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Search Marsden awards 2008–2017

Search awarded Marsden Fund grants 2008–2017

Fund Type: Marsden Fund

Category: Fast-Start

Year Awarded: 2014

Title: An optical omniscope with 20/20 microvision: imaging the near- and far-fields simultaneously

Recipient(s): Dr CP Moore | PI | Victoria University of Wellington

Public Summary: Optical microscopes are incredibly useful tools for observing the hidden, micro-scale world around us. They provide an intuitive way for us to make medical diagnoses and fabricate electronic circuits. However, their resolution is fundamentally limited by the size of the wavelength of light: they cannot ‘see’ features smaller than a wavelength. Microscopes that can see sub-wavelength features tend to be more complicated and expensive than optical microscopes. They measure various physical properties in lieu of light itself, which means that their images can be difficult to interpret without special training. Worst of all, they often cannot resolve large, super-wavelength features.

I propose to design and fabricate an optical omniscope, a new type of microscope that can resolve both sub- and super-wavelength features simultaneously. This omniscope uses nano-scale gratings to filter and enhance features smaller than a wavelength. It also uses an air gap to filter features larger than a wavelength. Images from these filters are recorded by separate cameras and combined in software. This allows the resolution of features spanning a range of length scales. The benefits of the omniscope will include new optical studies of nanoscale natural and engineered objects that are not possible using current optical microscopes.

Total Awarded: $300,000

Duration: 3

Host: Victoria University of Wellington

Contact Person: Dr CP Moore

Panel: EIS

Project ID: 14-VUW-026


Fund Type: Marsden Fund

Category: Standard

Year Awarded: 2008

Title: An unnatural nexus: Do food webs merge at the interface between natural and managed habitats?

Recipient(s): Dr JM Tylianakis | PI | University of Canterbury
Dr RK Didham | AI | University of Canterbury

Public Summary: The interface between two habitat types has long intrigued ecologists, due to the mixing of species from each habitat and the increasing prevalence of these 'edges' relative to intact natural habitats in human-fragmented landscapes. While the fragmentation of natural habitats is known to cause extinctions, its effects on the entire fabric of interactions between species are unknown, despite the critical importance of these interactions for ecosystem functioning and stability. We propose to examine how the juxtaposition of two species assemblages at the nexus of two habitats affects the structure of food webs (quantitative networks of feeding interactions).

Total Awarded: $682,667

Duration: 3

Host: University of Canterbury

Contact Person: Dr JM Tylianakis

Panel: EEB

Project ID: 08-UOC-024


Fund Type: Marsden Fund

Category: Standard

Year Awarded: 2015

Title: Analysis of the Dirichlet-to-Neumann map on domains with nonsmooth and stochastic boundaries

Recipient(s): Associate Professor AFM ter Elst | PI | The University of Auckland
Professor JP Kaipio | PI | The University of Auckland
Professor EM Ouhabaz | AI | Université Bordeaux (1, 2 and 4)

Public Summary: The inverse conductivity problems and its practical counterpart, electrical impedance tomography, are imaging methods that are used in geophysics as well as biomedical and industrial imaging. Physically, conductivity imaging requires that one first injects (electrical) currents into the (conducting) volume of interest and then measures the induced boundary voltages. Thus, one can only access the boundary of the object, which is the definition of tomographic imaging. Mathematically, the problem can be characterized with the so-called Dirichlet-to-Neumann (DtN) map which describes the connection between the boundary currents and voltages. The properties of this map are well understood when certain assumptions such as smoothness are valid. In many applications, however, these assumptions do not hold which can severely restrict the applications. Furthermore, in many cases, one cannot access the entire boundary or the actual boundary is not exactly known. This situation is typical, for example, in biomedical imaging where the actual body geometry is known only approximately and the computational domain has to be truncated.
In this project, we address the problem of nonsmooth and uncertain boundaries in connection with the DtN map. The results are expected to widen the applicability of conductivity imaging significantly.

