ProfessorAndrew Abell and Professor Jim Coxon,believe the inhibition of calpain activitycould halt cataract formation.“It is our goal to develop a compound thatcan be incorporated into an eye drop andprescribed to treat cataracts,” said Abell.The UC researchers have been workingclosely with colleagues at Lincoln Universitywho have developed an animal model toallow a study of the progression of cataracts.“The results using this model are promisingas they support our hypothesis that calpainactivity is important in the developmentof the cataract and showed that inhibitorscould interfere with cataract progression,”said Abell.Coxon said the research put the University ofCanterbury at the forefront of a new way ofdeveloping drugs.“What we are doing is very different from therest of the world. We are trying to developa paradigm that is new and unique. Thisinvolves using computational methods toBy Jeanette ColmanA treatmentin sightResearchers at the University of Canterburyare pioneering an eye drop to halt thedevelopment of cataracts.carefully define a specific peptide geometryand then use the information to designmolecules that mimic it and have selectivityfor specific proteases.”Abell said the team was now working ondeveloping new and improved inhibitors ofthe target calpains.“We have also recently established thecapability to test compounds in a lensculture system. This allows further screeningof compounds before they enter moreexpensive trials.”The Canterbury team is working withDouglas Pharmaceuticals (NZ) to developmore efficient eye delivery systems and haslinks with Senju, a Japanese pharmaceuticalcompany that specialises in eye careproducts.“Once we are able to prevent cataracts inthe animal model the next stage would betesting the calpain inhibitors in humans.“Long waiting-lists exist for cataract surgeryin most affluent countries and one of ourgoals is to improve the quality of life forthose who currently face blindness whileawaiting a cataract operation. This is of evengreater importance to third world countries.”Abell said the research provided a basisfor developing related inhibitors for thetreatment of other disorders associatedwith overactive calpains including musculardystrophy, traumatic brain injury andType II diabetes.The project has been a valuable researchexperience for the team’s three youngpostdoctoral fellows. Dr Matthew Jones,originally from Birmingham, UK, and Dr AxelNeffe from Hamburg, Germany, saw thepositions advertised on the Internet andthought it was a unique opportunity tofurther their careers and at the same timeexplore a new country. Neffe had earliermet Abell at a conference so knew theUniversity “did some quite exciting stuff”.Completing the postdoctoral trio isCanterbury alumnus Stephen McNabb whograduated with a BSc(Hons) in biochemistryin 1997. He has spent the past eight yearsoverseas — completing a PhD at theAustralian National University and, for thepast two years, undertaking postdoctoralresearch in Japan.“It is great to be able to come back andhave the chance to do research in NewZealand,” said McNabb.All three agree that the cataract projecthas opened up opportunities they wouldn’thave had overseas.“Most positions either offer you the chanceto do laboratory work or to do theoreticalwork. Here I can do both,” said Neffe.“It has been a great opportunity to havebeen involved in a project from thebeginning — from the chemistry in thelab, all the way through to testing and,potentially, to the formation of a companyto take it to the final stage,” said Jones.“A standard medicinal chemist normallymakes something and passes it on, neverto see it again. At Canterbury we are beinggiven the chance to take what we’ve madeand try and make something out of it.”Take a sociology degree, one-third ofa commerce degree, combine with afashion diploma, and you could well havethe recipe for the success of New Zealandfashion designer Zana Feuchs.Feuchs, who has her own well-establishedlabel, Zana Feuchs, and store, ZFA, inWellington’s Customhouse Quay, credits thesociology degree she gained from CanterburyUniversity in 1985 with helping her developa winning edge in the competitive localfashion industry.“Studying sociology encouraged me toanalyse things from all sides and to be anindependent thinker,” she says. “My abilityto think outside the square and not do whateveryone else does has enabled my label tobe so successful.”Feuchs says she applies her sociology skills tothe fashion industry by using them to predicttrends and interpret patterns of behaviour.However, sociology was not her first studychoice. In her initial year at Canterbury,Feuchs studied accounting after her parentssaid she could leave Villa Maria College inthe sixth form if she went to university.Commerce seemed a sensible career optionat that time, she says.Though she gained ‘As’ for all her maths andstatistics papers, it was the filler sociologypaper she took that interested her most, soshe switched degree courses in her secondyear.Feuchs says she had loved sewing from theage of four, making dresses for her dolls withthe help of her dad, a glassblower, who hadmigrated from Austria and married a Kiwi.In the early 1980s, fashion was yet to developas a viable career option in New Zealand.Feuchs adds, “I guess it was looked upon asa lesser industry”.But by the time she was at university thatwas starting to change. In 1984 she startedwriting fashion reviews for Canta. Thefollowing year she was finishing her studiespart-time and working in retail.“I was getting a good feel for how shopswork. I was buying fashion and learningabout merchandising.“There was hardly anything on the marketapart from the more mainstream fashion. Ifyou wanted to see anything really interestingyou looked to overseas magazines wherethere was a whole new generation of youngdesigners emerging.”Her inability to find the sorts of clothes shewanted to wear encouraged her to move tothe capital and enrol in a Diploma of Fashioncourse with Wellington Polytechnic.After completing the course she becameinvolved in a project that had her seriouslycontemplating a career in costume design.She worked on the set of one of PeterJackson’s early films, Meet the Feebles, mainlymaking “prissy-coloured outfits for the MissPiggy figure”.“I’d always been a big film fan, and when Iset up my label it was quite a big decisionwhether to establish my own label or workin the film industry.”Soon after, she set up a stall at Wakefieldmarket — then a launch-pad for otherfledgling designers, such as Laurie Foon,Kate Sylvester and Alison Blain.Her growing success led to a shop in CableCar Lane but she quickly moved to biggerpremises. In 1999 she moved to her currentlocation in Customhouse Quay. Her clothingis now sold throughout New Zealand and shehas a staff of 10.The ZFA look is modern and well-tailored,with unusual detailing. Feuchs says she likesher clothing to be highly wearable, durableand to endure the faddish nature of fashion— able to be worn comfortably by “real”women, not just catwalk models.Several of her collections have had politicalthemes. One collection, “Changing Climates”,included tops featuring weather maps.Another range, “Modified”, was her responseto the genetic engineering debate.Recently Feuchs decided to open anew chapter in her life. She is currentlynegotiating the sale of her business andintends to move to London early next year.ZFA will remain and Feuchs willindependently supply the business withdesigns from overseas. She says there areno firm, fast plans for her first year away.She wants to remain open to possibilitiesand looks forward to travelling from aLondon base.In the medium-term, her aim is to go touniversity in the UK and study businessat postgraduate level. She says she isalso open to the idea of eventuallymaking Sydney her base.“Changing Climates Collection,” Summer 2003.Photos: Charlotte Handy28 Canterbury Magazine Summer 2005 29

The onlyway is upBy Norma OdendaalNow well established as a course that provides theCanterbury region with top business leadership andmanagement expertise, Canterbury University’sinternationally accredited Master of Business Administrationprogramme is 21 years old this year.Since it was accredited by the Association of MBAs(UK) in 2002, the programme has enhanced its reputationfor being a strong, regionally orientated yet globally relevantqualification.Photo: SXCMBA Director Piet Beukman describes it as a “no frillsprogramme” that produces graduates with strong appeal to thelocal business market. And with an estimated 60 per cent ofgraduates occupying leadership positions in New Zealand, ithas become a valuable asset, not only for Canterbury but thecountry as a whole.“We are not trying to be a Harvard or a Stanford,” saysBeukman. “Instead we are looking towards the local marketand liaising with local business leaders to develop good talentfor New Zealand in New Zealand. And as far as I know, weare the only university in the country with such a stronglocal focus.”However, he also says many of the graduates whoeventually leave the country are generally well sought after andseem to excel wherever they decide to go.One of the 1996 graduates, Mark Whalley, occupies asenior position in Agilent Technologies in Melbourne. Hedescribes his MBA as a “career parachute”.“During my studies I discovered a number of very relevantareas of knowledge and developed real-world commercialskills,” he says.In an era when tertiary institutions are increasingly lookingat attracting overseas students to prop up their studentnumbers and their finances, Canterbury University’s MBAprogramme takes a different approach.“Although international students who meet our strictquality standards are more than welcome, we do not activelypursue the recruiting of overseas students,” says Beukman.To be admitted to what is often referred to as the flagshipprogramme of the College of Business and Economics,candidates have to undergo a strict screening process thateven involves an executive recruiting company to assist withscreening protocols.While admitting this is something of an elitist approach,Beukman says it would not be sensible for both the Universityand candidates to waste their efforts if the inherent ability andtalent to occupy leadership positions is not manifested.The yearly intake is limited to 30 students, with the resultthat all receive a high degree of individual attention. It is alsostrictly a residential programme with classes being offeredafter hours.“Most of our students are mature people, the average agebeing 38, which means that they usually have full-time jobs,”says Beukman.As part of the strong link with the business community,currently five business people and a Member of Parliament,the Hon Clayton Cosgrove, himself a Canterbury MBAgraduate (1996), are involved in teaching the programme.“That way we can offer our students first-hand input onwhat will be expected of them out there,” he says. “Likewiseit provides the business community with an insight intoour programme and an opportunity to canvass theavailable talent.”Beukman is in constant conversation with the businesscommunity, and knowing what the need is out there helpshim ensure the programme has the edge over many otherMBAs offered in New Zealand.