Mid-way review of the National Science Challenge

Tricia Harris (Chair)

Tricia is the former Group Manager Science at AgResearch and Chief Science Advisor at the Foundation for Research, Science and Technology. She was also Director of the Health Research Council for 2 terms. She is now a consultant on organisational strategy and development.

Tricia has extensive reviewing experience. She has previously been a reviewer for the UK Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council and the Scottish Executive Environment and Rural Affairs Department. Tricia was made an Officer of the New Zealand Order of Merit for services to science in 2005.

Tricia was chair of the assessment panels for the Ageing Well and A Better Start Challenges and was involved in providing advice for the Our Land and Water Challenge during its development.

Dr Tasileta Teevale

Director Pacific Development, University of Otago

As Director of Pacific Development Dr Teevale is responsible for monitoring the progress of the Pacific Strategic Framework, which was adopted by the University of Otago in December 2012. The Framework is the University’s commitment to ensuring equity in student achievement.

Dr Teevale gained her PhD in Auckland and moved on to a Post-Doctoral Research fellowship in its School of Population Health. Her research focused on Pacific family and adolescent health.

She has previously worked in the Tertiary Education Commission (TEC) National and Regional Advisory team as a Regional Advisor in the Research Evaluation Unit. She has experience in local government after working in the Manukau City Council’s Strategic Development Unit.

Professor Alan Hayes

Distinguished Professor of Family Studies and Director, Family Action Centre, School of Health Sciences, University of Newcastle, Australia
Adjunct Professor, Macquarie University

Professor Hayes was the Director of the Australian Institute of Family Studies from September 2004 to June 2015. Between July 2013 and 2015, he became responsible for the operation of the Australian Gambling Research Centre, an Australian Government initiative established within the Institute. He is currently inaugural Distinguished Professor of Family Studies and Director of the Family Action Centre, within the Faculty of Health and Medicine, at the University of Newcastle, Australia.

Professor Hayes has held a professorial appointment at Macquarie University, Sydney, where he was also foundation Dean and Head of Division at the then Australian Centre for Education Studies (ACES). With qualifications in psychology, he has research and policy interests in the pathways children and their families take through life, and the role of families in supporting and sustaining development across life. The role of vulnerability and resilience in shaping developmental pathways has been a particular focus. Child, family and Community-focused early intervention and prevention approaches have been a longstanding research and evaluation specialisation.

He has been a member of multiple advisory groups and councils including the Australian Government’s Civil Justice System Evidence Base Working Group and the Child Aware Approaches National Initiative Steering Group. He was also Chair of the Children and Families Research Centre (CFRC) Advisory Board for the Institute of Early Childhood at Macquarie University. He has been the chair, deputy chair or a member of four Australian Government Ministerial Advisory Councils. For the NSW Government, he chaired the committee that successfully established the Institute of Teachers in 2004 and was a member for several years of the NSW Child Protection Council. He is currently a member of the Ministerial Advisory Council of the Centre for Educational Statistics and Evaluation, with NSW Education.

He has been a Visiting Professor at the Free University of Berlin and the Pennsylvania State University. Professor Hayes was appointed a Member of the Order of Australia in 2012 for service to the social sciences through the Australian Institute of Family Studies.
Professor Hayes was a member of the assessment panel for the A Better Start Challenge.

Anne Hollonds

Anne Hollonds is one of Australia’s leading voices on child and family wellbeing. She has over 30 years’ experience in policy and practice, including as CEO of large NGO’s providing a wide range of social services, education and health programs for children and families. Anne is a psychologist and worked for many years in child and family counseling, parenting education, domestic violence, child protection, and in mental health.

As Director of the Australian Institute of Family Studies, an independent statutory authority of the Australian Government, Anne is responsible for conducting research and providing advice on child and family wellbeing.

The Institute conducts quantitative and qualitative research, and disseminates findings to policy-makers, service providers and the community, to increase understanding of factors affecting families and to promote the wellbeing of families. The Institute is known for its longitudinal studies, data linkage, primary research, policy and program evaluation, and knowledge translation for policy-makers and service providers, including a high-profile biennial international conference.The Institute is focused on applying research evidence to solve complex social problems and to facilitate improved effectiveness of policy and services for families and communities.

Anne has been member of the NSW Domestic and Family Violence and Sexual Assault Council since 2013, Board member of the International Commission on Couple and Family Relations since 2010, and Queensland Family and Child Commission Advisory Council member since 2015. She is a member of numerous advisory groups for research and policy initiatives across Australia.

Dr Elizabeth McKinley

Professor of Indigenous Education, University of Melbourne

Professor McKinley is of Ngāti Kahungunu ki Wairarapa and Ngāi Tahu descent and has an extensive background in Māori education in New Zealand. She has established herself as a leading scholar in the area of indigenous and ethnic minority education and has an international reputation in the field. She is currently the Professor of Indigenous Education at the University of Melbourne. Before moving to Melbourne in 2014 she was Professor of Māori Education and Director of the Starpath Project for Tertiary Participation and Success at the University of Auckland.

Before her roles at the University of Auckland, Dr McKinley spent 14 years at Waikato University and during this period she held the position of Assistant Dean Māori Education. She has a strong research and publication record in the field of indigenous science and mathematics education and the capability of the New Zealand education system to meet the complex challenges of transforming the educational outcomes for Indigenous Māori students and other students from low socioeconomic backgrounds. Professor McKinley has served on a number of panels and committees that have influenced public policy, including the Ministerial Cross Sector Forum on Raising Achievement, the NZQA Independent Review Panel, and the National Advisory Board for the Teaching and Learning Research Initiative. She has also served on several panels for the New Zealand Universities Academic Audit Unit and is a Principal Investigator for a project investigating the supervision of Māori doctoral students, funded by the Ministry of Education. Her Masters and PhD work explored the interaction between science and Māori culture.

Alistair Woodward (Chair)

Professor and Head of Epidemiology and Biostatics, University of Auckland

Professor Alistair Woodward is currently Head of Epidemiology and Biostatistics at the University of Auckland. He was previously Head of the School of Population Health at the same university from 2004-2012 and led departments of public health at the University of Otago Wellington, and the University of Adelaide. His first degree was in medicine and he undertook his postgraduate training in public health in the United Kingdom. Professor Woodward received his PhD in epidemiology from the University of Adelaide in 1998.

He has a particular interest in the social determinants of health and environmental health. He has worked for the World Health Organisation throughout the Pacific and was on the writing team of the 2nd, 3rd and 4th assessment reports of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. He co-led writing of the health section of the 5th assessment report (2014).

Professor Woodward has published widely on issues pertaining to public health. Together with Professor Tony Blakely he has written on the history of human life expectancy, and with the late Tony McMichael a book on climate change that was nominated by Macleans Canada as one of the top 10 books of the year in 2017. He is currently an editor of the International Journal of Epidemiology.

Professor Linda Waimarie Nikora

Professor of Māori Studies, University of Auckland

Professor Linda Waimarie Nikora (Te Aitianga a Hauiti, Ngāi Tūhoe) is Professor of Māori Studies at Te Wānanga o Waipapa, the University of Auckland and co-director of Ngā Pae o te Māramatanga. She was previously Professor in Kaupapa Māori Psychology and Founding Director of the Māori & Psychology Research Unit at the University of Waikato. She specialises in community psychology, applied social psychology, ethno-psychology and Māori development.

