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Search Marsden awards 2008–2017

Search awarded Marsden Fund grants 2008–2017

Fund Type: Marsden Fund

Category: Standard

Year Awarded: 2013

Title: The transformation of everyday life in Samoa (1800-2000)

Recipient(s): Associate Professor DI Salesa | PI | The University of Auckland

Public Summary: 'The Transformation of Everyday Life in Samoa (1800-2000)' will research and reconstruct a Samoan history ‘from below’, a history not just of chiefs, elites and extraordinary characters, but of what Samoans held in common, their shared experiences of ‘everyday life’. This project focuses on little studied fundamental changes in Samoan life, particularly in Samoa's social, environmental and technological history. Led by a leading Samoan scholar, it includes a major conference, other initiatives to make history more widely available to Samoans, a group of graduate students, and a website, and will culminate with two scholarly works, one jointly authored, the other by the principal investigator.

Total Awarded: $478,261

Duration: 3

Host: The University of Auckland

Contact Person: Associate Professor DI Salesa

Panel: HUM

Project ID: 13-UOA-292


Fund Type: Marsden Fund

Category: Standard

Year Awarded: 2009

Title: The two faces of WTX in human development

Recipient(s): Professor SP Robertson | PI | University of Otago
Dr JA Horsfield | AI | University of Otago

Public Summary: Mutations in a gene called WTX have different consequences in males compared to females. Like females, males develop a skeletal disorder characterised by abnormally hard, dense bone but they also develop malformations in other organ systems too, often with severe consequences. This proposal seeks to understand the biochemical and physiological properties of WTX that enable it to have such variable developmental effects using cellular assays and the genetic modification of organisms such as zebrafish and mice.

Total Awarded: $746,667

Duration: 3

Host: University of Otago

Contact Person: Professor SP Robertson

Panel: BMS

Project ID: 09-UOO-043


Fund Type: Marsden Fund

Category: Standard

Year Awarded: 2008

Title: The variation of fundamental constants in space-time

Recipient(s): Prof PA Schwerdtfeger | PI | Massey University
Prof V Flambaum | PI | University of New South Wales

Public Summary: Fundamental constants like the speed of light, Planck constant or gravitational constant play defining roles in physics and chemistry. Modern theories attempting to unify all four fundamental forces of nature suggest that all fundamental constants may vary in space and time. The search for such small variations currently constitutes one of the most exciting areas of physics. For further progress in this area it is important to find enhanced effects of the variation of fundamental constants. We therefore want to find suitable molecules, perform calculations and stimulate new searches of the variation effects both in cosmic and laboratory molecular spectra.

Total Awarded: $693,333

Duration: 3

Host: Massey University

Contact Person: Prof PA Schwerdtfeger

Panel: PSE

Project ID: 08-MAU-070


Fund Type: Marsden Fund

Category: Fast-Start

Year Awarded: 2011

Title: The winds of change: evaluating New Zealand’s hydrologic response to changing Southern Hemisphere westerly winds

Recipient(s): Dr CM Moy | PI | University of Otago
Dr NS Diffenbaugh | AI | Stanford University
Prof TI Eglinton | AI | ETH-Zurich
Assoc Prof RD Frew | AI | University of Otago
Assoc Prof PI Moreno | AI | Universidad de Chile
Dr JE Nichols | AI | Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory of Columbia University

Public Summary: Air-sea CO2 flux in the Southern Ocean is controlled by the strength and latitudinal position of the Southern Hemisphere westerly winds. Today, southward-shifting and intensifying winds are thought to reduce the efficiency of the Southern Ocean carbon sink, with direct implications for the rate at which anthropogenic CO2 accumulates in the atmosphere. However, Holocene westerly wind variability is poorly constrained at present, inhibiting our ability to place these modern changes in any long-term context. We therefore propose to reconstruct past variations in the westerly winds by examining cores obtained from well-positioned lakes and wetlands in southern New Zealand. We have identified a network of sites within the northern margin of the wind field where the precipitation regime is well-coupled to westerly wind intensity. We will apply multiple stable isotope proxy methods to modern water and sediment trap samples, lake sediment cores, and peat cores to evaluate Holocene changes in hydrologic balance, temperature, and lake/vegetation dynamics that are directly attributed to the westerly winds. Comparing our network of sites with high latitude records across the Pacific will identify hemisphere-scale westerly shifts. Results from this research will be used to evaluate current theories on how the westerlies influence the global carbon cycle.

