Mema o Te Apārangi | Member profile: Gustav Kessel

Tell us about your role at the Society

I’ve been at the society since 2022 as special advisor to the International Science Council’s (ISC) Committee for Freedom and Responsibility in Science. Funded by MBIE, my role represents quite a unique contribution by the NZ government to the ISC.

The work I do for the Committee is varied and rewarding. I manage the Committee’s portfolio of cases, which are instances all over the world where human rights related to science and the principles of freedom and responsibility in science are threatened – think exclusion of women in Afghanistan, wrongfully imprisoned scientists in Iran, targeting of science in Ukraine and Gaza. The list of cases is long and depressing, but I am glad to be in a position, together with the rest of the committee, to run advocacy campaigns, coordinate help resources, and develop frameworks which guide individual scientists, organisations, and governments to respond effectively to threats. Together with our partner organisations, like Scholars at Risk, the Academic Freedom Index, and UNESCO, among many more, we do what we can to make a positive difference for science and for its role in society as a global public good.

What has been a defining highlight of your experience at the Society?

My time at Te Apārangi has been a blur of highlights. I’ve had the privilege of working at the ISC headquarters in Paris, taking up a short visiting fellowship in Germany, and producing a podcast series with Nature — the opportunities have been amazing. But I’m afraid the winner is a cliché. The people I get to work with every day and the friends I’ve made in the whare are the defining highlight, even the ones who told me dressing up as a robot for the Christmas party was a good idea…

What do you love about science?

My background is in marine biology, specifically the taxonomy of new, endemic coral species (these are rather ugly as corals go, so naming a new genus after my partner, while still appreciated, was not quite the romantic gesture I envisioned) — very much applied science. Now I navigate the interface between science, philosophy, human rights, diplomacy, and global development. Advising the ISC has completely changed my view of what science is and what it is for. And I think this is what I love most. Science is part of everything around us, and there will always be a new way to look at it, a new vantage point from which to see the world differently.

When not working, I enjoy …

I’m a keen squash player, scuba diver, and nature nerd, and love travelling, good food, and reading. Inexplicably, my partner and I have recently acquired a taste for DIY. Needless to say, we are deeply concerned for our sanity.