Professor Nikora has a celebrated a long research and academic career, working in community, social and indigenous psychologies, with a specific focus on Māori wellbeing and self-determination. Her research in recent years has focused on Tangi: Māori ways of mourning; traditional body modification; ethnic status as a stressor; Māori identity development; cultural safety and competence; Māori mental health and recovery; social and economic determinants of health; homelessness; relational health; and social connectedness.

Professor Deborah Black

Professor and Chair of Health Data Management, University of Sydney

Professor Black joined the Faculty of Health Sciences at the University of Sydney in August 2008. She was appointed to the Chair in Health Data Management in 2009. She has more than 35 years’ experience as an applied statistician and is a statistical reviewer for local and international journals. For the last 20 years, she has worked as an academic with her teaching and research concentrating on biostatistics and applying statistical models to clinical and health policy issues.

Professor Black is a member of the NSW Population & Health Services Research Ethics Committee convened by the Cancer Institute NSW and NSW Health, a member of the review panel for the 45 and Up Study, and the statistical advisor for the Scientific Review Panel for the Northern Hospital Network, NSW Health.

Professor Black is a recognised expert in the application and analysis of large health data sets to identify public health priorities and the impact of health interventions. She is a Chief Investigator on an Australian Research Council Linkage Grant looking at the health and retirement prospects of ageing baby boomers in Australia. Her research focuses on two areas that are having an increasing impact on the burden of disease in Australia: climate change and ageing.

Professor Len Fishman

Director, Gerontology Institute, University of Massachusetts Boston

Professor Fishman, a nationally recognised leader in the field of ageing policy, is the director of the Gerontology Institute at UMass Boston’s John W. McCormack Graduate School of Policy and Global Studies.

Professor Fishman came to UMass Boston with decades of experience on ageing issues and health care. For 13 years he served as CEO of Hebrew SeniorLife, New England’s largest non-profit provider of senior housing and health care.

Before joining Hebrew SeniorLife, Professor Fishman was president and CEO of LeadingAge, a coalition of senior-focused non-profits in Washington DC. At LeadingAge, Fishman helped create a research and policy institute focused on improving quality of care, elevating the working lives of frontline caregivers, and combining affordable senior housing and health care in innovative and cost-effective ways.

He was also commissioner of the New Jersey Department of Health and a health-care lawyer in New Jersey and Pennsylvania.

Professor Johan Fritzell

Director of the Ageing Research Center (Karolinska Institutet and Stockholm University)

Professor Fritzell started at the Ageing Research Center (ARC) at the Karolinska Institutet as Professor in Social Gerontology in January 2014 and is leading the sector of social gerontology within ARC and is also its Director since 2016. Before arriving at ARC, he was Professor of Sociology at the Centre for Health Equity Studies (CHESS) at Stockholm University/Karolinska Institutet. He has also been a Research Director at the Institute for Futures Studies and was a board member of the Swedish Council for Working Life and Social Research between 2007 and 2012.

Professor Fritzell has been appointed as expert and scientific advisor to a large number of international organisations, such as European Science Foundation, Nordic Council of Ministers, WHO and UNRISD. He has for long been a board member of the Luxembourg Income Study, he is member and vice chair in the European Joint Programming Initiative, More Years Better Lives and Swedish coordinator and expert to the European Social Policy Network, European Commission.

Professor Fritzell has for many years conducted research on the determinants, distribution and trends of welfare and health and was a member of the Governmental Swedish Welfare Commission 1999-2001. A major focus in his work has been comparative studies of poverty, social policy, population health and health inequalities and has been involved in several international collaborations within these fields. He has lately been involved in GINI and DRIVERS, two projects within 7th EU Framework Programme. He is currently PI for a large long-term international research programme on Social Inequalities in Ageing (SIA).

Professor Barbara Norman (Chair)

Foundation Chair of Urban and Regional Planning and Director of Canberra Urban and Regional Futures (CURF), University of Canberra

Professor Norman is Chair of the ACT Climate Change Council, an Honorary Professor at the University of Warwick and a Visiting Fellow at the Australian National University. Barbara is a Life Fellow and past national president of the Planning Institute of Australia and a Life Honorary Fellow of the Royal Town Planning Institute (UK). Barbara’s qualifications include a Bachelor of Town & Regional Planning, Masters of Environmental Law and a PhD on sustainable coastal planning. She also has a substantial professional background having worked at all levels of government and run her own practice. Her current research and teaching interests include sustainable cities and regions, coastal planning, climate change adaptation and urban governance. Barbara was a contributing author to IPCC 5 WG 2 report on Impacts 2014. Professor Norman advises the public and private sector in Australia and has strong international linkages within Asia, Europe and the United States. Barbara was awarded an Australian Centenary Medal for her contribution to the community through urban and regional planning.

Dr Guy Penny

Sustainability and Environmental Management Consultant (EMPlan Services Ltd)

Since mid-2017 Dr Penny has been working as a consultant for EMPlan Services Ltd. His clients include NIWA, Housing NZ and EnviroWaste. He is currently on the Board of Beacon Pathway Inc.

Prior to this he was a Sustainability Manager at Air New Zealand, where he worked on the company’s Sustainability Strategy, and several work streams including the sustainable buildings programme, waste management system and strategy, electric vehicle project and GHG Inventory.

Dr Penny was the Principal Environmental Advisor at Housing New Zealand Corporation from 2008 to 2015. Before this he was a Senior Consultant at Aranovus Ltd (environmental consultancy) and Socio-Environmental Scientist at NIWA (including Te Kuwaha).

For over 20 years Dr Penny has been involved in developing and leading the implementation of environmental strategies and providing technical analyses and advice on a range of socio-environmental issues.

Dr Penny holds a PhD in Economic Geography from the University of Auckland.

Dr Penny was a member of the assessment panel for the Building Better Homes, Towns, and Cities Challenge.

Professor Susan Thompson

Professor, University of New South Wales

Professor Thompson's academic career encompasses both research and teaching in the built environment. She joined the University of New South Wales (UNSW) in 1991 after holding urban planning positions in both state and local government. She is a passionate advocate for healthy built environments and is Head of the City Wellbeing Program in the City Futures Research Centre. City Wellbeing focuses on planning, designing, and building environments that support health and well-being as part of everyday life.

As well as publishing widely in the scholarly literature, Professor Thompson is a regular contributor to practitioner forums, most notably her healthy built environments quarterly column in ‘New Planner’, now in its ninth year. Professor Thompson was elected a Fellow of the Planning Institute of Australia in 2012. In 2014 she was appointed to the NSW Minister for Health's Advisory Committee on Preventive Health - the first urban planner to serve on this committee. In 2015 her longstanding contribution to urban planning was recognised with the awarding of the prestigious Sidney Luker Memorial Medal. Professor Thompson is one of only three women to receive the award since its inception in 1956. In 2017 she was awarded the Australian Urban Research Medal.

Professor Thompson was a member of the assessment panel for the Building Better Homes, Towns, and Cities Challenge.

