Message from Society President – Dr Brent Clothier
Dr Brent Clothier shares his foreword as President of Royal Society Te Apārangi.
Kia ora Fellows,
It has been an enjoyable final quarter to round out the calendar year. It is salutary for me to recount here some of the recent activities by the Royal Society Te Apārangi for they highlight the breadth of our reach, and the depths of our engagement with our constituents and stakeholders.
On 5 September, with the support of the German Embassy, MBIE, and EURAXESS, we hosted 22 participants in the New Zealand Falling Walls Lab. Each early career researcher had 3 minutes to describe how their work could make a difference for society. Dr Debashree Roy from Massey University won first place in the competition and was therefore selected to represent Aotearoa New Zealand at the Global Finale in Berlin. For the first time, the International Falling Walls Foundation granted permission for the Royal Society Te Apārangi to nominate a second candidate to go to Berlin. Tejesvi Patel, from the University of the South Pacific in Fiji, placed second in the competition, and so he was able to travel to Berlin as well. A doubly great outcome for Oceania.
In September we hosted the Senior Leadership Team from Te Wānanga o Aotearoa and we discussed how we can better build collaboration between our organisations.
In October we hosted the 2023 New Zealand-China Scientist Exchange Programme Orientation Day in our whare. The exchange programme supports the development of research linkages with New Zealand, enabling Chinese researchers to visit New Zealand research organisations. Ten researchers are hosted around New Zealand for 6 weeks at various universities and Crown Research Institutes. His Excellency Xiaolong Wang, the Chinese Ambassador, said it was excellent to be able re-start the exchange programme again and for researchers to be able to meet face-to-face after a three-year hiatus. Fei He, our Society’s Programme Manager—Publishing, noted that since 2020, authors from China and New Zealand have co-authored 7,658 papers, involving 4,826 authors from New Zealand and 17,402 authors from China. These collaborative papers achieved a Field-Weighted Citation Impact of 2.62. This is significantly higher than that for either New Zealand (1.47) or China (1.11) papers, respectively. Assuredly, international collaboration works!
Also in October, we held a pōhiri for our new Companions: Dr Prue Williams CRSNZ, Emeritus Professor Ngahuia te Awekotuku CRSNZ, and Dr Liz Wedderburn CRSNZ. This formal occasion was followed by positive and energetic discussions in meetings with our Companions and Members.
November was the season for our three, regionally distributed celebrations of Research Honours Aotearoa. I attended the first two: Auckland and Christchurch. They were great and the Royal Society kaimahi did an excellent job in the organisation and presentation of the awards. Ngā mihi team. Unfortunately, I couldn’t attend the last one at Government House in Wellington, as I got Covid! But I have heard great things!
Thankfully my Covid isolation ended just in time for me to catch my flight to China, where I am as I write this. I have added a little story in the newsletter as to why I travelled to China.
Ngā mihi
Dr Brent Clothier FRSNZ
President, Royal Society Te Apārangi