ECR Forum Committee Members
About
Committee members of the ECR Forum generally commit to serving a three-year term. Committee members will be selected with concern for the ECR Forum’s representativeness regarding gender, ethnicity, geographic location, occupational sector, and disciplinary affiliation. Two co-chairs will be sourced from current committee members. Co-chairs will generally serve for two years and their terms will overlap with each other by one year to enable continuity.
Tom Baker – Co-Chair (University of Auckland)
Tom Baker is a Senior Lecturer in the School of Environment at the University of Auckland. He is a human geographer whose research examines the social and spatial dimensions of policy and policy-making. Using primarily qualitative approaches, Tom’s research focuses on the ways in which elected representatives, experts, and the public conceive of, and act upon, economically and socially marginalised populations. He completed his PhD at the University of Newcastle, Australia, and before coming to Auckland, he was a Postdoctoral Research Fellow in the Department of Geography at Simon Fraser University, Canada. Tom has also worked in the public sector at local and national levels, most recently at the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare.
Lucy Stewart – Co-Chair (GNS Wellington)
Lucy is a postdoctoral researcher in the Marine Geosciences department at GNS Science, based in Wellington. She is an environmental microbiologist and specialises in the microbiology of high-temperature environments such as deep-sea hydrothermal vents. Her research aims to understand the interface between the biosphere and geosphere by characterising and cultivating microorganisms that grow using inorganic substrates such as metals, sulfur compounds, methane, and hydrogen. Lucy received a B.A. in History and a B.Sc.(Hons) in Microbiology from the University of Canterbury. She completed a PhD at the University of Massachusetts (Amherst), supported by a Fulbright scholarship. Upon returning to New Zealand in 2015 she was awarded a Rutherford Postdoctoral Fellowship to characterise the microbial diversity of high-temperature environments along the offshore Kermadec volcanic arc. She is also an investigator on a recently-funded MBIE Endeavour Fund project to study the potential impacts of gas hydrate mining in New Zealand's offshore waters. Lucy sits on the Wellington Early Career Researchers committee.
Caroline Orchiston – Committee Member (University of Otago)
Caroline is the Deputy Director of the Centre for Sustainability at the University of Otago. Her research interests lie at the interface between earth and social science, investigating societal disaster resilience and recovery, community and business resilience, and scenario planning for impacts to critical infrastructure and emergency management during disasters. Caroline is an Associate Investigator on Resilience to Nature’s Challenges (National Science Challenge), a multi-disciplinary programme that aims to build a more resilient New Zealand by transforming how we prepare for and mitigate against rapid (earthquakes, floods) and slow onset (climate change-related) disasters. Since 2010, Caroline has been involved in a longitudinal study of community preparedness and awareness of natural hazard risk in Washington State, USA in collaboration with GNS Science, Washington State Emergency Management and the United States Geological Survey. Caroline is an Associate or Lead Investigator on several other projects funded by QuakeCoRE (TEC), New Zealand Transport Authority, Earthquake Commission and the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment.
Tia Dawes - (University of Auckland)
Ko Whakarongorua te maunga
Ko Utakura te awa
Ko Ngātokimatawhaorua te waka
Ko Ngāpuhi te iwi
Ko Ngāti Toro te hapū
Ko Joyce tōku whānau
Ko Tia Dawes tōku ingoa
Tia is a Research Fellow with both the James Henare Māori Research Centre and the Centre for Learning and Research in Higher Education. Tia studied the oratory of the Late Roman Republic with a particular emphasis on the political writings of Cicero before becoming increasingly interested in issues that involve Māori. As a James Henare Māori Research Fellow he is part of a multi-disciplinary team that has recently been awarded a NSC grant to conduct a study addressing the health-care needs of kaumātua in Te Tai Tokerau. He has also been appointed a Clear Research Fellow at the Centre of Learning and Research in Higher Education for 2018 to evaluate how career development and employability programmes have influenced Māori academic and career decision-making processes. This study will ensure future programming remain relevant to these student groups over coming years.
