Falling Walls Lab Aotearoa New Zealand 2026 Jury
Meet the Jury Members who select the 2026 Winner of Falling Walls Lab Aotearoa New Zealand.
Jury Chair - Professor Phil Lester
Insect Ecology, School of Biological Sciences, Victoria University of Wellington
Professor Lester works at Te Herenga Waka—Victoria University of Wellington. His research is in population dynamics and ecology of social insects. The pathogens and parasites of honey bees, invasive ants and social wasps in the Pacific region are a particular focus. He is a Specialty Chief Editor for the journal Frontiers In Bee Science. Phil has been the recipient of both a Fulbright Senior Scholar Fellowship and a Royal Society Te Apārangi James Cook Fellowship. He has previously served as Head of School for the School of Biological Sciences, and as President of the Entomological Society of New Zealand.
Professor Riz Firestone
Senior Research Officer, Centre for Public Health Research, Massey University
Professor Firestone is a Senior Researcher at the Centre for Public Health Research. Her research involves investigations on social-cultural and health inequalities, specifically among young Pasifika people with non-communicable diseases in Aotearoa New Zealand. She also has a wider focus in co-developing community-based interventions with Pasifika and Māori communities that are relevant and adaptable for long-term uptake by people within their communities.
Outside of academic life, Riz has a passion for empowering others into healthier lifestyles through her pro-hobby group fitness career at one of Aotearoa New Zealand’s largest gyms and as a head teacher for Group Power classes, where she enjoys seeing people from all walks of life improve their lives through exercise.
Veronika Meduna
New Zealand Editor for The Conversation
Veronika Meduna is the New Zealand editor for The Conversation, a not-for-profit media organisation working with academics to provide evidence-based news and current affairs analysis. She is an award-winning science/environment writer and broadcaster, with experience across all media publishing platforms. Before joining The Conversation, she produced and hosted a weekly science programme for New Zealand’s public broadcaster RNZ, for which she won several journalism awards, including the Asia-Pacific Broadcasting Union’s prize for best documentary.
She has written several books on science, most recently Towards a Warming World, published by Bridget Williams Books, and Science on Ice: Discovering the Secrets of Antarctica, published by Auckland University Press and Yale University Press (international edition). Veronika contributes to other broadcasters and publications in New Zealand and internationally, including Science, the Guardian, Eos, NZ Geographic and the NZ Listener.
Professor Volker Nock
Professor and 2019 Rutherford Discovery Fellow, University of Canterbury
Volker Nock is a Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering whose work advances New Zealand’s capability in micro‑ and nanosystems, microfluidics, and Lab‑on‑a‑Chip technologies. His research enables new ways to study biomolecular interactions in plants and animals, supporting innovations in disease detection, biocontrol, and environmental resilience. A Rutherford Discovery Fellow as well as long‑standing Principal Investigator with the MacDiarmid Institute and the Biomolecular Interaction Centre, he has led national research programmes in reconfigurable systems and biosecurity innovation. His group’s technologies contribute to improved understanding of biological function and the development of next‑generation diagnostic and sensing platforms
Winnie Switakowski
Deputy Head of Mission at the German Embassy in Wellington
Winnie Switakowski began her duties as Deputy Head of Mission at the German Embassy in Wellington, New Zealand, in July 2023. Originally a trained conference interpreter, she joined the Federal Foreign Office in 2013 and has since served in the department for cultural diplomacy and society, in the German Embassy in Warsaw, as an exchange officer at the Polish Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Warsaw and as staff member of former Federal Foreign Ministers Heiko Maas and Annalena Baerbock. Winnie is married and has two daughters.
Jury assessment of presentations
The Jury will assess the presentations based on the following criteria:
- Breakthrough factor – Does the project have originality and potential for innovation?
- Relevance/scope of impact – How relevant is the idea for the discipline and beyond, and what is the likely impact?
- Structure/performance: Is the presentation well structured, how convincing was the presentation?
View more information on the scoring and the weighting of each criteria.