“I believe we offer one of the best MBAs in the country, ifnot the best,” he says. He describes the course as “pracademic”— a sound academic basis, with a strong focus on hands-onbusiness practice.That view is echoed by the Dean of the Faculty ofHumanities at the Christchurch Polytechnic Institute ofTechnology, Dr Shirley Watson, who is currently doing herMBA at the University of Canterbury and has been able torelate many of her assignments to her current work.“In my opinion, regional relevance and social skills areextremely important,” she says. “I find that the courses areincreasing my capabilities as a manager.”Kay Poulsen, a project manager at the Canterbury DistrictHealth Board, has had similar experiences.“I have applied many of the lessons and case scenariosto my own work environment,” she says. “My weeklyentertainment is to watch The Apprentice on television,confident in the knowledge that the Canterbury MBA isproducing far more effective future leaders than anythingDonald Trump’s producer can muster in the US.”Poulson adds that the many opportunities that have alreadyarisen for her as a result of undertaking this course mean it islikely the cost will be paid for before she completes it.“I have no doubt therefore that the Canterbury MBA hasnot only provided me with a postgraduate degree and currenteducation, but has already paid for itself in future careeropportunities and has rewarded me with the added bonus ofsome lifelong friends.”However, Beukman stresses that the programme is not onlyinterested in educating high-powered business people.“As long as potential students have a proven track recordand the ability to achieve, we want them,” he says.Over the years the programme has educated manypeople for the non-corporate environment and non-profitorganisations. “Even the voluntary sector needs strongleadership,” he says.One of the MBA graduates who does not have his eye onthe corporate world is Stratford High School Principal PaulHowison, who says that the MBA programme appealed to himas a general leadership and management course.“I have found almost all aspects of the course to bevery relevant to my role as a secondary school principal. Inparticular papers in human resource management, changemanagement, strategic planning and marketing have allprovided knowledge and skills which I am keen to apply whenI return to school later this year,” he says.Beukman believes one of the points of difference thatgives Canterbury University’s MBA programme an edge overmany others is the personal attention each student receives— not only in terms of the student/teacher ratio, but also inits approach to students. Beukman says MBA programmes areknown to many as the “divorce course” because of the pressureon relationships and families due to its full-on nature.“It takes a high level of commitment from students andwe are therefore encouraging the involvement of familieswherever possible.”So a family-friendly study environment is being promotedwith, among other innovations, movie nights for the wholefamily on a regular basis.Beukman, who took over the directorship of theprogramme in 2004, is constantly looking to improve thecourse. New Zealand has the highest number of MBAprogrammes per head of population, and the competitivemarket means that constant reviews have to be undertakento ensure the relevance of a Canterbury MBA qualification.Beukman is currently working with the MBA board on theredevelopment of the programme to ensure improvementsin the structure and the relevance of the programme toall applicable sectors are in place for a major internationalaccreditation review in March 2007.30 Canterbury Magazine Summer 2005 31

Hotel Pyongyang By Dr Anne-Marie BradySpeak easy, read easyBy Jane LucasNorth Korea is a society on the cusp ofchange. Since economic reforms wereintroduced in 2002 the country hasbeen engaged in a slow but unstoppableprogression towards opening up to theoutside world and modernising its economy.More than 30 years ago in China a similarsort of process began when China and theUS signed the 1972 Shanghai Communiqué.In August this year I travelled to theDemocratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK)for two weeks as part of a foreign delegationto commemorate the 60 th anniversary of theend of the Japanese occupation. I found asociety that has been a world apart for manyyears, but is now inevitably being drawn backinto the international community.As in China in the 1970s, so in North Koreain the present day the rate of progress oftenseems minimal and stop-start. But thechanges are significant. In Pyongyang a newfree market has opened up, allowing thosewho can afford it to buy outside the Staterationingsystem. Pedlars, bike repairersand other small entrepreneurs can beseen in small numbers where beforethere were none.The department stores are stuffed full ofthings to buy, though few seem to be buying.When price reform was introduced in 2002,salaries did not rise accordingly. Governmentemployees were impoverished by thereforms, as were the peasants. Everyone,even the privileged elite, is lean, not anounce of extra flesh. Food rationing keepsstarvation at bay, but even in Pyongyang,the food shops offer a very limited choice.In North Korea, as with China in the 1970s,displays of wealth are frowned upon.Indeed, citizens are officially encouraged todonate any profits they make to the army tostrengthen national defence. So those withmoney must display their wealth discreetly.I saw one young female official with a mobilephone wrapped furtively in a handkerchief.The same official seemed to have an endlesssupply of name-brand handbags, from Pradato Gucci, which she wore to accompany herde rigeur dowdy suit.Our guides initially denied that therewere any mobile phones in the DPRK (allforeign visitors have to surrender theirs forsafekeeping at the border), but eventuallyadmitted that the only reason they didn’thave one themselves was that they couldn’tafford it. All of our guides regularly usedthe Internet and email, and told us the onlyrestriction (apart from firewalls to sensitivesites which they took for granted) wasmoney, as going online is expensive inthe DPRK.The whole trip was subsidised by the NorthKorean Government. Our conversations withNorth Korean people were limited to foreignaffairs personnel such as our guides, asordinary people were strongly discouragedfrom interacting with us. The assumption isthat many foreigners are spies in disguise.We were forbidden from leaving the hotelwithout a guide accompanying us; one ofour group was detained by the police andthreatened with expulsion after he went for awalk on his own.Most of our group’s two week stay in NorthKorea was actually spent locked up in ourluxury hotel on an island in Pyongyang’scentral river. We were taken out for shortexpeditions and returned to the hotel forevery meal. On longer journeys we were notallowed to eat at local restaurants and hadto either endure or wait until we arrived at ahotel permitted to host foreigners.Hotel rooms for foreigners are bugged; somehave closed-circuit television. More than halfthe people in the hotel were not guests butrather government cadres in their distinctivedark-coloured shirt-suits with the obligatoryKim pin all North Koreans must display. Theyinhabited multiple floors of the hotel offlimitsto foreign guests and were presumablythere to keep an eye on us.Few dared to break through the invisiblebarrier the guides put around foreign visitors,though people were extremely welcomingwhen we greeted them in their own languageor bowed in greeting, as is the custom. Once,after I attended a Mass at the only Catholicchurch left in Pyongyang (formerly hailed bymissionaries as the new Jerusalem), an oldman came up and spoke with me in English.Our guide quickly intervened, speaking to theman in Korean so he would retreat. The policyof keeping foreigners and North Koreansapart is a useful means of controlling thepopulation and preventing them frombeing tainted by outside influences. Yet thegovernment has announced an ambitiousnew plan to expand tourism and, as withChina, increasing numbers of foreign visitorscoming in to the country will likely eventuallyforce a lessening of restrictions betweenlocals and foreigners.Despite the controls on interactionswith foreigners, there was no feelingof xenophobia or hostility towards theoutside world, though there is a deepfear of American invasion. At every majorintersection, bridge and tunnel, armedsoldiers are posted and vehicles are checkedas they enter the capital. The reason for thisis that North Korea is a country still at war.The Korean War has never officially endedand the nation is kept in a constant state ofwar-preparedness.There is a very real fear amongst the elite ofa threat to the survival of the regime and allthe privileges it grants them. The DPRK hasonly 18 per cent arable land, and in every erasince its founding in 1948 has always requireda larger power to support it. Throughout theCold War it depended on the USSR and thePeople’s Republic of China to underwrite itseconomy. Since the collapse of communismin Eastern Europe and the fall of the SovietUnion the North Korean governmenthas relied on nuclear scare tactics andexaggerating the impact of natural disastersas bargaining tools for foreign support.Neither of these approaches are a longtermsolution to North Korea’s needs,which is why the government has begunwhat it euphemistically calls “economicdevelopment” policies, that is, openingup the economy to Chinese-style marketreform. The likely outcome of such policies,in the short to medium-term, is the DPRK’sincreasing integration into the Chineseand South Korean economies, with a highprobability of eventual reunification withSouth Korea.The most effective means to encourage thecontinuance of such a positive directionis engagement with the DPRK, notdemonisation and international isolation, thepolicy which the current Bush administrationhas been following until recently. Thesuccessful outcome of the Six Party Talksis an indication of what engagement canachieve. The parallels with China andVietnam are clear: engagement leads topeace, containment and threats lead toconflict. And for such a strategic country onthe cusp of major change, it would be betterfor the whole of the Asia-Pacific region if thepredicted transition comes as a gentle, ratherthan a rough, landing.• Dr Anne-Marie Brady is a senior lecturerin Chinese and Northeast Asian politicsin the School of Political Science andCommunication.We take for granted the ability tocommunicate, to speak to friends, and toread and write.Yet some people face severe and persistentdifficulty in aspects of both their spokenand written communication. Efficientdevelopment of spoken languageis crucial for reading and writing — if there isa phonological speech problem in a youngchild it is probable there will be literacyproblems later.Professor Gail Gillon (CommunicationDisorders) is looking at how young childrenwith unintelligible speech develop awarenessof the sound structure of an alphabeticlanguage, or phonological awareness. She isinvestigating how these children store andretrieve information about phonologicalcomposition, as it may hold the key to moreeffective intervention.Currently many young children with speechand language impairment have difficultylearning to read and spell even when theirspeech problems have been resolved. It ishoped that the new interventions Gillon istrialling internationally will not only improvespoken language abilities but will alsoresolve underlying phonological deficits thatcan cause reading and spelling disorders.Most importantly for Gillon, she hasdiscovered that stimulating phonologicalawareness and phonological processingdevelopment can have a dramatic effect onaccelerating reading and spelling acquisition.Most of the children aged three to fouryears in her pilot study who received thisnew intervention were well above the levelexpected for their age in reading at six andeight years of age.