Total Awarded: $300,000

Duration: 3

Host: University of Otago

Contact Person: Dr CM Moy

Panel: ESA

Project ID: 11-UOO-195


Fund Type: Marsden Fund

Category: Standard

Year Awarded: 2013

Title: The writing is on the wall: elucidating the deep evolutionary links between cell wall synthesis in bacteria and methanogenic archaea

Recipient(s): Dr RS Ronimus | PI | AgResearch
Dr V Carbone | AI | AgResearch
Professor WF Martin | AI | Heinrich-Heine University of Dusseldorf
Dr LR Schofield | AI | AgResearch

Public Summary: The development of cell walls was a vital step in the early evolution of life approximately 3.5 billion years ago. Cell walls provide several important functions including protection from osmotic pressure, maintenance of cell shape and reduction of lateral gene transfer. These stabilising influences would have dramatically affected the evolutionary prospects of the last universal common ancestor (LUCA) and its ability to conquer new environmental niches. The biosynthesis and chemistry of the bacterial cell wall murein (the glycan-pentapeptide sacculus) has been studied for over 50 years and it is the target of numerous important antibiotics. Remarkably, some archaeal methanogens possess pseudomurein, a structural analogue of murein including a glycan backbone and a cross-linking peptide, yet its biosynthesis remains virtually unexplored. Recent bioinformatic analyses in our lab have confirmed that 10 out of the 11 core enzymes for murein biosynthesis share distant evolutionary linkages with the respective enzymes for pseudomurein biosynthesis. Biochemical characterisation and structural determination of the key methanogen enzymes will enable us to clarify the complex evolutionary history of bacterial and methanogen cell walls and provide deep insights into the origins of life. It may also aid in advancing the future development of antibiotics targeting the bacterial cell wall.

Total Awarded: $826,087

Duration: 3

Host: AgResearch

Contact Person: Dr RS Ronimus

Panel: EEB

Project ID: 13-AGR-011


Fund Type: Marsden Fund

Category: Fast-Start

Year Awarded: 2017

Title: The Young Māori Party: Leading Iwi into Modernity

Recipient(s): Dr H Kaa | PI | The University of Auckland

Public Summary: At the turn of the twentieth century Māori faced major new economic, social, political and cultural challenges. These required a response that would be both innovative and global yet grounded in their own ancient knowledge. The Te Aute College Student’s Association and the Women's Christian Temperance Union’s Māori branches provided a new form of leadership for iwi entering into a new era. Together as the Young Māori Party (YMP) they would use their own cultural strengths and the tools of Empire to reshape iwi for the challenges of modernity, a form of leadership still predominant today. By studying the YMP and its origins in the period 1872-1935 we can gain new insights into the nature of this leadership, its strengths and weaknesses, and the lessons to be learned for Māori economic and social development in the future. Understanding this process of engagement is of crucial importance in today’s increasingly global environment. This project will provide an historical model that is once again extremely relevant, exploring how iwi navigated the swirling currents of global Empires while maintaining their own value base.

Total Awarded: $300,000

Duration: 3

Host: The University of Auckland

Contact Person: Dr H Kaa

Panel: HUM

Project ID: 17-UOA-107


Fund Type: Marsden Fund

Category: Standard

Year Awarded: 2012

Title: Thermal dynamics of a spinor condensate

Recipient(s): Assoc Prof PB Blakie | PI | University of Otago
Dr AS Bradley | AI | University of Otago
Dr Y Kawaguchi | AI | University of Tokyo

Public Summary: A Bose-Einstein condensate is a quantum state of matter occurring in extremely dilute atomic gases at less than a millionth of a degree above absolute zero. By producing condensates in a special laser trap, where the atomic spins are liberated to organize themselves at will, a spinor condensate is realized. This is a unique system that simultaneously exhibits the phenomena of superfluidity (ability to flow without viscosity) and magnetism. Indeed, spinor condensates can spontaneously magnetize, just like metals such as iron, and are pristine and flexible systems for studying the microscopic origin of magnetism without the veil of complexity ever-present in solid-state systems.