Emeritus Professor Susan Roaf

Emeritus Professor of Architectural Engineering at Heriot Watt University, Edinburgh

Susan Roaf received her PhD from Oxford Brookes University in 1989 on the subject of the Windcatchers of Yazd. She was Professor of Sustainable Architecture there until 2005, then visiting professor at the Open University, teaching also at Arizona State University until she took up her post at Heriot Watt in 2007, staying until she retired in 2016.

She is currently working on the third book of a trilogy on Adaptive Thermal Comfort written with Fergus Nicol and Michael Humphreys entitled ‘How to Design a Comfortable Building’. Her research interests have centered on the fields of low carbon and passive building design and performance, building integrated renewable generation and storage, human behaviours and related subtle controls to create low energy and low carbon buildings; natural ventilation of buildings; the adaptation of buildings and cities for climate change and fuel poverty.

She is best known for her pioneering work on building integrated solar systems and ecohouse design, resulting in the internationally best-selling book Ecohouse: A Design Guide. Her other books include Adapting Buildings and Cites for Climate Change and Benchmarks for Sustainable Buildings.

She worked with the Scottish Government and their Climate Adaptation team. Recent awards include 2013 Top 6 - UK ‘First Women’ Awards as a ‘Visionary’ in the Built Environment. She was an Oxford City Councilor for seven years and has also chaired and co-chaired a number of International Conferences including the 2nd International Conference on Solar Cities in 2006, ten Thermal Comfort Conferences between 1994 and 2018 the 2nd Oxford Conference on Architectural Education in 2008 and the 2017 Passive, Low Energy Architecture Conference in Edinburgh. She has sat and sits on a wide range of committees related to planning, urban design, architecture and local government and is one of seven elected members of the UK Architects Registration Board.

Frances Sullivan

Programme Manager for PacificTA

Joining Local Government New Zealand (LGNZ) in 2008 as a Principal Policy Advisor she provided advice, sector advocacy and stakeholder management in the key areas of building regulation and earthquake prone building policy, climate change, emissions trading scheme, natural hazards, flood risk management, solid waste, biosecurity and biodiversity. Frances is a member of the Government Climate Change Adaptation Technical Advisory Group.

Frances previously worked for Environment Canterbury as a Programme Manager for land, pests, water and air in the regulation group. Frances has GIS and remote sensing expertise which was utilised in her role as Land Resources Scientist at Environment Canterbury. She has also worked in Tanzania as a Community Development Advisor for a development association through VSA and managed a family beef farm in South Westland.

Tricia Harris (Chair)

Consultant on organisation strategy and development

Tricia is the former Group Manager Science at AgResearch and Chief Science Advisor at the Foundation for Research, Science and Technology. She was also Director of the Health Research Council for two terms. She is now a consultant on organisational strategy and development.

Tricia has extensive reviewing experience. She has previously been a reviewer for the UK Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council and the Scottish Executive Environment and Rural Affairs Department. Tricia was made an Officer of the New Zealand Order of Merit for services to science in 2005.

Tricia was chair of the assessment panels for the Ageing Well and A Better Start Challenges and was involved in providing advice for the Our Land and Water Challenge during its development.

Professor Louise Baur

Professor of Child & Adolescent Health, University of Sydney

Professor Baur is a paediatrician and an internationally recognised childhood obesity researcher. She has a special interest in the prevention and management of child and adolescent obesity and has for over 20 years also studied various aspects of adult obesity. Professor Baur has been instrumental in raising the profile of childhood obesity as an issue of clinical and public health importance, in Australia and internationally.

Her body of research has helped define management efforts around childhood obesity and improved our understanding of the factors that help prevent obesity in the first few years of life. Her work also has helped define predictors of obesity and the metabolic syndrome in young people, and the complications of obesity.

Professor Baur is the Director of the NHMRC Centre of Research Excellence in the Early Prevention of Obesity in Childhood and is an active member of the Prevention Research Collaboration, a specialised research group at the Sydney School of Public Health.

She was a member of the WHO Ad Hoc Working Group on Science and Evidence for Ending Childhood Obesity and is an Associate Director of the University of Sydney’s WHO Collaborating Centre in Physical Activity, Nutrition & Obesity. Professor Baur is a Founding Fellow and Council Member of the Australian Academy of Health & Medical Sciences. She was previously a Director of World Vision Australia (2007-2016).

In 2010 Professor Baur was made a Member of the Order of Australia ‘for service to medicine, particularly in the field of paediatric obesity as a researcher and academic, and to the community through support for a range of children's charities’.

Dr Judith Swain

Visiting Professor of Medicine, National University of Singapore; Founding Director Emeritus, Singapore Institute of Clinical Sciences (A*STAR); Chief Medical Officer, Physiowave, Inc.

Dr Swain is currently Visiting Professor of Medicine, National University of Singapore and Chief Medical Officer, Physiowave, Inc., a medical device start-up company in Silicon Valley. She was the Founding Director of the Singapore Institute of Clinical Sciences (A*STAR). She was previously Dean for Translational Medicine and the Founding Director of the College of Integrated Life Sciences (COILS) at the University of California, San Diego and the Chair of Medicine at Stanford University. Dr. Swain also serves as a Director for several public and private companies, as well as on scientific advisory boards including the Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering at Harvard University.

Dr Swain received her medical education from the University of California, San Diego before moving to Duke University for training in internal medicine and cardiovascular medicine. She is widely known for her research into molecular cardiology, and pioneered the use of transgenic animals to understand the genetic basis of cardiovascular development and disease. Her current research interests are centred on assessing and enhancing human performance in extreme environments.

Dr Swain was a member of the assessment panel for the Healthier Lives Challenge.

Professor Cindy Kiro

Director of Tai Tokerau campus for the University of Auckland

Professor Kiro (Ngā Puhi, Ngāti Kahu, Ngāti Hine) was previously Director of the Starpath Project (a research project aimed at increasing achievement at NCEA levels 1-3 and University Entrance attainment for Māori and Pacific students, and for other students from low socio-economic communities), and Te Tumu (position responsible for Māori/indigenous education) in the Faculty of Education at the University of Auckland. Both roles promote educational excellence to increase student engagement and success in tertiary education for indigenous and minority populations.

Professor Kiro has worked extensively in roles that improve life outcomes for children and young people who experience social marginalisation or exclusion, focusing upon equity and diversity as a constructive contributor to society. She was New Zealand’s fourth Children’s Commissioner. She established the Taskforce for Action on Family Violence, which was active from June 2005 to July 2015. It led and co-ordinated interagency action to address family violence, including abuse and neglect of children and older persons. A large number of initiatives arose from this Taskforce, including the It’s Not OK campaign on stopping family violence.

Professor Kiro has experience across the life course having held many senior roles in the health sector, academia and community organisations, straddling social work, public health and education. She was previously head of the School of Public Health at Massey University and Head of School Te Kura Māori at Victoria University of Wellington. She was a member of the Māori Health Research Committee between 2001 and 2003. She holds a PhD in Social Policy and an MBA in Business Administration. She has also been involved in reviews of MBIE contestable contracts involving life course research.