“When I first started as a speech-languagetherapist I noticed how some children I sawas preschoolers for speech and languagedifficulties often surfaced again as olderchildren in need of intervention for readingdisorders. Thus, when I had the opportunityto undertake a PhD I decided to explore inmore depth the relationship between spokenand written language disorders.”The earlier the better, says Gillon, whenidentifying and working with speechimpairments. “We want to try to preventthese children experiencing reading failurewhen they start school. Anyone who knows,or has worked with, individuals who haveexperienced years of failure trying to learn toread will appreciate the struggle these peopleface in completing tasks that many of us takefor granted, such as reading the newspaper,reading instructions on the forms we fill out,or skimming through text to quickly accessthe author’s intended meaning.“Young children who struggle with readingare forced to face their weakness every dayin school and it simply compounds acrossmost curriculum areas as they get older— think of all the reading required to tacklesome children’s maths problems or scienceexperiments.“Identifying problems earlier is criticalto preventing them compounding. Manychildren who are poor readers look foralternatives. For example, their behaviourmay become disruptive — perhaps in theirminds it’s better to be viewed as a ‘classclown’ than as the child who can’t read.Sometimes children who have readingdifficulties develop low self-esteem whichcan negatively impact on their socialdevelopment as well as the career choicesthey will later make. Thus, if a readingproblem can be alleviated it can preventa child suffering the negative academic,behavioural and social consequences thatunfortunately are well documented inchildren with reading disorders.”A passion for working with children andseeing their success in reading and spelling— and of course their improvement in speechdevelopment — is Gillon’s driving force.“When children know they are succeedingtheir smiles light up a room.”Gillon’s previous phonological awarenessintervention trials have attracted stronginternational interest. Her work has beenwidely published and she receives emailsfrom other researchers, speech-languagetherapists and educators in many Englishspeakingcountries around the world, as wellas some European countries, indicating theyare successfully replicating her interventionfindings with children, or are adapting thephonological awareness techniques forchildren with differing language experiences,to achievesimilar positiveoutcomes.“Every parentwants their child tosucceed. Understandingwhy some children fail to makeexpected progress in reading is a criticalstep in ensuring success. But the ultimateadvancement is to prevent reading disordersfrom even surfacing when we are faced withchildren we know are statistically highly likelyto encounter written language difficultieswhen they enter school.”Fraser Westphall (4) uses a computer program to identify correct pronunciation of words.32 Canterbury Magazine Summer 2005 33

Photo: Chanel HughesLiz Calder in her Soho Square office.Bloomingat BloomsburyChanel Hughes meets with publishing phenomenon Liz Calder who has significantlyshaped the face of 20 th and 21 st century literature.A small, well-worn book on a shelf in a sunnySoho office, London, bears testament to anextraordinary personal journey for one ofpublishing’s literary doyennes. The class textedition of Three Novels by Thomas Peacock,with “University of Canterbury” inscribed onthe inside cover, has accompanied Liz Calderfrom student days in Christchurch to the topof one of the world’s most successfulindependent publishing companies.A founding director of literary giantBloomsbury Publishing Plc, famous forits Booker, Pulitzer, Whitbread and NobelPrize-winning authors and the rise of HarryPotter, Calder has launched the careers ofsome of the greatest writers of the 20 thand 21 st centuries: Salman Rushdie, JulianBarnes and Anita Brookner; and nurturedthe careers of the likes of Margaret Atwood,Michael Ondaatje, Joanna Trollop, AngelaCarter, John Berger, Rupert Thomson, AhdafSoueif and Jeanette Winterson. In 2003, shelaunched what is rapidly becoming a dazzlingcultural highlight of the international literarycalendar, the Festa Literária Internacionalde Parati (International Literary Festival ofParati, or FLIP), which in 2004 earned her anOrder of Merit for services to culture fromthe President of Brazil.It is little wonder this poised and remarkablewoman is often hailed as the “Queen ofLiterature”, though she says humbly thatthe job still brings her a sense of “incredibleprivilege”. Frequently in the company ofsome of the greatest literary minds of ourtime, Calder says she “has never failed torelish and wonder at that opportunity”.Born Elisabeth Baber in London in 1938, sheimmigrated to New Zealand via America atthe age of 11. Her parents were conscientiousobjectors during World War II and left agrocery business after the war to take upsheep farming in Palmerston North.She attended Palmerston North Girls’ HighSchool, and subsequent study at Canterburyreflected her lifelong love of literature withthe completion of a Bachelor of Arts degreein English in 1958.At university she met and married RichardCalder, an engineering graduate, whoimmediately whisked her back to Londonwhere he took up an apprenticeship withRolls Royce. Postings in Montreal, Winnipeg,San Francisco and Washington were followedby four years in Brazil, which marked thebeginning of Calder’s great passion for allthings Brazilian.“That was a very significant moment for mebecause I found a place where I felt more athome than I’d ever been before,” she says. “Ididn’t expect to, because I didn’t know muchabout the country or know any Portuguese.”While initially struggling with the language,Calder accepted a friend’s offer to take upmodelling, both on and off the catwalk,which proved a great entrée into Brazilianlife. “I actually picked up quite a lot ofPortuguese sitting listening to the othermodels,” Calder says, “and I met lots ofjournalists, photographers and artists.”On returning to the UK at the end of 1968with two young children, Calder realised shewanted a career.“When I left university I thought gettingmarried and having children would occupy me,”she says, “but I soon recognised I had to dosomething more substantial and challenging.”Newly separated from her husband, Calderpursued her interests in books, film andjournalism, answering “hundreds” of adsin the British newspapers before finallysecuring a job in MGM’s story department,reading fiction and writing reports. Shortlivedthough this was, Calder made valuablecontacts in the publishing world and wasinvited to become a publicist for the leftwingpublishing company Victor Gollancz,of which her parents were loyal supporters.After four years she was promoted to editor,and remained there until 1978 when shewas offered a position by the prestigiousJonathan Cape publishing house. It was whileat Cape that she first struck publishing gold.Lodging with a then unknown Rushdie, shepersuaded Cape to publish his second novel,Midnight’s Children, which won the BookerPrize for 1981, going on to be voted the“Booker of Bookers” in 1993. Just three yearslater, she had another Booker Prize winnerwith Anita Brookner’s Hotel du Lac (1984).From her Victor Gollancz days, Calderhad become close friends with Australianpublisher Carman Callil, who co-foundedVirago, the first feminist press of the 1970s,and soon developed a hankering to beinvolved in a start-up company of her own.She was more than ready when Nigel Newtonapproached her in 1986 to join what wouldbecome the “Bloomsbury Four”, along withDavid Reynolds and Alan Wherry.They started with 30 books a year anda particular strength in fiction, whichcontinues to be their flagship list. In anenvironment that was becoming increasinglydominated by large conglomerates, theirphilosophy was to promote quality and stayauthor-focused.“Bloomsbury was aiming for high literarystandards across a broad range of genres —fiction, reference books, historical, etcetera.We also wanted to operate a publishingcompany that put the author at the centre ofthe operation, with input into the publishingand production of the book.”A major list for the company initiated byCalder in 1990 was the Bloomsbury Classics,which began with her discovery thatJanet Frame’s The Lagoon had never beenpublished outside New Zealand. Whensearching for a suitable format, Calder cameacross her Three Novels by Thomas Peacockand other classic editions of the 1930sand ‘40s used as set texts at varsity — theNelson Classics, World Classics and LongmanClassics. The pocket-sized hardbacks werean ideal model for the Bloomsbury series,which is dedicated to literary works of highoriginality and the books that bibliophileseverywhere wish to keep for posterity.The Children’s List did not emerge until themid-1990s, with J K Rowling coming alongshortly after, a publishing relationship thathas catapulted Bloomsbury into a luxuriousfinancial independence.“For an independent company that publishesliterary books it’s a struggle to keep afloatand we had many years that were likeclimbing a mountain. Since that success[with the Harry Potter series] we’ve hadmore help up the mountain. It has been anenormous blessing.”The greater financial freedom has seenannual book production climb to 160 volumesin the past five years, but Calder is adamantthat the Bloomsbury philosophy remains thesame: “We’re still committed to producingthe best literature”. And they are determinedto remain a medium-sized company thatputs its authors first.In spite of her success picking winners,Calder claims never to have had a good sensefor what will sell. “I’ve been lucky to choosenovels I feel passionate about. What I lookfor is a unique, arresting voice. That to me ismore important than everything else; thatrecognisable voice.“Rushdie, Thomson and John Irving all havethat, and they were published in the firstBloomsbury list.”With such a definite presence in thepublishing industry, Calder could not helpbut shape its evolution. While she claims notto have had an explicitly feminist agenda,she certainly aided the literary world’sfeminisation and was a co-founder of Womenin Publishing in 1979.