Two President’s Awards were presented at the Royal Society of New Zealand’s annual general meeting held in Wellington on 6 October 2010.
The special one-off awards presented by Dr Garth Carnaby, President of the Royal Society of New Zealand, were made to the New Zealand Society for Earthquake Engineering Inc, represented by its President Peter Wood, and to Dr Henry Kaspar, a senior scientist with the aquaculture group of the Cawthron Institute.
President’s Award winners Dr Henry Kaspar (left) and Peter Wood (right)
with Dr Garth Carnaby
The award to the New Zealand Society for Earthquake Engineering Inc was ‘in recognition of contributions made by earthquake scientists and engineers for the prevention of loss of life in the Christchurch earthquake of 2010.’
In presenting the award Dr Carnaby said that: “It is widely agreed that the lack of human casualties can be ascribed to one major cause, that is the contributions made over many years by the scientists and engineers whose research underpins the New Zealand building code. New Zealand research into how to build structures which will prevent loss of life leads the world.”
The award to Dr Henry Kaspar was ‘for research based innovation for industry’. Dr Kaspar is a Nelson-based scientist who initiated the world’s first mussel selective breeding programme. The award was for his role in aquaculture research and development in New Zealand.