Arawhetu Gray

Director Maori Health Services/Manager Planning & Funding Mental Health and Addiction Services Capital and Coast District Health Board

Ms Gray has iwi affiliations with Ngāti Kahungunu ki Wairarapa, Rangitane ki Wairarapa and Ngāi Tahu.

Arawhetu is currently a senior executive in the Capital and Coast DHB and the Co-Chair of the Maternal Morbidity Working Group, Health Quality Safety Commission. She is also a partner in Gray Partners Limited, a small multidisciplinary consultancy that offers management and strategic advisory services to the public, private and community sectors.

Ms Gray has held senior executive roles in social health and policy agencies in the health and social policy sectors. She has experience in both kaupapa Māori and mainstream service delivery. Her previous roles include Group Manager for Mental Health at the Ministry of Health, Deputy Director-General Policy Partnerships at Te Puni Kōkiri, and Chief Māori advisor at NZQA. She was a member of a national steering group overseeing the introduction of the InterRAI assessment tool in hospitals and aged care centres throughout New Zealand (Ministry of Health).

Ms Gray was a director of Wairarapa Moana Incorporation for sixteen years. During that time, Wairarapa Moana increased its asset base by 300%, won the inaugural Ahuwhenua Award for Maori agribusiness, and became foundation shareholders in Miraka, an independent Maori-owned producer and exporter of dairy products.

Jenn Bestwick (Chair)

Associate at The Project Office

Jenn Bestwick's professional career has been largely in strategy and business development and includes previously leading the strategic consulting practice for KPMG in Auckland. After moving to Christchurch in 1996, Jenn worked for Ngai Tahu for a number of years and subsequently with local authorities, iwi and the primary and hydro-generation sectors on fresh water management in the Canterbury region.

Jenn was chair of Ara Institute of Canterbury (formerly Christchurch Polytechnic Institute of Technology) until mid-2017, a Lead Reviewer, PIF Panel for the State Services Commission and Advisory Panel Member for Development West Coast. She is a former Board member of Tourism New Zealand, New Zealand Qualifications Authority and Learning Media Limited.

Jenn gained her Bachelor of Laws (Hons) from university of Trent, Nottingham and is now an associate at The Project Office and an advisor and director for multiple companies including an Advisor for Development West-coast, Director for Southern Response Earthquake Services Ltd.

Robin Hapi

Director

Robin is currently Chair of the Council of Te Wānanga o Raukawa, Board Member of Callaghan Innovation, Advisory Board Member for SERCO Asia/Pacific, Board Member for Te Pou Matakana, and the inaugural recipient of the Haomoana Fellowship at Massey University.

Robin has both practical and operational skills at leading large commercial enterprises in the public and private sectors. His governance experience includes membership of government sector entities and large private enterprises dealing with complex shareholder arrangements and responsibilities.

He is a Chartered Fellow of the Institute of Directors and a Fellow of the New Zealand Institute of Management.

Robin has extensive experience in the fisheries industry and held the roles of Chair of Aotearoa Fisheries Ltd and Board Chair of Sealord Group. He was previously CEO of Aotearoa Fisheries Ltd and CEO of the Treaty of Waitangi Fisheries Commission and was also Chair of BERL.

Robin is of Ngāti Kahungunu descent and is involved in a leadership role with local projects of a Māori, environmental, and sporting nature. He holds an MBA with Distinction from Massey University.

Robin has been a member of various panels for MBIE. Robin was made a Companion of the New Zealand Order of Merit in 2016 for services to Māori, the community, and governance.

Professor Roger Stanley

Foundation Director, Centre for Food Innovation, University of Tasmania

Professor Stanley is the Director of the Centre for Food Innovation (CFI) in Launceston, Tasmania. He also works as a joint appointment with Defence at the Defence Science and Technology Group (DSTG) Food and Nutrition Research laboratory, Scottsdale and links local research to the national CSIRO food research network. He completed his PhD in Biochemistry at the University of Auckland.

Professor Stanley became the Science Leader for the Queensland Government DPI Food Research unit in 2006 running the Added Value Foods research programme within the Emerging Technologies Group. This was followed by a transfer in 2010 to the Queensland Alliance for Agriculture and Food Innovation at the University of Queensland (QAAFI) as a Principal Research Fellow. In this role he undertook R&D on processing innovations and the health properties of tropical fruits and vegetables as well as establishing and teaching a course in functional foods and nutraceuticals at the School of Agriculture and Food Sciences.

He moved to the University of Tasmania in 2013 to set up the Centre for Food Innovation as a collaboration across UTAS, DSTG and the CSIRO Agriculture and Food. He also teaches at the School of Land and Food and carries out research as a member of the Tasmanian Institute of Agriculture.
Professor Stanley’s research addresses sustainable food production through agriculture and aquaculture.

His research focus is on value addition to primary produce such as by shelf life extension and the development of improved nutritional and performance (functional) foods. Professor Stanley was a member of the assessment panel for the High-Value Nutrition Challenge.

Dr Pamela Byrne

Chief Executive Officer, Food Safety Authority of Ireland

Dr Byrne is the Chief Executive Officer at the Food Safety Authority of Ireland. She has particular scientific expertise in ecotoxicology and has significant experience concerning the leadership of innovation policy programmes in relation to food and the bio-economy.

Dr Byrne is Chair of the Management Board of A Healthy Diet for a Healthy Life. This is a European mission-oriented joint programming initiative researching the most effective ways of improving public health through selected specific interventions targeting dietary and physical activity behaviours.

Her previous roles include Director of Regulatory Policy and Intelligence at Abbott Nutrition Ireland Research as well as senior positions in the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine. Dr Byrne has held a position in the former EU Commissioner's cabinet for research, science, and innovation and currently chairs the Strategic Advisory Board of the Institute of Food and Health for University College Dublin.

She has a PhD in estuarine environmental toxicology from University College Cork and a Higher Diploma in Environmental Law (Honours) from the University of Wales.

Dr Ingrid Appelqvist

Group Leader for Food Structure, CSIRO

Dr Appelqvist is Group Leader for Food Structure in the CSIRO Food and Nutrition flagship and leads strategic research in food for healthy ageing, focusing on oral processing and digestion of food and designing healthier food.

She was seconded to the Department of Health and Ageing in Australia as a consultant to define the targets of salt, sugar and fat reduction in manufactured food categories. She leads the secretariat for the National Food and Nutrition Leaders Science Forum for the development of the Australian national food and nutrition research and development strategy, and she leads the Australian international knowledge based bio-economy stream on food and health.

Dr Appelqvist joined CSIRO as a group leader in food materials science in the Food and Nutritional Sciences division in 2006. She became theme leader for the Designed Food and Biomaterials research programme that focuses on developing all natural manufactured food (clean label) and healthier foods (low sugar, salt, fat and high fibre, protein).

Dr Appelqvist has a PhD from the University of Birmingham.

Jenn Bestwick (Chair)

Associate at The Project Office

Jenn Bestwick's professional career has been largely in strategy and business development and includes previously leading the strategic consulting practice for KPMG in Auckland. After moving to Christchurch in 1996, Jenn worked for Ngai Tahu for a number of years and subsequently with local authorities, iwi and the primary and hydro-generation sectors on fresh water management in the Canterbury region.