“Twenty years ago publishing was very maledominated.When I worked at Victor Gollanczboth the staff and the list were maledominated,and both Gollancz and Capepublishing houses were very traditional andset in their ways. I definitely tried to bring inmore women writers.”Calder has also played a part in theinternationalisation of literature,recommending Rushdie at a time when“foreign” writing was very much ignored, anddeliberately including Brazilian authors in theBloomsbury list for the past 15 years.In 2000, Calder’s passion for literature,her love of Brazil and the discovery of thepicturesque fishing village of Parati — aquaint colonial town nestling in a large bayfour hours from Rio — germinated into theidea for a literary festival. With her secondhusband, children’s writer Louis Baum, Calderbought a holiday house and began plottingher project with a small group of publishers.“The best places for literary festivals arespecial places that have a unique charmand that people want to visit. Not only isParati beautiful, it has 200 colonial housesthat have been converted into hotels, and italready had lots of festivals — film, religious,gastronomic.”Finally launched in 2003, the Festa LiteráriaInternacional de Parati was warmly embracedby the Brazilian media and created animmediate sensation. The anticipated 300participants flourished into an astonishing6000, which doubled to 12,000 in 2005.“The media went berserk,” Calder says. “Everynewspaper, every television station gave uscoverage. It was absolutely staggering.”The four-day festival brings together up to 35authors: 11 of them from overseas, includingluminaries such as Ondaatje, Rushdie andIsraeli writer David Grossman, and theremainder from Brazil, with writers such asAriano Suassuna, Jo Soares andAna Maria Machado.This year’s festival coincided with theLondon bombings and Calder was asked ifshe would shut it down. “But, I thought,we’ve got authors here with a betterunderstanding of violence, terrorism andinternational conflicts than any other fivepeople in the world. What an amazingopportunity to be here.“What Rushdie and Grossman said was soinspiring and sustaining — not comfortingbut giving insight.”In recent years, Calder has downscaled herpublishing activities to run the festival andlook after the 20 authors she has workedwith most closely over the years.Calder says one of the things she has lovedmost about her job is “the hunt”.“In a way, that’s why we had Diana thehuntress as [the Bloomsbury] logo. Thehunt for the new voice, and those occasionswhen the new voice is pulled out from thepack and recognised by the public, that’sreally exciting.”And then there are the people. “Publishingas a profession is as agreeable and as filledwith interesting people as you could everhope to find. And you are working amongstpeople who are likeminded and becomegreat friends. People don’t do this for love ofmoney; they do it for love of books.”34 Canterbury Magazine Summer 2005 35

Motivated by mysteryBy Norma OdendaalMurder mysteries and robotic games are part of a new wave of innovativeteaching methods at the University of Canterbury.New and innovative ways of teachinghave emerged at the University ofCanterbury in recent years as a result ofexperiments with interactive programmesby several lecturers.One such programme is being used inthe School of Biological Sciences whereundergraduate students apply their scientificskills to solving a murder mystery.Once a year, Associate Professor JackHeinemann applies his love and talent forwriting murder mysteries to creating a wayto teach students how to use their scientificknowledge to look for clues and designexperiments that will test their theories.“I found taking laboratory classes as anundergraduate science student to bean extremely boring experience,” saysHeinemann. “The only thing more boringthan taking those classes has been to turnaround and teach them.”So, with the chances being good that hisstudents felt the same way, he decided to usemurder as a motivational tool.After earning his PhD, Heinemann took a jobat a research laboratory in a small town inMontana (USA), where he became involvedin a theatre group that used to performinteractive murder mysteries to raise moneyto restore an old building.Before he left, he wrote a production forthe group and, realising it could be usedas a way to drive the learning experience,he decided to write murder mysteries toteach his students ways of solving difficultscientific problems.He uses the exercise to effectively guidestudents’ critical thoughts and experimentaldesign skills. Instead of the conventional“follow the recipe to obtain the end result”approach, he motivates his students to findout who “committed the crime” and why.“It’s all about how they go about solving theproblem. Instead of giving them a problemfor which they have to work out the answer,I give them the result and they have to workout the recipe to get there,” says Heinemann.Given just a few weeks to order criticalforensic laboratory work, the students haveto plan very carefully to get the experimentsright the first time. They have to designthe protocol that Heinemann, in the role oflaboratory technician, then performs exactlyto specification.“That means that if they give me a shoddyexperiment to do, they get shoddy resultsand can’t prove their theories,” he says.The “game” requires students to thinkcreatively and outside the square. The “whatif?” factor needs to enter their thoughtprocesses.The play is often designed to have somecontemporary relevance too, including suchissues as human cloning. For example, earlierexperiments done on fruit flies, where earliergenerations were required to mate with latergenerations, formed the scientific basis forlast year’s game.The outcome of those experiments becamethe “what if” factor in the human context,and although the story-line resembledsomething like science fiction, the scientificprinciples that had to be applied were sound,according to Heinemann.Although students are not graded on the sixweeklong murder mystery programme, theyfeel stimulated by the experience, havinghad a chance to apply their knowledge in apractical and fun way.And other incentives are built into theprogramme. Several corporate sponsors,having recognised the value of the murdermystery teaching method, annuallycontribute a range of prizes.One of the students involved in last year’sprogramme, Leighton Turner, says he foundthe exercise to be most rewarding. He saysit allows students to think independentlyand gives them a taste of what it is like to bescientists instead of just students of science.Also in the School of Biological Sciences, acomputer game has been developed to teachstudents animal behavioural strategies. Thegame was designed by Dr Culum Brown, whorecognised the inherent shortcomings inteaching the principles of animal behaviourthe traditional way.“Ideally, students should have theopportunity to interact with animals andspend lots of time with them in order tocollect data on their behaviour,” he says.However, since that is practically impossible,given budget cuts and time constraints,Brown came up with the idea of a computergame to allow students to collect data on thebenefits of group-living and optimal foragingamong animal species.The game is simple and easy to play, yethighly effective. Students playing the gametake on the role of predator or hunter forfood, and play out a number of differentforaging scenarios. In one part of the gamethe number of hits it takes to successfullytarget a specific prey item are recorded,thereby indicating the chances of anyliving animal becoming the “victim” of apredatory attack.Another aspect of the game gathers data onthe economics of foraging — on how animalsgo about searching for and selecting foodresources, while minimising the energyspent on the search.Once again the game gathers data basedon the students’ (predators’) behaviour bymonitoring their decisions as they forage forcyber prey items.“This enables us to collect massive volumesof data, with the added advantage that itdoesn’t have the unpredictable variabilitythat is inherently associated with studyinglive animals in contrived conditions,”says Brown.Moreover, it allows students to do much oftheir data gathering in a fun way and withinthe comfort of their own home. At the endof the course students hand in reportsinterpreting the data they collected anddetailing their findings.Another teaching programme initiated thisyear engages final-year electrical engineeringstudents in building their own complex gameenvironment. Developed by newcomer to theuniversity, Dr Russell Webb, the programmesimulates a set of robots playing a gamereminiscent of rugby. The class is organisedinto a virtual company to develop a “JavaVirtual Machine”, software implementingthe Java computer architecture (basically acomputer-within-a-computer).The students write Java programmesdescribing increasingly complex moves tocontrol the simulated robots. While thestudents have previously learned how touse Java, the object of this programme is toshow students how Java works internally bybuilding those internal workings.For example, if students want to change oradd certain software functions to the gameor their robot, they also have to develop thearchitecture in the virtual machine that willenable the new software to run.“Electrical engineers increasingly incorporatesoftware into their designs,” says Webb.“They also increasingly use high-level,abstract languages like Java, yet theystill need to understand the computerarchitecture.”Modelled on industry practises, the projectgives students the experience of working asa team on a large project. “It prepares themfor the job market, which often involvessoftware development in a large team,”says Webb.Credit for the project is assigned byindividual performance and contributionassessments, much as it is by managers inthe industry. Acting as product manager,Webb is able to track changes made by thestudents and assess their contributions tothe programme as a whole.So, while teaching will probably alwaysinvolve some degree of lecturing and bookslogging,it certainly is not a case of allnote-taking and no play anymore. Moderntechnology, combined with the innovativeideas of some lecturers who recognisedthe inherent shortcomings of traditionalteaching methods, has opened up a wholenew world in tertiary teaching.36 Canterbury Magazine Summer 2005 37