Gradon Diprose – Committee Member (Manaaki Whenua Landcare Research - Wellington)
Gradon is a Researcher Environmental Social Science at Manaaki Whenua Landcare Research. He has a background in human geography, completing his PhD at Victoria University of Wellington in 2015. His PhD research explored how people come together to contest disempowering processes that threaten their livelihoods and cultural survival, and how they collectively enact alternatives. He is a member of the Community Economies Collective, a group of scholars drawing on the work of J.K. Gibson-Graham to rethink the economy and build more sustainable socio-economic alternatives to support life. Gradon currently works across a range of areas, including; citizen science, community adaptation to climate change, and urban wellbeing initiatives. Prior to completing his PhD, Gradon worked as a planner in local government at various councils in Aotearoa New Zealand.
Amy Osborne – Committee Member (Canterbury University, Christchurch)
Amy is a Lecturer in genomics within the School of Biological Sciences at the University of Canterbury, Christchurch. Originally from the UK, Amy completed a BSc(Hons) in Biomedical Science at King’s College London and followed this by working as a research associate at the Medical Research Council (Imperial College London) studying the genomics of complex disease. After moving to New Zealand in 2006, Amy spent two years working as a research associate, first with the Wakefield Gastroenterology Research group in Wellington, and then in the Molecular Ecology Research group at the University of Canterbury, Christchurch. Amy undertook her PhD in population genomics at the University of Otago and completed this in 2011 (Dean’s list of Exceptional Theses). Amy has worked as a Postdoctoral Fellow at the University of Colorado Denver (Anschutz Medical Campus), at the University of Otago in Dunedin and also at the University of Otago, Christchurch, with research interests spanning developmental genomics, evolution and development, and epigenetics. Amy’s current research focuses on the interaction between the genome and the environment, via epigenetics.
Jordis Tradowsky - Committee Member (Bodeker Scientific)
Jordis Tradowsky is an ECR working at Bodeker Scientific which is located in Alexandra, Central Otago. Bodeker Scientific is a scientist-owned atmospheric research company specialized in the science of stratospheric ozone depletion, stratospheric composition, and climate change. She has currently finished her doctoral degree for which she was enrolled at the Freie Universitaet Berlin, Germany, while also working at Bodeker Scientific and at the National institute for Water and Atmospheric Research (NIWA) at Lauder. The title of her doctoral thesis was Enhancing the Upper-Air Observational Temperature Record to Improve Satellite Validation and Weather Forecasts. Jordis has experience in performing atmospheric measurements with balloon-borne instruments, combining measurements from different instruments into best-estimate data products, and estimating and propagating measurement uncertainties. Furthermore she has developed of a method to correct radiosonde temperature biases prior to assimilation into a numerical weather prediction system by using radio occultation measurements as a reference. She is part of the Global Climate Observing System Reference Upper-Air Network (GRUAN) and of the International Radio Occultation Working Group (IROWG).
Haki Tuaupiki - Committee Member (University of Waikato)
Hopukia, hopukia!
Tākiri whetū ata ki Taupiri
Kia aitia te anu mātao ki Tongariro
Apakura te pō, tairanga te awatea!
Nō Te Tahaaroa a Haki Tuaupiki, ko Waikato me Ngāti Tūwharetoa ōna iwi. He pūkenga matua ia i Te Pua Wānanga ki te Ao, ki Te Whare Wānanga o Waikato. Ko te whakatere waka te kai o tōna manawa. Koirā hoki te kaupapa rangahau o tana tohu kairangi i oti ai i a ia i te tau 2017 ka huri nei. Otirā, ko te reo Māori me ōna tikanga te kai o tōna wairua, tū te ao, tū te pō. Haki is a senior lecturer in the Faculty of Māori and Indigenous Studies at The University of Waikato. He recently graduated with his PhD, which is in the field of Māori navigation knowledge in the context of trans-pacific Polynesian voyaging and navigation revitalisation. Since the completion of his PhD, he has continued this research under a 2017-2018 co-funded project grant between Ngā Pae o te Māramatanga and the University of Waikato which investigates Māori-specific navigation knowledge. It seeks to rediscover and regenerate Māori-specific navigation knowledge in te reo Māori to support the waka hourua community throughout Aotearoa in the context of Trans-Pacific navigation revitalisation. He is an active marae and hapū member of Ngāti Mahuta ki te Hauāuru on matters concerning the revitalisation and maintenance of the local te reo Māori dialect of his rohe. Tēnā tātou katoa.