Jenn was chair of Ara Institute of Canterbury (formerly Christchurch Polytechnic Institute of Technology) until mid-2017, a Lead Reviewer, PIF Panel for the State Services Commission and Advisory Panel Member for Development West Coast. She is a former Board member of Tourism New Zealand, New Zealand Qualifications Authority and Learning Media Limited.

Jenn gained her Bachelor of Laws (Hons) from university of Trent, Nottingham and is now an associate at The Project Office and an advisor and director for multiple companies including an Advisor for Development West-coast, Director for Southern Response Earthquake Services Ltd.

Anake Goodall

Director

Anake is a member of the MBIE College of Assessors and was previously a member of the Endeavour Fund Impact Panel and the review panels for Scion, Manaaki Whenua - Landcare Research and AgResearch.

Anake is a director and consultant with extensive senior executive and management experience. His current roles include director of Meridian Energy, Adjunct Professor at the University of Canterbury, Chair of the Hillary Institute of International Leadership, Trustee of The Gift Trust and principal at Seed The Change | He Kākano Hāpai.

He has in the past been Chief Executive Officer of Te Rūnanga o Ngāi Tahu and the executive responsible for managing the iwi's settlement negotiations, and was an establishment board member at the Environmental Protection Authority. He has an MBA in Strategy, IT and Organisational Design from the University of Canterbury and a Master’s degree in Public Administration, Philanthropy, International Issues and Management from the John F. Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University. Anake is a Harkness Fellow.

Dr Gary Fitt

Science Director, Biosecurity Flagship, CSIRO

Dr Fitt obtained his PhD from the University of Sydney and has worked for CSIRO since 1977. He became the Chief Executive Officer of the Australian Cotton Cooperative Research Centre (CRC) in 1999. In 2008 he became the Deputy Chief of the CSIRO Ecosystem Sciences and Director of the Biosecurity Flagship in 2012. From 2016 he has been Science Director of CSIRO’s Health and Biosecurity Business Unit.

He has extensive research experience in agricultural sustainability. He has published more than 100 refereed publications and contributed to more than 20 books. He has held many positions, including Director of the Cotton Catchment Communities CRC and he is currently Chair of the Science Advisory Body of the OECD Cooperative Research Programme. He is an Adjunct Professor at both the University of New England and the University of Sydney.

Dr Fitt was a member of the assessment panel for the New Zealand’s Biological Heritage Challenge.

Professor Charles Daugherty

Emeritus Professor of Ecology, Victoria University of Wellington

Professor Daugherty is a member of the MBIE College of Assessors.

Professor Daugherty is Emeritus Professor of Ecology at Victoria University of Wellington. Previously, he served as Assistant Vice-Chancellor (Sustainability) and as Assistant Vice-Chancellor (Research), Acting Dean of Science, and Head of the School of Biological Sciences. He is a former Director of the Allan Wilson Centre for Molecular Ecology and Evolution. He has held academic appointments at four universities in the United States.

Professor Daugherty’s research interests focus on ecological restoration and the conservation of indigenous New Zealand animals, in particular birds and reptiles. Over the past 35 years he has worked with the Wildlife Service, Department of Conservation, and World Wildlife Fund New Zealand to help secure the future of natural treasures including tuatara and kiwi.

Professor Daugherty has been a Trustee of the Karori Wildlife Sanctuary and WWF-NZ. He was a member of the International Advisory Board of the Royal Society of New Zealand and of the Marsden Council. He is presently a Trustee of Predator Free New Zealand, a Director of Zero Invasive Predators Ltd, and a Trustee of the Hawke’s Bay Biodiversity Foundation. Professor Daugherty is a Fellow of the Royal Society of New Zealand, and in 2005 he was made an Officer of the New Zealand Order of Merit (ONZM) for services to conservation and biology.

Dr Dan Metcalfe

Research Director, CSIRO

Dr Metcalfe is a landscape ecologist specialising in rainforest ecology and ecophysiology, and the sustainable management of natural landscapes.

He has spent over two decades working in Queensland’s rainforests on subjects including the dynamics of old-growth forest, seed dispersal, impact and recovery from natural perturbations (fire, disease, cyclones), seed dispersal, weed invasion and management.

His work contributed to policy development, conservation appraisals and theoretical advances. As a landscape ecologist he has contributed to the development of monitoring and assessment protocols related to sustainable mining, water abstraction and agricultural development, and provided advice and conducted assessments and reviews for state and territory governments and the national governments of Australia and New Zealand.

Dr Metcalfe has spent the past five years in predominantly research management roles supporting environmental research and impact across Australia.

Dr Metcalfe is currently the Acting Deputy Director (Science) for CSIRO Land and Water. This group comprises around 500 research staff across 17 sites in all States and Territories.

Dr Metcalfe has an international profile for his work in rainforest ecology and management, and is recognised nationally for his research in and support of sustainable land management. He recently co-authored the Land chapter of the 2016 State of the Environment report for the Australian Government.

Dr Andy Pearce (Chair)

Director

Dr Pearce has had extensive experience on the board of a diverse range of businesses, including technology and research-based organisations. His roles have included the Canterbury Strategic Water Study, Energy Efficiency and Conservation Authority, Bank of New Zealand, Ngāi Tahu Group, Wool Equities, Christchurch City Holdings, and Focus Genetics.
Dr Pearce was previously founding Chief Executive Officer of Landcare Research New Zealand until July 2005. He served as a Deputy Chair of the Foundation for Research, Science and Technology (FRST).

He is a member of the Institute of Directors and a Fellow of the New Zealand Institute of Management. He holds a post-graduate Diploma in Corporate Management.

Rawiri Faulkner

Director, Tutaiao

Rawiri is a director of Tutaiao, a consultancy business which specialises in planning, policy and relationship management advice.

Rawiri has over 10 years of executive leadership experience. Previously he was the General Manager, Māori Strategy at GNS Science. His main focus was to build strong relationships with iwi/Māori groups that led to opportunities in earth sciences and isotope technologies. Rawiri has previously been a Business Manager for Māori Innovation at the Foundation for Research, Science and Technology (FRST) and he has also worked for the Ministry of Research, Science and Technology (MoRST). He has also held positions at Greater Wellington Regional Council. Rawiri has served on a number of review panels and advisory groups for FRST, MoRST, MBIE, Tertiary Education Commission, and the Royal Society of New Zealand. He is a member of the New Zealand Institute of Directors, New Zealand Society of Local Government Managers, and he is a qualified Environmental Hearing Commissioner.

Dr Kim Ritman

Agricultural Chief Scientist, Australia

Australian Chief, Plant Protection Office

Kim Ritman is the Chief Scientist in the Australian Government Department of Agriculture and Water Resources. Kim is also Australia’s Chief Plant Protection Officer (ACPPO), representing the government in international and national fora and leads the nationally coordinated domestic emergency response to exotic plant pests.

Kim’s work areas over the years has covered forest and vegetation inventory, regional forest agreements, building geospatial solutions, and leading science based policy advice in agriculture, fisheries, forestry, land use, biosecurity, feral animals and weeds, climate, water availability, salinity, agricultural biotechnology, spatial information and social sciences.