Books in BriefIs it Safe to Eat? Enjoy Eating and MinimizeFood RisksIan ShawSpringer, 2005, RRP NZ$84.99, 251pp, hardcover,ISBN 3-540-21286-8Professor Ian Shaw’s latest publicationmight make you think twice about that nextmouthful of food. Did you know that thosealmonds in your baking contain cyanide, orthat washing an oven-ready chicken spreadsan aerosol of Campylobacter bacteria aroundyour kitchen? Shaw discusses these andmany other food safety issues and questions,ranging from GM food to natural toxins,examining the risks of food, food-bornepathogens and food contaminants in thecontext of other everyday life risks.Is it Safe to Eat? will be of interest to everyoneconcerned with food and food safety,culinary science or cooking — from the homekitchen cook and corner dairy owner to thefarmer, food processor and head chef.Shaw is Pro-Vice-Chancellor of the Universityof Canterbury’s College of Science and highlyregarded as an international expert on foodscience. He chairs the UK Pesticide ResiduesCommittee, is a fellow of the Institute ofFood Science and Technology (UK), and isa member of the New Zealand Food SafetyAdvisory Board.Anthony Wilding: A Sporting LifeLen and Shelley RichardsonCanterbury University Press, 2005, RRP NZ$49.95,451pp, paperback, ISBN 1-877257-01-XDescribed as “tennis’ first matinée idol”, heremains the only New Zealander to have wonthe Wimbledon men’s singles title, yet manyKiwis today know little about Anthony Wilding.Written by father-daughter duo Len andShelley Richardson, who are both historiansand Canterbury graduates, this biographyfleshes out the life of the sporting legendwho sits alongside the likes of Olympicchampion Jack Lovelock as one ofNew Zealand’s most important sportingicons of the 20 th century.Wilding won the Wimbledon men’s lawn tennistitle in 1910 and dominated the internationaltennis world for three years, defending his titleat three successive championships. In 1913 hewon world titles on clay, grass and wood, andwas thought invincible, though his life wasabruptly cut short in action on the WesternFront in May 1915.As well as sporting content, this biographyprovides a fascinating window into the socialand cultural milieu of Wilding’s day.Watch of Gryphons and Other StoriesOwen MarshallVintage, 2005, RRP NZ$27.95, 316pp, paperback,ISBN 1-86941-706-2The latest offering from prolific short-storywriter Owen Marshall takes the reader fromthe empty tussock dryness of New Zealand’sSouth Island to the ancient stone buildingsof Italy’s Perugia, from unsolved murderto the capricious indignity of Alzheimer’sdisease. In classic Marshall style, he exploresthe minutiae of everyday lives, revealing theextraordinary in the ordinary, spanning everysubtlety of emotion from the unbearablytouching to the wildly absurd.In “Fellow Citizens” a conservative middleagedschool teacher on a professionaldevelopment course makes an unlikelyfriendship with a Croatian immigrant.A student escaping from an upsettingemotional entanglement with a twin brotherand sister discovers buried truths about thefarming relatives he seeks sanctuary within “Buried Lives”. In the story that gives thebook its title, a New Zealander working inItaly learns more about the complex anddemanding lives of his Italian neighboursthan he expected.Fans of Marshall will be delighted to finda number of longer stories than his usualfare, giving an added depth and resonance,including the striking “Minding Lear” whichis more than 40 pages long.This is Marshall’s 11 th short-story collectionand brings his total number of storiespublished to more than 180. Marshall is aCanterbury Master of Arts graduate (1964)and was awarded an honorary LittD by theUniversity in 2002.The Love AppleCoral AtkinsonRandom House, 2005, RRP NZ$27.95, 336pp,paperback, ISBN 1-86941-720-8Named for the tomato, a little known fruitin 19 th century New Zealand but whichsymbolised love and lust to those whoencountered it, this vivid and sensuous novelbrings to life the rugged West Coast of NewZealand’s colonial gold-mining days. TheLove Apple chronicles the life of Anglo-Irishimmigrant and gentleman photographerGeoffrey Hastings, still grieving over hisrecently deceased wife but captivated by16-year-old part-Mäori beauty Huia, andsuffering a deeply conflicted conscience.Interwoven with Hastings’ story is that offellow Irish immigrant PJ, an orphan withFenian sympathies who longs to right thewrongs of his native land.The Love Apple blends a multi-strandedlove story with sophisticated politicalcommentary on Ireland’s troubled history,New Zealand at war in South Africa, and Irishimmigrants confronting new challenges andold prejudices in their adopted land.Born in Ireland, Coral Atkinson (MA, 1969)moved to New Zealand as a girl and studiedhistory at the University of Canterbury. Shehas worked as a secondary school teacher,educational journalist, in publishing, andcurrently tutors a publishing course whilealso running adult education seminars. Hershort fiction has been published in NewZealand, Ireland and England, and she haspublished various non-fiction articles andeducational texts. Her next novel, The PauaTower, is due for release in early 2006.HummingRachel McAlpineHazard Press, 2005, RRP NZ$29.99, 248pp,paperback, ISBN 1-877270-97-0In this new comic novel, set in New Zealand’sidyllic Golden Bay, artist Ivan is plagued bya low frequency hum, identified variouslyas whale song, tinnitus, electromagnetism,a weapon of the CIA or possibly the voiceof God. His sensible lover Jane, who runsa successful café, believes her life to beperfect. And then Xania arrives fromArgentina, on a one-woman crusade toimprove the world, beginning with the localt’ai chi club.This witty and smart story of delusionsand visions, with alternative healing andan undercurrent of spirituality thrown intothe mix, was inspired by Rachel McAlpine’sown experiences living in Golden Bay, wheresome people have heard a mysterious andmaddening hum. It marks a welcome returnto fiction by a popular New Zealand writer,who already has eight poetry collections,five stage plays, three novels and a numberof radio plays and non-fiction books to hername. In recent years, McAlpine, who has aBachelor of Arts from Canterbury (1960), hasdevoted her attention to the field of webcontent and training systems, publishingbooks on international and electronicbusiness communication, including WebWord Wizardry, and running her trainingcompany Quality Web Content.Humming has reached fourth on theNew Zealand Adult Fiction Bestseller listsince its release.A Concise History of New ZealandPhilippa Mein SmithCambridge University Press, 2005, RRP NZ$39.95,320pp, paperback, ISBN 0 521 54228-6New Zealand was the last major landmass,other than Antarctica, to be settled byhumans. In this first concise history of NewZealand, Associate Professor Philippa MeinSmith (History) provides a thorough overviewstretching from New Zealand’s origins inGondwana 80 million years ago to life in the21 st century. Along the way, she examinesthe effects of the country’s smallness andisolation, the comparative lateness of itssettlement by Polynesian voyagers, andeven later colonisation and settlement byEuropeans, and explores the evolution ofthe Mäori and Pakeha identities throughthe interactions of these two groups andtheir struggles for land. Attention is given tothe trans-Tasman connection — the crosspollinationof social and economic practicebetween Australia and New Zealand, aswell as the cultural ties. It examinesNew Zealand’s place in the Pacific and itsenduring links with Britain which set thecountry’s global and regional context. MeinSmith also explores how key moments suchas the signing of the Treaty of Waitangi, theANZAC landing at Gallipoli and the sinking ofthe Rainbow Warrior have contributed to thecountry’s nation-building myths.This book belongs to the series of CambridgeConcise Histories, which comprises 16national histories to date, including Australia,with further titles in preparation.Mein Smith is Director of the University’sNZAC (NZ-Australia Connections)Research Centre.along Blueskin RoadJames NorcliffeCanterbury University Press, 2005, RRP NZ$24.95,88pp, paperback, ISBN 1-877257-33-8along Blueskin Road is a diverse collection ofpoems from one of New Zealand’s leadingpoets. Whether tender, lyrical, quirky orcomic, the poems are invariably richlyimaginative and beautifully crafted.Many were written in Dunedin duringNorcliffe’s tenure as Burns Fellow at OtagoUniversity and are imbued with a senseof this most poetic and individual of NewZealand cities. Others derive from placesas diverse as Borneo and the ante-bellumAmerican South.Many have also been published worldwidein such journals as Island and Southerly(Australia), Antigonish and Malahat Reviews(Canada), and the Gargoyle, Sycamore andManhattan reviews (USA).Norcliffe graduated from Canterbury witha Master of Arts (1968). His work includesa number of novels for young people, ashort-story collection, and four collectionsof poetry, of which Letters to Dr Dee (HazardPress, 1994) was short-listed for the NewZealand Book Awards.Julius Haast in the Southern AlpsColin J BurrowsCanterbury University Press, 2005, RRP NZ$49.95,215pp, hardback, ISBN 1-877257-08-7This beautifully illustrated book celebratesthe pioneer geologist who produced the firstmaps of New Zealand’s Southern Alps. Asprovincial geologist for Canterbury, JuliusHaast (1822-87) was the first scientist to enterthe central Southern Alps, employed to maketopographical and geological maps of thevast, unsurveyed hill and mountain countryof the Canterbury/Westland region and tolook for mineral resources.Burrows traces the expeditions of Haast’ssurvey parties between 1861 and 1869,focusing on his innovative studies of theglacial geology of the Southern Alps andobservations on the evidence for glacialactivity. Burrows uses his own research toupdate Haast’s work, examining the region’sglacial record from the beginning of the IceAge 2.5 million years ago to the present day.Among his many achievements, Haastfounded the Canterbury Museum andwas professor of geology at CanterburyUniversity College.Burrows taught plant science at theUniversity of Canterbury (1960-1993) and iscurrently a University Council member.38 Canterbury Magazine Summer 2005 39

Alumni ActivitiesPhoto: Matthew WaltersChristchurch-based alumni enjoyed an overnight visit to the Mt John University Observatory in September.University of Canterbury alumni aroundthe globe have enjoyed various activitiessince the publication of the last issue ofCanterbury, ranging from the Annual GeneralMeeting featuring the art of prominent NewZealand printmaker and Canterbury alumnusBarry Cleavin to the first series of socialevents to be held in the United States for ourUS-based graduates.The 12 th Annual General Meeting on 26May took place against the backdrop ofCleavin’s retrospective Sweet & Sour / Then& Now exhibition at the UC School of FineArts’ city-based SOFA Gallery (26 April – 29May). Curator of the exhibition, MelindaJohnston, who this year completed a Masterof Arts thesis on Cleavin’s work (UponReflection: Parody, Satire and Irony in thePrints of Barry Cleavin), presented a floortalkto the assembled alumni, giving an insightinto the complex and varied ideas Cleavinhas explored in more than 20 years ofprintmaking.Cleavin (DFA, 1967) was this year awardedan honorary doctorate (LittD honoris causa)by the University. He has taken part innumerous exhibitions, both in New Zealandand internationally, and been the recipient ofseveral major awards, including being madean Officer of the New Zealand Order of Merit(ONZM) in 2001.The evening also presented an opportunity topersonally congratulate the two 2005 AlumniAssociation Scholarship winners, AnnaMcConnell and Rosamund Nolan.During the AGM, the following were electedto the Alumni Association ExecutiveCommittee: Mrs Sylvia Lukey (BSc, 1997)(President); Mr Don McBeath (LLB, 1971)(Vice-President); Dr Dugald McDonald (PhD,1988; MA, 1977; BA, 1966); Dr Prue Tobin (MA,1953); and Mr Matthew Walters (BSc, 1997).The positions of Treasurer and Secretaryare appointed by the University and heldby Adrienne Watson and Alumni RelationsManager Chanel Hughes (MA, 1998; BA(Hons),1997) respectively.At the Mid-Winter Wellington Get-Togetherheld at the Wellington Club on 13 July,Secretary of the Ministry of Foreign Affairsand Trade, Mr Simon Murdoch, gave apresentation to the 65 guests entitled “A NewZealand Perspective on Global Issues”. TheCanterbury MA graduate (1972), who majoredin American Studies, provided a fascinatingoverview of the workings of the ministry, NewZealand’s role in influencing global issues, andthe qualities that make a good diplomat.