Lydia Liew - Committee Member (Aucland Cancer Research Centre)
Lydia Liew is a research fellow at the Auckland Cancer Society Research Centre. She is a medicinal chemist contributing to a multidisciplinary research environment in cancer drug discovery. She uses molecular modelling approaches for pharmacophore development, virtual screening, ligand and structure based drug design, as well as to generate new hypotheses for novel drug targets. To date, Lydia has worked on a number of drug targets in infectious diseases and cancer including GPCRs, kinases and other targets within the tumour microenvironment. She obtained her BSc (Hons) and then PhD in chemistry from The University of Auckland and has recently completed a Masters in Commercialisation and Entrepreneurship at The University of Auckland. During this programme, Lydia has been working alongside scientists and commercial partners across New Zealand to develop early-stage science and technologies with the aim of bringing them to market. Lydia is passionate about connecting scientist to the wider entrepreneurial ecosystem in New Zealand and would love to hear from you!
Darren Powell - Committee Member (University of Auckland)
Darren Powell is a Senior Lecturer in the Faculty of Education and Social Work, University of Auckland. He uses critical ethnographic methods and critical social theory to interrogate the privatisation of public health and public education. Darren completed his PhD at Charles Sturt University, Australia, where he examined the ‘childhood obesity epidemic' and the ways in which corporations and charities are re-inventing themselves as 'part of the solution' to obesity. He is currently the Principal Investigator on a Royal Society Te Apārangi Marsden Fund Fast-Start Grant to study how the marketing of ‘health’ shapes children’s health knowledge, actions, and identities.
Annette Bolton - Committee Member (ESR)
Annetter Bolton is a Senior Scientist at ESR based in Ōtautahi. She is an interdisciplinary scientist working in cross-cutting areas of climate science, environmental science and health. She started her career as an environmental scientist working in occupational and environmental health at the University of Manchester in the UK. A commonwealth scholarship took her to Victoria University of Wellington where she studied palaeo-oceanography and developed the first surface ocean temperature calibration using foraminifera geochemical techniques. Foraminifera are tiny marine organisms that are used to reconstruct climate variability in the past. She then took off to complete a post-doc at The University of Hong Kong and The Earth Observatory of Singapore applying her geochemistry knowledge to tropical corals in the South China Sea. Most of her time was spent working on one of the longest coral records recovered in that region. Annette returned to Aotearoa in 2016, became a graduate of the science-policy exchange at the office of the Prime Minister’s Chief Science Advisor and now works in the climate, environment and health space at ESR. She also has a soft spot for stygobites, which are important ecological critters that live in groundwater and have no eyes!
Sylvia Nissen - Committee Member (Lincoln University)
Sylvia Nissen is a Lecturer in Environmental Policy in the Department of Environmental Management at Lincoln University. Trained in political science, sociology and human geography, her research centres on youth political participation, social movements and sustainable transitions. She holds a Master of Environmental Science from Monash University in Australia and a PhD in political science from the University of Canterbury, for which she was awarded the Kate Sheppard Memorial Prize. Sylvia is the Primary Investigator of a Marsden Fast-Start funded project that examines the political legacies of the student mobilisation following the Christchurch earthquakes. She is also a Research Fellow in an international project examining young people’s everyday lives in seven diverse cities, coordinated by the University of Canterbury and the University of Surrey, UK.