Stephen Hall

Director Operations, Taranaki Regional Council

Stephen has over 20 years’ experience across all aspects of natural resource management, both as a consultant and local government employee. He has experience across the management of various areas including land, water, biodiversity, coastal, rivers, recreation, biosecurity, and restoration ecology. He is currently the Director Operations at Taranaki Regional Council.

Stephen is in various local and central government working groups. He is the Bio Managers Chair (regional council special interest group relating to biosecurity, biodiversity), a member of the National Wilding Conifer Governance Group, member of the Biosecurity Act review working group including Future of Pest Management and National Policy Direction, member of the Nature Space Governance Group, and an observer on the National Biodiversity Collaborative Group Regional Council.

Dr Brad Ridoutt

Principal Research Scientist, CSIRO

Research Fellow, University of the Free State

Dr Ridoutt is a member of the MBIE College of Assessors.

Dr Ridoutt is a Principal Research Scientist at CSIRO Agriculture and Food. He has a PhD in plant physiology from the University of Melbourne. A former senior manager at Scion, Dr Ridoutt's research interest is the sustainability of agricultural and food systems from a lifecycle perspective. This includes sustainable nutrition and diets. He is engaged in a range of international activities including ISO and the United Nations Environment Programme/Society of Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry’s Life Cycle Initiative.

Dr Ridoutt has a PhD (1992) from the University of Melbourne.

He was a member of the assessment panel for the Our Land and Water Challenge.

Jenn Bestwick (Chair)

Associate at The Project Office

Jenn Bestwick's professional career has been largely in strategy and business development and includes previously leading the strategic consulting practice for KPMG in Auckland. After moving to Christchurch in 1996, Jenn worked for Ngai Tahu for a number of years and subsequently with local authorities, iwi and the primary and hydro-generation sectors on fresh water management in the Canterbury region.

Jenn was chair of Ara Institute of Canterbury (formerly Christchurch Polytechnic Institute of Technology) until mid-2017, a Lead Reviewer, PIF Panel for the State Services Commission and Advisory Panel Member for Development West Coast. She is a former Board member of Tourism New Zealand, New Zealand Qualifications Authority and Learning Media Limited.

Jenn gained her Bachelor of Laws (Hons) from university of Trent, Nottingham and is now an associate at The Project Office and an advisor and director for multiple companies including an Advisor for Development West-coast, Director for Southern Response Earthquake Services Ltd.

Professor Ian Buckle

Professor Buckle is the director of the Centre for Civil Engineering Earthquake Research and Foundation Professor at the University of Nevada, Reno. He has previously served as Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Research), University of Auckland, New Zealand, and as Deputy Director of the National Centre for Earthquake Engineering Research, University at Buffalo, New York (now the Multidisciplinary Centre for Extreme Events Research).

Professor Buckle’s research interests include seismic performance of bridges, lifelines and buildings; design and retrofit criteria for bridges; earthquake protective systems for bridges; bridge performance for extreme loads such as earthquake, differential temperature, and overload; and nonlinear analytical techniques for structures subject to dynamic loads. He has conducted full-scale field testing and large-scale laboratory testing of structures using static and dynamic loads, has been a member of earthquake reconnaissance teams in California, Japan, Taiwan, and Chile, and has conducted short courses in bridge engineering, seismic retrofitting, and the seismic isolation of highway bridges.

Professor Buckle is the Vice Chair of the California Department of Transportation (Caltrans) Seismic Advisory Board and past President of the Earthquake Engineering Research Institute. He is also a member of multiple boards including the Institutional Board of the Pacific Earthquake Engineering Research Centre and the Nevada Earthquake Safety Council.

Professor John Handmer

Professor, RMIT University

Adjunct Professor, Australian National University (ANU)

Professor Handmer leads RMIT’s Centre for Risk and Community Safety and its human security programme. He is also Convener of the National Climate Change Adaptation Research Network for Emergency Management, and Principal Scientific Advisor for the Bushfire Cooperative Research Centre. He holds adjunct professorial positions at ANU and the Flood Hazard Research Centre in London.

Professor Handmer is a Fellow of the Institute of British Geographers and the Royal Geographical Society and he is a member of the Institute of Australian Geographers and the Australian Foundation.

He holds a PhD from ANU and works on the social and economic aspects of emergency management and disasters.

Professor Handmer was a member of the assessment panel for the Resilience to Nature’s Challenges Challenge.

Frances Sullivan

Programme Manager, PacificTA

Frances is the Programme Manager for PacificTA. Joining LGNZ in 2008 as a Principal Policy Advisor she provided advice, sector advocacy and stakeholder management in the key areas of building regulation and earthquake prone building policy, climate change, emissions trading scheme, natural hazards, flood risk management, solid waste, biosecurity and biodiversity. Frances is a member of the Government Climate Change Adaptation Technical Advisory Group.

Frances previously worked for Environment Canterbury as a Programme Manager for land, pests, water and air in the regulation group. Frances has GIS and remote sensing expertise which was utilised in her role as Land Resources Scientist at Environment Canterbury. She has also worked in Tanzania as a Community Development Advisor for a development association through VSA and managed a family beef farm in South Westland.

Rawiri Faulkner

Director, Tutaiao

Rawiri is a director of Tutaiao, a consultancy business which specialises in planning, policy and relationship management advice.

Rawiri has over 10 years of executive leadership experience. Previously he was the General Manager, Māori Strategy at GNS Science. His main focus was to build strong relationships with iwi/Māori groups that led to opportunities in earth sciences and isotope technologies. Rawiri has previously been a Business Manager for Māori Innovation at the Foundation for Research, Science and Technology (FRST) and he has also worked for the Ministry of Research, Science and Technology (MoRST). He has also held positions at Greater Wellington Regional Council.

Rawiri has served on a number of review panels and advisory groups for FRST, MoRST, MBIE, Tertiary Education Commission, and the Royal Society of New Zealand. He is a member of the New Zealand Institute of Directors, New Zealand Society of Local Government Managers, and he is a qualified Environmental Hearing Commissioner.

Dr Anita Hill (Chair)

Executive Director, Future Industries Sector, CSIRO

Dr Hill is the Executive Director of Future Industries at CSIRO. She also serves as Chief Scientist for CSIRO. In 2014 and 2015 during the transition of the CSIRO chief executives she served as acting Chief Executive. Previously she was Executive Director of Manufacturing, Digital Productivity, and CSIRO Services, and before that Executive Director of Manufacturing, Materials, and Minerals.

She is a Fellow of the Academy of Technological Sciences and Engineering (ATSE) and The Australian Academy of Science (AAS). She is a current member of the advisory boards of the Australian Institute for Bioengineering and Nanotechnology (AIBN University of Queensland), Australian Centre of Excellence in Electromaterials Science (ACES University of Wollongong), Australian Synchrotron, Swinburne Industry Research, and Journal of Polymer Science: Polymer Physics (editorial board). She is a former member of advisory boards for the Victorian Centre for Sustainable Chemical Manufacturing (VCSCM), the Australian eHealth Research Centre (AeHRC), the National Centre of Excellence in Desalination Australia (NCEDA), and the Institute for Frontier Materials (Deakin University).