“Diplomats are not born, they are made,” hesaid. “But the qualities that enable peopleto succeed in this career are: the ability tokeep your head; a sense of perspective andproportion — to be able to read the realmeanings of events and the intentions of keyactors; patience in getting results; an abilityto see the funny or quirky side of things;an instinct for credit sharing; a willingnessto learn and change in new and differentcultures; and an understanding of people andwhat makes them tick professionally.”(From left) Huong Kee Yii, Eileen Ho and Tony Wong at theAlumni High-Tea in Kuching.Photo: Chanel HughesPhoto: Chanel HughesChristchurch-based alumni experienced aspecial treat in September with an OvernightVisit to the Mt John University Observatoryin Lake Tekapo, one of the University’sresearch outposts and New Zealand’s majorastronomical observatory. Forty guestsparticipated in the two-day trip, which leftfrom Christchurch on 9 September, with astop for morning tea at The Oaks Café inGeraldine. Resident Superintendent of theobservatory, Mr Alan Gilmore, providedan afternoon tour of the facility, whichincludes the $7 million MOA (MicrolensingObservations in Astrophysics) telescopelaunched in 2004 and the High Efficiencyand Resolution Canterbury University LargeEchelle Spectrograph (HERCULES).This was followed by a presentation on“Astronomy and the Mt John UniversityObservatory” by Director of the observatory,Professor John Hearnshaw (Physics andAstronomy), at the Godley Resort Hotel.After a buffet dinner at the Godley, guestsreturned to the observatory for a nighttimeviewing of the stars, where they hadthe opportunity to look through two of thetelescopes and were blessed with nearperfectconditions for visibility. On thesubsequent day, guests were encouragedto explore the sights of Tekapo before aleisurely trip back to Christchurch.Norman Hardie (BE [Civil], 1948), who visitedthe observatory many years before, said hewas “delighted” with the trip. “Let’s hopemany more such things can be arranged.“The weather was fabulous, the companywas good and the clarity of the informationprovided was wonderful.”In the first of a series of overseas alumnifunctions held in September, 90 guestsenjoyed the hospitality of HE Mr GeoffRandal, New Zealand High Commissionerto Malaysia, who hosted an Alumni BuffetDinner at the High Commissioner’s Residencein Kuala Lumpur, along with Vice-ChancellorProfessor Roy Sharp, who brought guestsup to date with the latest developments atCanterbury.This was followed on 6 September byan Alumni High-Tea in East Malaysia atthe Hilton Kuching, Sarawak, where 60alumni enjoyed the opportunity to reconnectwith their alma mater, hosted byPro-Vice-Chancellor (Engineering) ProfessorPeter Jackson.(From left) Emi Piuila-Afitu, Matt Sturge, Annabel Waterfield, Simon Titheridge and Regan Tullett at the SeptemberLondon function.Julia Lorentz and Zoe Farnsworth enjoyed the 17 th floor view from New Zealand House in London (UK).The Alumni Cocktail Reception held at NewZealand House, London (UK), on 9 Septemberdrew a crowd of 150 guests eager to enjoythe spectacular night-time view from the 17 thfloor Penthouse, hosted by New Zealand HighCommissioner to the United Kingdom, theRight Honourable Jonathan Hunt, ChancellorDr Robin Mann, and the Vice-Chancellor.In the USA, alumni functions were held inNew York (12 September), Washington (14September) and San Francisco (16 September)to mark the launch of the new charity, theUniversity of Canterbury Foundation inAmerica, Inc. Around 50 alumni attendedeach of the events, which in New York washeld at the New Zealand Consulate General,and in Washington, hosted at the NewZealand Residence by Canterbury alumnusand New Zealand Ambassador to the UnitedStates, HE Mr John Wood (MA, 1966). The SanFrancisco event was held at the Haas Schoolof Business, University of California, Berkeley,where guests enjoyed a New Zealand wine–tasting generously sponsored by Canterburyalumnus and businessman Professor DavidTeece (MCom, 1971), who is a part-timelecturer at the business school.To receive information about future alumnievents and reunions, please ensure yourcontact details are up to date with theAlumni Office, phone +64 3 364 2344, fax+64 3 364 2679, email alumni@canterbury.ac.nz or see www.canterbury.ac.nz/alumni.Photo: Chanel Hughes40 Canterbury Magazine Summer 2005 41

Event Diary Mark these dates on your calendarConnecting Asia with Aotearoa New Zealand2006 New Zealand Alumni Convention (5-8 November)Photo: Matthew WaltersAlumni and friends of the Universityof Canterbury are warmly invited toparticipate in the following events.For regular event updates, seewww.canterbury.ac.nz/alumni orcontact the Alumni Office (details below).14 Dec December Graduation, ChristchurchTown HallAll faculties are involved in this colourfulsummer ceremony. For further information,phone +64 3 364 2987, ext 8981,email graduation@canterbury.ac.nz or seewww.canterbury.ac.nz/acad/graduation.For Alumni Association Graduation servicesand gifts, see www.canterbury.ac.nz/alumni.200613-17 Feb Habitat for Humanity House BuildA Habitat for Humanity house will beconstructed on campus during Orientationweek. Voluntary labour and materialssourced at low cost will make permanentaccommodation affordable for a low-incomeChristchurch family in need. The majorityof helpers will be student volunteers.Assistance from friends and alumni of theUniversity, with both construction andsponsorship, will be warmly welcomed. Theproject has been organised by Golden Key,an academic honour society that preparesstudents for lives of leadership and service totheir communities.If you are interested in volunteering orproviding sponsorship, please contactHayden Peacock, phone: +64 27 446 8282,email community@goldenkey.canterbury.ac.nz or see www.goldenkey.canterbury.ac.nz.2005 Alumni Association AGM at the SOFA Gallery.30 Mar UK Alumni Branch FunctionThe UK Alumni Branch will be holding its firstevent of the New Year in the New ZealandHouse Penthouse, London.Tickets: £5 per person.To register your interest in attending thisevent or participating in other UK Alumniactivities, please email Sam Jeffs atucukalumni@hotmail.com.11 & 13 Apr Graduation, Christchurch Town HallFour ceremonies over two days ofcelebration, amidst Christchurch’s autumnfinery. For further information,phone +64 3 364 2987, ext 8981,email graduation@canterbury.ac.nz or seewww.canterbury.ac.nz/acad/graduation.12 Apr Annual Canterbury Challenge QuizThis annual highlight of the Graduationfestivities, organised by the AlumniAssociation and sponsored by localbusinesses, brings together staff, students,and graduates for a fun-filled evening of trivia.Contact: the Alumni Office.See www.canterbury.ac.nz/alumni for detailsof the 2005 quiz.18 Apr AIESEC 3M New Zealand MotivationalSeminar — Awards EveningAIESEC Canterbury will host the 2006national conference and would like toinvite AIESEC alumni to join them for theAwards Evening. The event will be attendedby corporate supporters and conferencedelegates from around the country.Contact: Yat Wan Yeung, National AlumniCo-ordinator (AIESEC), ph: +64 21 123 5156,email: yat.yeung@aiesec.net25 May Alumni Association 13 th Annual GeneralMeetingThe Annual General Meeting will combinebusiness with a campus highlight and lightrefreshments. Details to be confirmed closerto the date. Contact: the Alumni Office.Aug University of Canterbury Arts Festival,ChristchurchThe UC College of Arts is delighted toannounce the launch of an inauguralUniversity of Canterbury Arts Festival.Showcasing the talent of both staff andstudents, the festival will offer somethingfor everyone. From Monteverdi’s fabulousbaroque opera, La Coronazione di Poppea,featuring Dame Malvina Major, to avantgardetheatre, silent films, modern artexhibitions, film screenings and publiclectures, the festival will be an expression ofthe University’s diversity in the arts. To bekept up to date with the festival, new eventsand programme details, email ‘Subscribe’ toartsfestival@canterbury.ac.nz.5-8 Nov 2006 New Zealand Alumni Convention– Connecting Asia with Aotearoa, New Zealand,Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa,WellingtonHosted by the Wellington City Council, thisConvention for tertiary alumni of the Asia-Pacific region will celebrate the life-longconnections of student days while exploringbusiness opportunities between New Zealandand Asia (see page 40 for further details).The convention will start with a bang atWellington’s spectacular annual Guy Fawkesfireworks extravaganza on 5 November andculminate in a gala dinner on 8 November.See www.wellington.govt.nz/rd/alumni forregular updates or email alumni@wcc.govt.nz.11 Nov Engineering Alumni FunctionMore details available soon.Contact: Naomi Murfitt, Marketing andOutreach Co-ordinator (Engineering),ph: +64 3 364 2813,email: naomi.murfitt@canterbury.ac.nzReunions coming up in 200730 Mar–1 Apr Bishop Julius Hall 90 th AnniversaryReunion2007 marks the 90 th anniversary of theopening of the original Bishop Julius Hall.Register at www.bishopjulius.ac.nz or contactLynne Williams, 78 Greendale Ave, Christchurchor email pete_lynne@snap.net.nz.20-21 Oct Ten Year Reunion for Speech andLanguage Therapy Graduates of 1998 (studentsof 1994-7)Contact: Sandra Leak (née Sapwell),100A George Street, Ashburton,ph: +64 3 308 6648, mobile: +64 27 659 5133,email: sandra.leak@xtra.co.nzFor enquiries contact:The Alumni OfficeCommunications & DevelopmentLevel 5 Registry, University of CanterburyPrivate Bag 4800, Christchurch, New ZealandPh: +64 3 364 2344, Fax: +64 3 364 2679Email: alumni@canterbury.ac.nzwww.alumni.canterbury.ac.nz/alumniPhoto: Neil PriceThe Wellington City Council, with supportfrom the New Zealand Government, extendsa warm invitation to the alumni of all NewZealand universities and other tertiaryinstitutions to attend the 2006 New ZealandAlumni Convention, to be held from 5-8November 2006 in Wellington.Following on from the successful inauguralconference held in Kuching, Sarawak, in2004, the 2006 convention will provide theopportunity for New Zealand alumni tore-connect with old friends and colleagues,to be inspired by leading New Zealandersand commentators, to share some of NewZealand’s successful business stories, and tolearn more about New Zealand today and theexciting opportunities that exist for businessand investment in New Zealand.Designed particularly for alumni based in theAsia-Pacific region, this convention will alsobe of interest to government representativesin the areas of trade, business, foreignaffairs, education and investment; tocompanies, entrepreneurs and investorswho wish to explore business opportunitiesin the Asia-Pacific region; and current orprospective students intending to pursuestudy in New Zealand at undergraduate orpostgraduate level.The convention programme will havesomething for everyone, combiningstimulating presentations by expert andinternationally-renowned speakers withsite visits to world-class facilities andfun social activities. The programme willexplore the