Total Awarded: $505,000

Duration: 3

Host: The University of Auckland

Contact Person: Associate Professor AFM ter Elst

Panel: MIS

Project ID: 15-UOA-156


Fund Type: Marsden Fund

Category: Standard

Year Awarded: 2016

Title: Ancient Futures: Late 18th and early 19th century Tongan arts and their legacies

Recipient(s): Dr PS Herda | PI | The University of Auckland
Mrs DV Dyck | AI | Coconut Rim Ltd
Dr BJ Lythberg | AI | The University of Auckland
Dr ML Taumoefolau | AI | The University of Auckland
Mr F Tohi | AI | Private Individual

Public Summary: In Ancient Futures, academics and traditional experts in Tongan arts, linguistics, culture and history analyse and contextualise Tongan artefacts of the 18th and 19th centuries. These precious objects instantiate relationships formed between chiefly people in Tonga and early European visitors. Ancient Futures reinstates their genealogies, terms of description, and intrinsic cultural and historical values to recover knowledge critical for understanding Tongan history. By examining the relationships and possible futures sought by their donors, the research will elucidate Tongan agency in these early gift exchanges.

This project will be the first of its kind to focus specifically on Tongan arts and their legacies in the present and for the future. The research pivots on close examination and identification of currently under-researched artefacts and their records, including indigenous terminologies. It will be innovative in its approach to Tongan ‘arts’ inclusive of oral histories and linguistics; for its collaborations between academics, artists and indigenous knowledge experts; for its sharing of project findings on multiple platforms; and for acknowledging the role of artistic outputs in knowledge recovery and repatriation, and cultural and economic renaissance. Ancient Futures will have outcomes of relevance for the academic community, Tonga and its diaspora and the wider Pacific.






Total Awarded: $530,000

Duration: 3

Host: The University of Auckland

Contact Person: Dr PS Herda

Panel: HUM

Project ID: 16-UOA-281


Fund Type: Marsden Fund

Category: Standard

Year Awarded: 2013

Title: Anderson localisation of matter waves in programmable potentials

Recipient(s): Dr MD Hoogerland | PI | The University of Auckland
Associate Professor AS Parkins | AI | The University of Auckland

Public Summary: Conductivity varies to an extraordinary degree across natural materials - copper is 30 orders of magnitude more conductive than Teflon. Science still cannot fully explain this very wide variation in such a useful physical property. This proposal will experimentally test the prevailing model of insulators - Anderson localisation - by studying the flow of ultracold, neutral atoms along a 'wire' made of light. In the Bose Einstein Condensate, the atoms become dominated by quantum behavior and act in a manner analogous to electrons flowing in a solid - a system we cannot experimentally access.
Ultra-cold atoms allow for exquisite control of all experimental parameters. In particular, we can adjust the interaction strength between atoms, to explore the role of interactions in localisation. Further, by using custom programmed potentials, we will extract a definitive proof of the Anderson localisation mechanism in optical potentials. Separately, we will introduce a time dependent potential which is predicted to result in 'super diffusion'.These experiments will provide a definitive picture of how insulators function at the most fundamental level, information that will translate to the design of novel materials with custom designed electronic properties and functions.

Total Awarded: $608,696

Duration: 3

Host: The University of Auckland

Contact Person: Dr MD Hoogerland

Panel: PCB

Project ID: 13-UOA-045


Fund Type: Marsden Fund

Category: Standard

Year Awarded: 2017

Title: Androgen excess and the female brain

Recipient(s): Dr RE Campbell | PI | University of Otago

Public Summary: Female androgen excess is a distressing issue for a large number of women suffering from polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS). Our current knowledge of androgen signalling in females is sorely lacking and very little is understood about the potentially critical role that androgen actions have in the female brain. This study will employ new transgenic model approaches and the latest generation of clinically relevant drug therapies to dissect out specific androgen actions in the brain and body throughout female development. We are proposing here to silence androgen signalling in specific developmental windows and in specific tissues and cell types to assess the role of androgen actions in both normal fertility and in states of female androgen excess such as PCOS. The outcomes of this proposed series of experiments will ultimately provide valuable new knowledge on the forefront of basic research aimed at understanding PCOS and steroid hormone signalling in the female brain.

Total Awarded: $960,000

Duration: 3

Host: University of Otago

Contact Person: Dr RE Campbell

Panel: BMS

Project ID: 17-UOO-064


Fund Type: Marsden Fund

Category: Fast-Start

Year Awarded: 2012

Title: Answering the hard questions: massive Bayesian inference in astrophysics

Recipient(s): Dr BJ Brewer | PI | The University of Auckland
Prof GF Lewis | AI | The University of Sydney

Public Summary: In astronomy, data usually do not answer our questions with certainty. Advances in computational methods have made Bayesian Inference practical for handling uncertainty. However, some problems remain unsolved due to a lack of realistic statistical models and the immense scale of the required computations. One such question is how many dark satellites exist around galaxies, the answer to which is crucial for understanding dark matter and structure formation. We will study high quality observations of gravitational lenses to infer the properties of these dark satellites, by implementing realistic substructure models. Simultaneously, widely-applicable Bayesian techniques for complex problems will be developed.