Dr Hill’s research is in materials and process engineering and, more specifically, in the transport of atoms, ions and small molecules in condensed matter. Dr Hill was awarded a Bachelor of Engineering and a PhD in mechanical engineering and materials science from Duke University.

Professor Brian S Collins CB, FREng,

Professor of Engineering Policy, University College London (UCL)

Director, International Centre for Infrastructure Futures

Associate Fellow, Centre for Science and Policy, University of Cambridge

Professor Brian Collins is Professor of Engineering Policy at University College London (UCL). He has previously served as specialist adviser to the House of Lords Science and Technology Committee’s inquiry into scientific infrastructure in 2013 and 2014. Before joining UCL, he served as Chief Scientific Adviser to two Government departments (Transport 2006-11; Business Innovation and Skills 2009-11), with responsibility for overseeing science, engineering and technological activities, and ensuring that rigorous science and engineering evidence was used systematically throughout both Departments’ investment policy processes.

He was bestowed by Her Majesty the Queen the Honour of Companion of the Bath (CB) in the 2011 New Year’s Honours list.

Professor Michael Morris

Director, AMBER, Science Foundation Ireland

Professor, Surface and Interface Engineering, Trinity College Dublin

In 2015, Professor Morris was appointed Academic Director of AMBER (Advanced Materials + BioEngineering Research) based at Trinity College Dublin and Professor of Surface and Interface Engineering at the School of Chemistry, Trinity College Dublin. His work largely focuses on self-assembly of materials in thin films. This has been geared towards production of mesoporous films and recently block-polymer microphase separation to form periodic arrangements. These periodic structures can be used to engineer surfaces for applications such as circuit elements in integrated circuitry, manipulation of light, self-cleaning surfaces and antimicrobial packaging.

Professor Morris’s work in AMBER includes collaboration with Intel on the development of new technology for the manufacture of logic/memory circuitry. He also has several engagements with other companies based on his experience of surface engineering and materials science, eg DePuy (surface coatings for implant components) and Merck Millipore (new membrane materials) and also collaborates with Henkel, Alcatel Lucent and other companies.

Professor Morris is a founder of Glantreo, a SME spin out for Cork, and maintains links in developing novel stationary phase materials for chromatography applications.

He has a PhD from Liverpool University.

Anake Goodall

Director

Anake is a member of the MBIE College of Assessors and was previously a member of the Endeavour Fund Impact Panel and the review panels for Scion, Manaaki Whenua - Landcare Research and Agresearch.

Anake is a director and consultant with extensive senior executive and management experience. His current roles include director of Meridian Energy, Adjunct Professor at the University of Canterbury, Chair of the Hillary Institute of International Leadership, Trustee of The Gift Trust and principal at Seed The Change | He Kākano Hāpai.

He has in the past been Chief Executive Officer of Te Rūnanga o Ngāi Tahu and the executive responsible for managing the iwi's settlement negotiations, and was an establishment board member at the Environmental Protection Authority. He has an MBA in Strategy, IT and Organisational Design from the University of Canterbury and a Master’s degree in Public Administration, Philanthropy, International Issues and Management from the John F. Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University. Anake is a Harkness Fellow.

Dr Grant Ryan

Entrepreneur, Director of ChristchurchNZ Ltd

Dr Ryan has a degree in mechanical engineering and a PhD in Ecological Economics from the University of Canterbury.

He is an innovator and entrepreneur with multiple successful innovations and companies to his name. He has founded a number of multi-million dollar companies including GlobalBrain.net (sold to NBCi), RealContacts (sold to Intel), SLI Systems (listed on the NZX), Eurekster, YikeBike, and PurePods. He is now helping to make New Zealand predator-free with the Cacophony Project.

Dr Ryan is on the board of the Canterbury Development Corporation and PurePods. He has also served on the boards of the New Zealand Venture Investment Fund, the Foundation for Research Science and Technology, SLI Systems, and the Innovation Advisory Board of the Ministry of Science and Innovation.

Robin Hapi (Chair)

Director

Robin is currently Chair of the Council of Te Wānanga o Raukawa, Board Member of Callaghan Innovation, Advisory Board Member for SERCO Asia/Pacific, Board Member for Te Pou Matakana, and the inaugural recipient of the Haomoana Fellowship at Massey University.

Robin has both practical and operational skills at leading large commercial enterprises in the public and private sectors. His governance experience includes membership of government sector entities and large private enterprises dealing with complex shareholder arrangements and responsibilities.

He is a Chartered Fellow of the Institute of Directors and a Fellow of the New Zealand Institute of Management.

Robin has extensive experience in the fisheries industry and held the roles of Chair of Aotearoa Fisheries Ltd and Board Chair of Sealord Group. He was previously CEO of Aotearoa Fisheries Ltd and CEO of the Treaty of Waitangi Fisheries Commission and was also Chair of BERL.
Robin is of Ngāti Kahungunu descent and is involved in a leadership role with local projects of a Māori, environmental, and sporting nature. He holds an MBA with Distinction from Massey University.

Robin has been a member of various panels for MBIE. Robin was made a Companion of the New Zealand Order of Merit in 2016 for services to Māori, the community, and governance.

Dr Kate Wilson

Executive Director, Science Division, New South Wales (NSW) Office of Environment and Heritage

Dr Wilson is Executive Director of the Science Division at the NSW Office of Environment and Heritage (OEH), which works to protect and conserve the NSW environment, including its built heritage. She is responsible for the overarching OEH Knowledge Strategy to underpin policy and programmes, and for delivery of technical analysis, expert advice, and research to support OEH, the NSW Environment Protection Authority, and external government customers and clients.

Dr Wilson was previously Director of the Wealth from Oceans Flagship at CSIRO. Her background is in molecular biology and biotechnology and their application to agriculture and aquaculture. She was co-founder of the Centre for the Application of Molecular Biology to International Agriculture (Canberra) and research leader in tropical aquaculture at the Australian Institute of Marine Science.

Dr Wilson has a PhD from Harvard University.

Associate Professor Coleen Moloney

Associate Professor, Department of Biological Sciences, University of Cape Town

Coleen Moloney is an Associate Professor in the Department of Biological Sciences at the University of Cape Town (UCT) and a past Director of UCT's Marine Research Institute. Her broad research area involves the dynamics of marine food webs and ecosystems under global change. Her main research tools are ecological models, which are used to help understand interactions and feedbacks among physical, chemical and biological processes on many time and space scales. From 1996 to 2001 she worked for the South African government in carrying out fisheries stock assessments, and more recently has been involved in teaching and research related to marine ecosystem-based management.

Associate Professor Moloney has served on the editorial boards of two journals and on several international scientific committees and working groups, including for JGOFS, GLOBEC, IMBER and GOOS. In South Africa she was the first woman to win the Gilchrist Memorial Medal (in 2014) and also has been recognised for contributions to South African Research Capacity and Development (NSTF Eskom Award, 2004).