following themes: re-connecting— hear stories from fellow alumni on whatthey have achieved and made of their NewZealand education; doing business in NewZealand and Asia — find out how Asia Inc andNew Zealand can do business together formutual benefit; New Zealand today — learnabout the changes that have taken place inNew Zealand over recent times and whatcontinues to make New Zealand a greatplace in which to live, work, learn, play anddo business; understanding the world atlarge and our place in it, which will examinerecent developments between Asia andNew Zealand; and celebrating innovation andemerging technologies within New Zealandand Asia.Additionally there will be an “Ideas Gallery”,featuring leading developments in biotechnology,biomedicine, food technology,nanotechnology and robotics, and providinginformation on exciting research, investmentand business opportunities in NewZealand, as well as the postgraduate studyprogrammes now on offer.Delegates will also enjoy a unique venueexperience with the convention’s locationat the Museum of New Zealand Te PapaTongarewa, in the heart of Wellington City.With a worldwide reputation for its freshand bold approach to presenting the nation’streasures and stories, Te Papa is an importantwaharoa, or “gateway”, for engaging with theessence of New Zealand’s land and people.The convention has been organised andsponsored by the Wellington City Council,with the support of the New ZealandGovernment through New Zealand Trade andEnterprise, the Ministry of Foreign Affairsand Trade and the Ministry of Education, andwith the support and involvement of NewZealand’s eight universities.At the close of the convention, delegates areinvited to visit their respective universitiesfor activities over the 9-10 November. Aprogramme for University of Canterburyalumni during this weekend will be publishedshortly.To register and for regular updates on theconvention, visit www.wellington.govt.nz/rd/alumni.Alumni are also most welcome to contact theorganising committee, led by Wellington’sDeputy Mayor, Mr Alick Shaw, atemail: alumni@wcc.govt.nz.The Wellington City Council, New ZealandGovernment and universities of New Zealandlook forward to welcoming alumni back toNew Zealand for what will be an inspiring andauspicious event.42 Canterbury Magazine Summer 2005 43

Class NotesAlumni NetworksAdamson, Michelle T (BCom, ACCY, 1995)worked at the Deloitte Touche Tohmatsuoffice in Christchurch from January 1995until September 2000 and then transferredto Deloitte & Touche New York (October2000 – July 2005). She has since joined theconsulting firm Protiviti Inc in New York Cityas a senior manager.Baghaei-Rad, Leili (BE(Hons), ENEL,2004) was awarded the Rebecca LynchScholarship, Graduate Student TravelAward and Microelectronics Research andCommunications Institute (MRCI) researchgrant for 2005, and is currently studyingtowards a Master of Engineering degree atthe University of Idaho while simultaneouslyundertaking research for the MRCI. HusbandIan Downes (BE(Hons) ENEL, 2004) alsobegan overseas studies this year, enrolling atStanford University in August after winningthe J R Templin Graduate Scholarship for 2005.Campbell, Gary (BSc, BIOL/ZOOL, 1990)is enjoying the opportunity to travelthroughout Canada because of his jobas a district sales manager and salesrepresentative for pharmaceutical companyLundbeck Canada Inc. He has continued toplay guitar and is currently in a band calledSkully (see www.skully.ca) that plays mostlyin Atlantic Canada.Clement, Nicola (BSc, BIOL/ZOOL, 2000)went on to do a Postgraduate Diploma inMarketing and Management and spent threeyears working for an agricultural chemicalcompany in Melbourne, Auckland andLondon, followed by one year working for SAPConsulting, a professional services companyin Auckland. She is currently contracted tohealthcare company HSA in Hampshire (UK)to redesign and build the company’s website.Connelly, Michael P (BE(Hons) ENEL, 2002)was doing automation engineering in Rotoruaand is now working on communicationsand surveillance engineering for AirwaysCorporation in Christchurch. He is currentlythe project manager for a $10.5 million voiceswitch project.Dibnah (née Batty), Lana R (BCom, BSAD,1996) spent a year each in Perth (Australia)and Wellington before embarking on herOE. For just over five years she was based inLondon, working in human resources for aGerman insurance company, before returningto New Zealand with her English husband.Dibnah is currently human resources advisorat the head office of children’s clothing chainPumpkin Patch, which is based in Auckland.Hua Yan (BA, PSYC, 2004) is delighted to havejoined one of China’s top 10 managementconsulting firms, Zuoyou ManagementConsulting Co Ltd, as a junior consultantbased in Shenzhen — a career goal she saysshe always dreamed of.Hunt, Robyn (BA, ENGL/POLS, 1971) is a parttimeCommissioner for the Human RightsCommission. She has worked as a consultantand has 20 years’ experience in the fields ofhuman rights and equity issues, with a focuson disability and equal employment issues.Hunt was the first president of the Council ofWorkbridge Inc and co-chair of the DisabilityStrategy Sector Reference Group. She isalso a writer, trainer, coach and mentor,and director of an accessible web servicescompany. She was made an Officer of theNew Zealand Order of Merit for services topeople with disabilities in 2001.Jongens, Richard (PhD, GEOL, 1997; BSc,1993) has been working as a geologist withNew Zealand’s Institute of Geological andNuclear Sciences (GNS). His main projectfor the past three years has been mappingrocks in Fiordland and the West Coastfor the 1:250,000 QMAP: Geological Mapof New Zealand programme funded bythe Foundation for Research, Science andTechnology (FRST).Keen, Thomas W (MSc, CHEM, 1994; BSc,1991) founded his own mechanical productdesign business in 1997 called IndustrialAlchemy Limited, based in Christchurch (seehttp://home.clear.net.nz/pages/tomkeen).As product designer and director of thecompany, Keen has collaborated on projectswith Britten Prototypes, Trimble Electronicsand DirtThingz engineer Glenn Anderson.Narayan Ramanath, Deepak (ME, ENCH,2004) returned to his hometown ofBangalore, India, to work as a project engineerin the field of hypersonic flows at the IndianInstitute of Science, one of the world’sforemost science institutes. He is currentlyworking at Ansys Software Limited (formerlyCFX), which is part of Ansys Inc, USA.Roberts, Cynthia M (BA, HIST, 1970) hasbeen teaching Educational Management atthe Christchurch Polytechnic and runningher own outdoor adventure company,Bushwise Women, for the past 10 years. In2004 she completed a Master of AppliedScience in biology and conservationat Lincoln University and is now on ascholarship at the University of Tasmania,undertaking a PhD in ecology.Safa, Abbas (ME, ENEL, 1990) initially workedas a high frequency radio design engineerin Waihi before becoming the projectmanager for the Tehran Province Water andWaste Water Telemetry and TelecontrolProject in Iran. He is currently a nationaltelecommunication officer for the UnitedNations, based in Tehran.Sardina, Vicente (MForSc, 1993) is currentlyOfficer-in-Charge and Provincial Head of theDepartment of Environment and NaturalResources (DENIR) in the province of Antique,Philippines, managing three offices with 155personnel. He is married with four children.Smith, John F (DipClinPsych, 1973; MA,PSYC, 1972; BA, 1970) has worked as a clinicalpsychologist in New Zealand, Australia andthe United States since graduating, andheld academic positions at the Universityof Waikato and Auckland University ofTechnology, where he is currently ProgrammeLeader for Health Promotion in the NationalCentre for Health and Social Ethics. Hehas also undertaken a number of projectsand consultancies for the World HealthOrganisation (WHO) and other healthorganisations in the Philippines, Laos,Vietnam, Tajikistan and Thailand.Taylor, Joanna M (LLB, 1994; BA, HIST, 1993)worked as a judge’s clerk at the ChristchurchHigh Court for two years and then spent fiveyears with Russell McVeagh in Wellington asa senior solicitor. For the past four years shehas been an associate at Allen & Overy LLPin London.Van der Sprong, Frank (MCom, BSAD, 1997)now works for General Electrics Fleet Servicesand is currently the pricing leader for theNetherlands, Belgium and Luxembourg. He isbased in the Netherlands and is married withone daughter.Von Biel, Victoria (MA, ENGL, 1981) is ExecutiveEditor for Bon Appétit, the popular Americanmonthly food magazine under Condé Nast,which has been in print for more than 50 yearsand has a circulation of 1.3 million.Voykovic (née Blacktopp), Linda J (BA(Hons),PSYC/EDUC, 1995) took up volunteer workafter graduating before landing her dream jobas a child, adolescent and family therapist in amental health service for six years. Since thenshe has taken time out to be a full-time mumto her three daughters and has been based inMelbourne since 2003.Wadsworth, John R (BCom, BSAD, 1995; BSc,ECON, 1992) was appointed Chief ExecutiveOfficer of Enterprise Waitakere, WaitakareCity’s economic development agency, inAugust. He was previously business managerfor the organisation and is a regular speakerat social policy and economic developmentforums around New Zealand. Wadsworth isone of 18 participants in the Future Leadersprogramme run by the corporate-ledCommittee for Auckland. He was presidentof the University of Canterbury Students’Association in 1993.University of Canterbury AlumniAssociationAll graduates, former students (who havecompleted at least 12 points), past andpresent staff members, and friends of theUniversity of Canterbury are eligible formembership of the Alumni Association.See www.canterbury.ac.nz/alumni for moreinformation or contact the Alumni Office.Wellington branchContact: Brian LynchPh: +64 4 970 3444Email: brianice@paradise.net.nzInternational branches:GermanyContact: Silke DeselaersDanziger Str 35SonnenbergD-65191 WiesbadenGermanyMobile: 0 171/5474747Email: silke.deselaers@web.deUCAM (University of Canterbury Alumni,Malaysia)Contact: Richard Tankersley, PresidentPO Box 1056550718 Kuala Lumpur, MalaysiaPh: +60 3 2141 0822Email: ucam@tm.net.mywww.ucam.org.myKuching Branch, UCAMContact: Dr Chua Ching GehPO Box 32193704 KuchingSarawak, MalaysiaEmail: chingeh@pc.jaring.myUnited KingdomContact: Sam JeffsEmail: ucukalumni@hotmail.comWestern AustraliaContact: Stephen AlpersGerard Daniels AustraliaQv1 Building250 St Georges TerracePerth, WA 6000AustraliaPh: +61 8 9322 0877Email: stephena@gda.com.auOther AssociationsNew Zealand Federation of GraduateWomen Inc (NZFGW)The NZFGW is open to all women graduatesof New Zealand universities, polytechnics,colleges of education and Wänanga, andcurrently has 15 branches nationwide, withlinks to the International Federation ofGraduate Women. Contact the NationalSecretary for your nearest branch (PO Box3057, Wellington, email: wendyz@ihug.co.nz),or see www.nzfgw.org.nz.Christchurch Classical AssociationMeets regularly to hear lectures frominvited speakers.Contact: Secretary, UC Classics ProgrammePh: +64 3 364 2987, ext 8580Email: secretary@clas.canterbury.ac.nzNew Zealand Geographical Society(Canterbury Branch)Meets monthly for seminars and discussion.Contact: Secretary, UC GeographyDepartmentPh: +64 3 364 2900Email: secretary@geog.canterbury.ac.nzwww.nzgs.co.nzCanterbury Historical AssociationMeets monthly for presentations on historicaltopics by UC staff, visiting lecturers,postgraduate students and local historians.Contact: Professor Geoffrey RicePh: +64 3 364 2283Email: geoffrey.rice@canterbury.ac.nzOther Alumni CommunicationsCE News (Civil Engineering)Phone +64 3 364 2250 oremail enquiries@civil.canterbury.ac.nzto join the distribution list, or seewww.civil.canterbury.ac.nz.Geophiles (Geography)See www.geog.canterbury.ac.nz.Clio Canta (History)To subscribe, contact the Secretary,phone +64 3 364 2104 oremail judy.robertson@canterbury.ac.nz.UC School of Law Newsletter(School of Law)See www.laws.canterbury.ac.nz/newsletters,phone +64 3 364 2602 oremail law-enquiries@canterbury.ac.nzto receive a copy.Another issue of Canterbury, another35,000 readers around the globeunited by their connection to theUniversity of Canterbury.We are pleased and proud to celebratethe achievements of our alumni, andto provide a valuable network throughwhich alumni can continue to enhancetheir personal and business relationshipswell after graduation. Wherever inthe world you may be, we would liketo encourage you to stay part of the“Canterbury family”.You can do this simply by keepingthe University of Canterbury AlumniOffice up to date with your contactdetails. Either complete and returnthe enclosed Alumni Update Form orvisit www.canterbury.ac.nz/alumni.Please also encourage friends, familyand colleagues who have a Canterburyconnection to do the same.Contact:The Alumni OfficeCommunications and DevelopmentUniversity of CanterburyPrivate Bag 4800ChristchurchNew ZealandPh: +64 3 364 2344Fax: +64 3 364 2679Email: alumni@canterbury.ac.nzwww.canterbury.ac.nz/alumni44 Canterbury Magazine Summer 2005 45

ObituariesAlumni BenefitsDr Russell SmithD’Eve, Marian May (BEd, 1999), b. 10 August1947, d. 8 August 2005Smith, Russell Peter (PhD, 1973; BE (Elec),1967), b. 22 October 1944, d. 8 August 2005University of Canterbury Council member,patron of the UC Foundation and successfulbusinessman Dr Russell Smith and his wife,Marian D’Eve, were tragically killed in a planecrash when their Cessna 182 crashed into thesea off North Canterbury in August.Smith was head of HumanWare Group(formerly Pulse Data International), knowninternationally for its Braille and speechtechnology, screen-reading software andvideo magnification solutions for thevisually impaired.After completing his PhD at Canterbury,Smith went on to become the foundingmanaging director of Wormald InternationalSensory Aids, which subsequently becamePulse Data in 1988, rising rapidly as a worldleader in information access for the blind.Pulse Data merged this year with Canadianfirm VisuAide to become HumanWare Group.In 2004 Smith was made a Member ofthe New Zealand Order of Merit (MNZM),celebrating a career dedicated to improvingthe lives of the visually impaired.D’Eve was a well respected early educationexpert and a former teacher at theChristchurch College of Education.Kennedy, Henry James Forbes (BE(Hons)(Civil), 1949), b. 25 June 1926, d. 6 June 2005Henry Kennedy worked for 36 years forthe Ministry of Works and DevelopmentPower Division, seven of them as chiefdesign engineer in charge of designinghydro, thermal and geothermal state powerschemes, and was involved in most of thepower schemes built between the 1950sand 1980s, specialising in major hydraulicstructures and soil mechanics. During thisperiod of rapid growth, up to five stationswere under construction simultaneously.A top scholar at Timaru Boys’ High andCanterbury University College, Kennedyjoined the ministry after completing anMSc at Victoria University College (1951).His first major project was as a memberof the engineering team working on theRoxburgh Power Project, supervising theconstruction of the dam and powerplanton the Clutha River.From his retirement in 1985 Kennedycontinued to work as a consultant for miningcompanies and other organisations involvedin soil and water issues.Stokes, Dame Evelyn Mary (MA, 1960), b. 20May 1930, d. 15 August 2005A distinguished New Zealand geographer,Dame Evelyn Stokes played a significantrole in establishing Waikato University’sGeography Department, where she wasprofessor from 1964 until her death.After graduating from Canterbury she wasappointed a geography professor at what wasthen Auckland University’s Waikato branch,the same year the University of Waikato wasestablished in its own right.Dame Evelyn founded and edited the NewZealand Journal of Geography (1969-1986) andwas a long-time member of the WaitangiTribunal and New Zealand GeographicBoard. As a member of the Nga TuwharetoaTribal Trust (1980-1991), she was involved inlandmark negotiations for the first leasingof Mäori land for a power station, the Ohaakigeothermal power plant.Her life work was devoted to recognisingcontributions made by marginalisedgroups, particularly women and Mäori, andshe published widely on New Zealand’shistorical geography, Mäori land tenure andTreaty of Waitangi issues. She was madea Dame Companion of the New ZealandOrder of Merit in 1999 for services to tertiaryeducation and Mäori.Tungol, Norman (PhD, 2002), b. 16 June 1965,d. 28 April 2005Norman Tungol was tragically killed in ahelicopter crash in the Philippines while onan aerial assessment of a potential landslidedanger at Dingalan, Aurora province.Tungol graduated from the University of thePhilippines in 1987 with a BS in Geology andworked as an exploration geologist withBenguet Mining Corporation before joiningthe Philippine Institute of Volcanology andSeismology (PHIVOLCS) in 1991. As a scienceresearch specialist he participated in themonitoring of Pinatubo Volcano lahars. Hewas awarded the Civil Service Commission-PAGASA Award as member of the PHIVOLCSQuick Response Team in 1995, and in 1996won a New Zealand Overseas DevelopmentAgency (NZODA) scholarship to undertakepostgraduate study at Canterbury.After completing his studies, Tungol returnedto the Philippines. He was appointed Chiefof the Geology, Geophysics Research andDevelopment Division (GGRDD) in 2004.Williman, Alan, b. 1914, d. December 2004Alan Williman taught in the University’s CivilEngineering Department for 27 years, from1952 until retiring in 1979, covering drawing,design and surveying before settlinginto his speciality of highway and trafficengineering. He was the driving force behindthe development of New Zealand’s firstand only pavement testing facility, knownthen as the “Willywheel”. Now known as theCanterbury Accelerated Pavement TestingFacility (CAPTIF), it has since been usedfor numerous research projects, includinga major international study for the OECDon the performance of pavements underdynamic loading.Williman completed a BSc in engineering atLondon University in 1936. He worked as acivil engineer until WWII, during which heserved in the Royal Engineers, undertakingbomb disposal and road upgrading in Franceand Germany.He joined the University of ManchesterInstitute of Science and Technology (UMIST)as a lecturer in 1949, gaining an MSc in 1951,before immigrating to New Zealand withhis family.Woodward, Otway George William, b. 28January 1924, d. 2005Emeritus Professor Otway Woodwardheld a chair in the University’s HistoryDepartment for 21 years, 20 of them as head.He also served on the University Council,was a member of the Student LiaisonCommittee, a member of, and chairman,of the Library Committee and the Board ofStudies in Journalism, and a member of theAppointments Committee.Educated at the Belfast Royal Academy,Otway was awarded a junior exhibition inclassics to Trinity College, Dublin. The SecondWorld War intervened and he joined the RoyalAir Force instead, qualifying as a pilot. At warend he returned to Trinity, graduating in 1950in political science and history with first classhonours before going on to complete aPhD (1955).He lectured at the University of Nottinghamfrom 1952 to 1967, when he was appointed atCanterbury.In many instances you will require an Alumni Association Membership Card to access these benefits.This card is free upon request to the Alumni Office.Internet accessEnjoy competitive rates on Internet accessthrough the UC Information TechnologyDepartment. For more information,phone +64 3 364 2060,email helpdesk@it.canterbury.ac.nz,or visit www.it.canterbury.ac.nz.Find a friend with CATSThe Canterbury Alumni Tracking Serviceallows you to get in touch with lost friendsand colleagues who may be registered onour alumni database. Please provide name,degree/course and years of study, if known.Note: The Alumni Office complies in allrespects with the Privacy Act and will notgive out personal information without theindividual’s permission.Use the LibraryContinue to enjoy borrowing rights at one ofNew Zealand’s top university libraries witha 25% discount on the standard externalborrowers’ fee: $150 per annum or $75 for sixmonths. Note: applicants must reside in theChristchurch area. Phone +64 3 364 2987, ext8723, or visit www.library.canterbury.ac.nz.Sign up for CareerHubUC students, recent graduates andemployers can take advantage of the CareerDevelopment and Employer Liaison Centre’sexcellent website CareerHub, which providesinformation on recruitment, vacancies,events, employer details, seminars, weblinks, news and articles. Register at www.canterbury.ac.nz/student/careers.UC memorabiliaThe Alumni Office stocks a wide range ofitems to commemorate your time at UC (seeenclosed order form). All products may bepurchased over the counter, year-round, whenyou visit the Alumni Office (opening hours:8.30am-5pm, Monday-Friday).UC clothing may be purchased at theStudents’ Association.Sign up for a UC Visa cardApply for the credit card with a difference:it both commemorates your time at UC andraises funds for student scholarships, at noextra cost to you. Contact the Alumni Officefor more information.Organise a reunionKeen to meet up with old friends? Whynot organise your own event or reunion?The Alumni Office can provide advice andassistance. Contact the Alumni Office formore information.Maintain your gym membershipThe UC Recreation Services & Sports ScienceCentre offers alumni competitive rates forgym membership. Services on offer includeweight-training, circuits, aerobics (step, pump,spin, etc), squash, team sports, recreationalclasses, climbing and much, much more.Phone +64 3 364 2433, or visitwww.phed.canterbury.ac.nz.Join the University Staff ClubEnjoy the Staff Club’s excellent hospitalityfor $84 per year. Contact the Alumni Officefor an application form (not open tocurrent students).Off-campus benefitsSix Continents Hotels and ResortsExceptional rates at more than 3200 hotelsand resorts worldwide. Phone toll free: 0800801 111 to make a booking, and quote the UCnumber: 958384347.Pacifica Lodges & Inns10% off normal accommodation rates at over70 properties nationwide. For reservations,phone toll free: 0800 800 112,or visit www.pacificahotels.co.nz.The Alumni OfficeCommunications and DevelopmentLevel 5, RegistryUniversity of CanterburyPrivate Bag 4800ChristchurchNew ZealandPh: +64 3 364 2344Fax: +64 3 364 2679Email: alumni@canterbury.ac.nzwww.canterbury.ac.nz/alumni46 Canterbury Magazine Summer 2005 47

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