Total Awarded: $300,000

Duration: 3

Host: The University of Auckland

Contact Person: Dr BJ Brewer

Panel: MIS

Project ID: 12-UOA-299


Fund Type: Marsden Fund

Category: Fast-Start

Year Awarded: 2015

Title: Antipodean arks: settler colonial zoos in local and global contexts

Recipient(s): Dr AK Boswell | PI | The University of Auckland

Public Summary: Australia and Aotearoa/New Zealand are internationally renowned for their unique endemic fauna. Significant loss of biodiversity resulting from European settlement has prompted both countries to become pioneers in zoo design and wildlife sanctuary management. Yet very little scholarly attention has been paid to the acute difficulties associated with captive wildlife display in these two settler colonial places. This project will analyse the practices and histories of zoos and sanctuaries in Australia and New Zealand, investigating the key role of such sites in shaping public values and environmental understandings. In so doing, it will make fresh and timely contributions to evolving international scholarship on zoos, ecological imperialism and settler colonialism.

The project will examine the shifting place of locally endemic species within collections and displays, exploring institutional histories of 'problematic' creatures such as the longfin eel, tuatara, possum, parma wallaby, Australian white ibis and thylacine or 'Tasmanian tiger'. Zoos and sanctuaries in Australia and New Zealand raise questions about sustainability, care, human impacts and ecological futures in landscapes which have recently and rapidly undergone profound ecological upheaval. For this reason, they offer foundational insights for contemporary environmental debates on local and global scales.

Total Awarded: $300,000

Duration: 3

Host: The University of Auckland

Contact Person: Dr AK Boswell

Panel: HUM

Project ID: 15-UOA-170


Fund Type: Marsden Fund

Category: Standard

Year Awarded: 2009

Title: APAKURA: the Māori way of death

Recipient(s): Professor N Te Awekotuku | PI | University of Waikato
Associate Professor LW Nikora | PI | University of Waikato
Ms R Karapu | AI | University of Waikato
Mr T Maxwell | AI | University of Waikato
Mr M Rua | AI | University of Waikato
Professor P Temara | AI | University of Waikato

Public Summary: Death, observed through the process of tangihanga, or tangi, is the ultimate form of Maori cultural expression. It is also the topic least studied by Maori, or understood by outsiders, despite the televised funeral rites of Maori leaders, and intrusive media engagement with more humble family crises. The researchers are committed to studying tangihanga, conscious of the belief that such work in itself carries the inherent risk of 'karanga aitua' calling misfortune by drawing attention to it. This volatile subject nevertheless demands careful and rigorous scrutiny, to extend and enrich the knowledge base, and to inform the wider NZ community.

Total Awarded: $842,667

Duration: 3

Host: University of Waikato

Contact Person: Professor N Te Awekotuku

Panel: SOC

Project ID: 09-UOW-072


Fund Type: Marsden Fund

Category: Standard

Year Awarded: 2008

Title: Aposematic colouration in plants: 'honest' signals of chemical defences & influences on herbivore fitness

Recipient(s): Dr NB Perry | PI | The NZ Institute for Crop and Food Research
Assoc Prof KS Gould | PI | University of Otago
Dr KC Burns | AI | Victoria University of Wellington
Dr PJ Lester | AI | Victoria University of Wellington
Dr JW van Klink | AI | The NZ Institute for Crop and Food Research

Public Summary: Animals are known to warn off attackers by their colours (aposematism) but this has not been proven in plants despite much theorising. Many New Zealanders are familiar with the red-blotched leaves of horopito and their peppery taste. Based on our discovery that damage-reddened horopito leaves have higher levels of the pungent insect antifeedant polygodial, we will use this unique New Zealand plant to test for aposematism directly. Our multidisciplinary team will study the mechanisms of co-induction of pigments and polygodial biosynthesis; the metabolic costs of chemical defence and aposematism for both plants and insect herbivores; and possible mimicry.

Total Awarded: $690,667

Duration: 3

Host: Crop & Food Research

Contact Person: Dr NB Perry

Panel: EEB

Project ID: 08-CRO-005


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