We propose to develop a new theory of spinor condensates that will describe processes such as the dynamics of its phase transitions between different magnetic states, and how exotic spin vortices form. The key innovation of our theory is the inclusion of thermal effects: We will comprehensively treat the dynamics of atoms thermally excited out of the condensate. These thermal atoms play a crucial role in the system evolution as it transforms into new phases and in the nucleation of vortices. Our theory will provide a firm basis for future theory and experiments with spinor condensates.

Total Awarded: $817,391

Duration: 3

Host: University of Otago

Contact Person: Assoc Prof PB Blakie

Panel: PCB

Project ID: 12-UOO-039


Fund Type: Marsden Fund

Category: Fast-Start

Year Awarded: 2014

Title: Tidal bending of ice shelves: the key to understanding Antarctic grounding zones

Recipient(s): Dr OJ Marsh | PI | University of Canterbury
Dr D Floricioiu | AI | German Aerospace Agency
Professor MA King | AI | University of Tasmania

Public Summary: Antarctic ice sheet thickness is vital for predicting glacier discharge and estimating sea level change. Thickness is especially important in the grounding zone of outlet glaciers and ice streams where ice first comes into contact with ocean water and melt rates are high. Ice in the grounding zone bends continuously due to ocean tides and new satellites can be used to precisely map this bending, providing spatially complete and high resolution information on ice deformation parameters and thickness. We will use differential interferometry from satellite to map temporal changes in flexure patterns at multiple grounding zones. This will provide new insight into the causes of short-term glacier velocity fluctuations and differences in ice viscosity in different glacial settings. Combined with an inverse finite element model, this technique will improve our understanding of grounding zone ice properties in remote areas, and pave the way for an Antarctic-wide grounding zone ice thickness map.

Total Awarded: $300,000

Duration: 3

Host: University of Canterbury

Contact Person: Dr OJ Marsh

Panel: ESA

Project ID: 14-UOC-056


Fund Type: Marsden Fund

Category: Standard

Year Awarded: 2014

Title: Tinker, tailor, soldier, settler: garrison and empire in the nineteenth century

Recipient(s): Professor CJ Macdonald | PI | Victoria University of Wellington

Public Summary: Written into the places New Zealanders inhabit - Wellington, Bombay, Waverley, Greerton - is the history of the 1860s martial presence and garrison culture. The project focuses on the 12,000 soldiers and sailors stationed in New Zealand c.1860-66. Putting a face to the powers that Maori took up arms to fight, the study goes beyond the battlefields to consider the impact of armed services on colonial society, economy and culture. Taking the men behind the guns as the point of departure links the history of war with important questions about settler colonisation, imperial mobility and reform movements within Victorian institutions. If empire is constituted by interconnections between people and the habits they follow how might we understand the army and navy as social and cultural as well as military forces? In what ways did colonial service ignite debates over rank and hierarchy in the army and wider Victorian society? The study will produce a social history that reaches into the lived experience of colonial contest. In doing so it will connect the local world of 1860s New Zealand to the disparate parts of the globe in which 'redcoats' and 'bluejackets', soldiers and sailors, were recognised emblems of a British presence.

Total Awarded: $540,000

Duration: 3

Host: Victoria University of Wellington

Contact Person: Professor CJ Macdonald

Panel: HUM

Project ID: 14-VUW-146


Fund Type: Marsden Fund

Category: Standard

Year Awarded: 2008

Title: Tirohia He Huarahi: Co-management of environment by indigenous people

Recipient(s): Assoc Prof H Moller | PI | University of Otago
Dr J Stephenson | PI | University of Otago
Prof F Berkes | AI | University of Manitoba
Assoc Prof H Campbell | AI | University of Otago
Mr J Dick | AI | Aotearoa Elite
Mr R Kirikiri | AI | RK Associates Ltd.
Prof N Turner | AI | University of Victoria

Public Summary: When indigenous groups wish to become involved in planning and management of resources, it raises challenging theoretical and practice-based issues. Indigenous planning mechanisms, and the beliefs and traditional knowledge that underlie them, are conceptually at odds with western/colonial planning approaches. Yet local communities are key sites of action for informed responses to local and global ecological change. Using longitudinal case studies in Aotearoa and Canada, we investigate the development of indigenous planning mechanisms and the responses to these by formal planning systems and institutions. Our research seeks to determine the conceptual and practice-based barriers to respectful, inclusive and effective co-management.

Total Awarded: $773,333

Duration: 3

Host: University of Otago

Contact Person: Assoc Prof H Moller

Panel: SOC

Project ID: 08-UOO-156


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