David Raffaelli

Dave Raffaelli was appointed to a chair in Environment at York in February 2001 and was Head of Department between 2004 and 2010, retiring in 2017. Over that period Dave headed up several large-scale research programmes: he was Director of UKPopNet, a collaborative Natural Environmental Research Council (NERC) Centre focussed on science for sustainable landscapes and livelihoods, Director of the NERC DIVERSITAS international, inter-disciplinary project office bioSUSTAINABILITY, concerned with developing the science of conservation and sustainable use of biodiversity, in particular exploring the science-policy interface; Director of BESS (Biodiversity and Ecosystem Service Sustainability), a £15M NERC and BBSRC 6-year programme (2011-17) that explored the linkages between natural capital stocks and flows of ecosystem services in different land and seascapes across the UK.

Dave’s research interests are broad and cover marine, freshwater and terrestrial systems. These include marine web dynamics; the relationships between catchment land-use, water quality and impacts on coastal receiving systems; the application of manipulative field experiments to large-scale conservation and management issues, biodiversity, ecosystem functioning and ecosystem services.

His research has been funded mainly by NERC and Defra, he has been a member of the Global Biodiversity Sub-Committee of the Global Environmental Change Committee, and has served on several UK Biodiversity Research Advisory Group working groups. His work with NERC includes a board member of NERC Science and Innovation Strategy Board (SISB), Chair of NERC’s Services & Facilities Review Group, Chair and panel member of a range of programmes including Food Resilience, Valuing Nature, Marine Alliance for Science and Technology Scotland, and Marine Ecosystems. He has had a long and close association with the British Ecological Society, being the editor of Journal of Animal Ecology, a council member and vice-president and in 2013 was awarded the President’s Medal for services to the society and ecology.

Dr Richard Spinrad

Dr Spinrad is an internationally recognized scientist and executive with more than 30 years of experience. Before becoming the NOAA Chief Scientist, Dr Spinrad served as vice president for research at Oregon State University (OSU) and from 2003 until 2010 he was the head of NOAA’s Office of Oceanic and Atmospheric Research and the head of the National Ocean Service.

Among his accomplishments, Dr Spinrad was a co-lead of the White House Committee that developed the nation’s first set of ocean research priorities and oversaw the revamping of NOAA’s research enterprise. He also served as the Department of Commerce representative to the Office of Science and Technology Policy committee addressing scientific integrity.

He has held faculty appointments at three universities, directed a major national non-profit organization, presided over a private company, and worked as a research scientist. He also developed the National Ocean Sciences Bowl for high school students.

Dr Spinrad received his PhD in oceanography from Oregon State University.

Denise Church (Chair)

Director

Denise was appointed as Chair of ESR in 2015. She is Director of Leadership Matters.

Denise is an experienced chair, company director, chief executive, coach and facilitator and specialises in leadership development and strategy for senior management, boards, and executive teams. She was previously Chief Executive of the Ministry for the Environment and her experience in governance and senior management ranges across the public, private, and not-for-profit sectors. She currently holds a number of roles including Chair of Karori Sanctuary Trust, and board member of Scouts New Zealand.

She was made a Companion of the Queen’s Service Order in 2002 and a Chartered Fellow of the Institute of Directors in 2017.

Professor Jon Barnett

Professor, School of Geography, University of Melbourne 

Professor Jon Barnett is an internationally renowned political geographer whose research investigates social impacts of, and responses to, environmental change. His research has probed the impacts of climate change on cultures, food security, migration, water security, and peace, based on fieldwork in several Pacific Island Countries, and in Australia, China and Timor Leste.

He led the Australian Government’s National Adaptation Research Network for Social, Economic and Institutional Dimensions of Climate Change from 2009 to 2013.

He is a lead author of the most recent IPCC (Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change) Assessment Report and he co-edits the major international journal Global Environmental Change.

Robin Hapi

Director

Robin has extensive experience in the fisheries industry and held the roles of Chair of Aotearoa Fisheries Ltd and Board Chair of Sealord Group. He was previously CEO of Aotearoa Fisheries Ltd and CEO of the Treaty of Waitangi Fisheries Commission for 13 years and was also the former Chair of BERL. He is currently Chair of the Council of Te Wānanga o Raukawa,

Deputy Chair of Callaghan Innovation, Board Member of New Zealand Trade and Enterprise, Advisory Board Member for SERCO Asia/Pacific, Board Member for Te Pou Matakana, Board member for Te Mātāwai and was the inaugural recipient of the Haomoana Fellowship at Massey University.

Robin has both practical and operational skills at leading large commercial enterprises in the public and private sectors. His governance experience includes membership of government sector entities and large private enterprises dealing with complex shareholder arrangements and responsibilities.

He is a Chartered Fellow of the Institute of Directors and a Fellow of the New Zealand Institute of Management.

Robin is of Ngāti Kahungunu descent and is involved in a leadership role with local community projects of a Māori, environmental, and sporting nature. He holds an MBA with Distinction from Massey University and is the recipient of the Companion of the New Zealand Order of Merit.

Dr Richard Spinrad

Former Chief Scientist, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA)

Dr Spinrad is an internationally recognized scientist and executive with more than 30 years of experience. Before becoming the NOAA Chief Scientist Dr Spinrad served as vice president for research at Oregon State University (OSU) and from 2003 until 2010 he was the head of NOAA’s Office of Oceanic and Atmospheric Research and the head of the National Ocean Service.

Among his accomplishments, Dr Spinrad was a co-lead of the White House Committee that developed the nation’s first set of ocean research priorities and oversaw the revamping of NOAA’s research enterprise. He also served as the Department of Commerce representative to the Office of Science and Technology Policy committee addressing scientific integrity.

He has held faculty appointments at three universities, directed a major national non-profit organization, presided over a private company, and worked as a research scientist. He also developed the National Ocean Sciences Bowl for high school students.

Dr Spinrad received his PhD in oceanography from Oregon State University.

Dr Andreas Schiller

Deputy and Science Director, CSIRO Oceans and Atmosphere

After completing his PhD at the University of Kiel in Germany, Dr Schiller moved to the Max Planck Institute of Meteorology in Hamburg where he worked on climate change issues before joining CSIRO in 1995.

Dr Schiller pioneered with colleagues at the Bureau of Meteorology the development and implementation of the first coupled ocean-atmosphere model for seasonal climate prediction in Australia (POAMA) which went operational at BoM in 2003. Predictions from this model enable the agricultural sector and other industries susceptible to climate variations to better prepare for climate variability.

He headed CSIRO's involvement in the initial phase of the BLUElink project, which delivered the first operational ocean forecasting system in the Southern Hemisphere. The BLUElink project combines state-of-the art ocean observing systems – satellite altimetry, satellite SST, autonomous Argo floats – with the latest modelling and data assimilation technology to estimate the three-dimensional global ocean circulation.

From 2009 to 2017 Dr Schiller co-chaired the international GODAE OceanView Science Team. This group of 35+ leading scientists is the international body that coordinates scientific efforts in the rapidly growing area of ocean forecasting and supports the development and operational implementation of physical, biogeochemical and ecosystem ocean forecasting systems.

Until January 2017, Dr Schiller chaired the Global Ocean Observing System Regional Alliance in the Indian Ocean, called IOGOOS.

Dr Schiller was a member of the assessment panel for the Deep South Challenge.