Issue 50 – Monday 1st March 2021
Contents
HeadSup
Kia ora koutou
A warm welcome to Semester 1! Although we are not kicking off in the ideal fashion I hope everyone finds opportunities to enjoy touching base with our new cohorts in each year level. I know that Ako has been underway setting up support activities for GTAs/TAs and teaching staff. Likewise, the Tech Team have been hard at work sorting out Labs. Hopefully by now every postgraduate research student who needs access in Alert Level 3 has made contact with supervisors. I’m ready to approve requests for staff and their students so please don’t hesitate to get in touch prior to completing access applications (remember, supervisors must do these on behalf of PG students).
Last Friday our teaching, research and professional staff got together for a convivial Te Kura Mātai Taiao Kaupapa 2021 session to set the scene for the year. Returnees from Research and Study Leave provided the highlight of the day with their pecha kucha style summaries of activities. Of note, Jay’s presentation was a stand out in the stand-up comedy section, revealing a newly-appreciated hidden talent. I have a pile of post-it note suggestions and questions arising from the day that I will respond to but currently they are stuck in my office and I am not. Hopefully, I will have responses in time for the next edition of p-cubed.
Also on Friday, several of us attended Jack Grant-Mackie’s funeral (see obituary below). Jack had a lengthy career with the Department of Geology and was an enormous contributor to Geoscience in New Zealand. He will be greatly missed.
Now is the time to keep things simple. If you hit a wall with anything please get in touch. Stay well and good luck navigating the first couple of weeks of the semester.
Ngā mihi
JR
Whakawhanaungatanga – Communities
Congratulations Lorna Strachan
Lorna Strachan was recently selected to join the Australia New Zealand International Ocean Discovery Program Consortium (ANZIC) Science Committee. The role of an ANZIC Science Committee is to provide expert advice on applications to sail, post expedition grant oversight, legacy grant oversight, committee assessments, governance developments and future strategic plans for IODP.
Annual SoE Great Bake Off
The annual SoE Great Bake Off finished the other day with a successful 4 weeks of baking! Lena Ray took out the top spot followed closely by Laurenz Boettger and Nathan Collins.
See you all next year!
Equipment up for disposal, up for grabs Inaugural Lecture
16 stereoscopes mirrored for air photographs, with parallax bar (some of them)
6 Petrographic monocular microscopes.
Politics, Economies and Place research group website now live
Several staff (Tom Baker, Nick Lewis, Larry Murphy, Emma Sharp, and Robin Kearns) and associated postgraduate students have got a website to accompany their new research group. It can be found at https://pep.blogs.auckland.ac.nz/ Perhaps of most interest to the School is the short videos from our graduates, reflecting on the experiences of postgraduate study and pathways into professional roles after their degrees. Special thanks to incoming PhD student Emily Stevens (who created the website) and the School (for funding).
Obituary
Remembering the late John Augustus (Jack) Grant-Mackie (27 August 1932 – 20 February 2021)
Personal reflections on a supervisor, colleague and friend.
I first met Jack when I arrived at the University of Auckland in 1978 as a fresh faced first year student, straight out of school. Jack made an immediate impression, his stature, booming voice (especially the way he emphasized key words) and of course those infamous eyebrows. The latter always managed to illicit a titter from the class when they were picked out in silhouette by the overhead projector. By third year my interest in paleontology was well and truly sparked and Jack’s teaching was the driver. Our third year paleontology field trip was to Leigh-Mathesons Bay with Jack and Graeme Gibson, staying at the recently opened Marine Lab. When we got up the first morning, we found Graeme wrapped up in his sleeping bag sound asleep on the veranda, a victim of Jack notorious snoring. Continuing on to postgraduate studies, Jack was the obvious choice for supervisor. He was very generous with his time and was always available to take a look at any fossil I was struggling to identify. When it came time to write up, my blue or black handwritten text came back disheartening a sea of red. However, it was all gold, meticulously correcting, commenting and explaining where I had gone wrong or right. I am forever grateful for that generosity.
I joined the staff of the then Geology Department in 1996 to manage the Paleontology Collection and that marked a change in our relationship, as Jack became my line-manager as well as my PhD supervisor. That was followed by another change when he retired in early 1998 and became a full-time research associate. ‘Retirement’ gave him the time to complete a number of long running projects and many new ones. It was a very fruitful time for Jack and led to many publications. In the last few years that energy and productivity diminished as he dealt with his wife’s failing health (Diana died 10 September 2019) and his own health issues. His academic research interests and expertise were extremely broad. This is reflected in his vast publication record which ranges from the cosmopolitan Triassic bivalve ‘Monotis’, to giant penguins, ammonites, Holocene bird faunas, Triassic & Jurassic stratigraphy (New Zealand, New Caledonia, SE Asia), fossil plants and even a fossil insect! This depth and breadth of knowledge made him the go to person for all things Paleontological. Jack was always ready and willing to discuss issues from the trivial identification of an unknown fossil or an ambiguous sample label, through to collection management issues and events in the world outside academia. I will miss those conversations, his integrity, his kindness and his smile.
Neville Hudson,
Senior Technician, Geological Collections
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Events & Seminars
VGP Seminar
The VGP seminar will be stating up again on Monday, the 8th of May. Talks will be held in room 303-B05 from 12-1, every second week. Our first speaker will be Soenke Stern, presenting his work on the influence of temperature and water content on volcanic plume electrification. Our preliminary schedule is below and we still have spaces for speakers, so if anyone is interested in presenting their work, please get in touch me either Lena (lena.ray@auckland.ac.nz) or David (david.farsky@auckland.ac.nz) and we can add you to the schedule of presenters.
| Monday, 8 March 2021 | Soenke Stern |
| Monday, 22 March 2021 | Jie Wu |
| Monday, 19 April 2021 | Gina Swanney, Phil Shane |
| Monday, 3 May 2021 | Mike Rowe |
| Monday, 17 May 2021 | Martyna Wala |
| Monday, 31 May 2021 | James Muirhead |
Time: Mar 8, 2021 12:00 PM Auckland, Wellington
Join Zoom Meeting : https://us02web.zoom.us/j/84020958616?pwd=TXhkaXBEZUN2NGJjVnp1V1NaelMxdz09
Meeting ID: 840 2095 8616
Passcode: G25nrJ
PYR Seminar – Salt and buoyant particle dispersion in the Waitemata Estuary
Please see flyer for upcoming seminar on Salt and buoyant particles dispersion in the Waitemata Estuary by Mike Chen (PhD Student).
Zoom meeting: https://auckland.zoom.us/j/99308368420?pwd=M1BvdEwvcHl3K281a08rWmMzOFY2Zz09
Meeting ID: 993 0836 8420
Passcode: 339437
Masters Student Research Seminars
We will run a seminar series show-casing masters thesis research on 9 June 20201 (9am to 3 pm with lunch; Rm 303-130). This will cover students who commenced thesis studies in semester 2 of last year. Each student will give a 10 minute oral presentation followed by 5 minutes of questions. This is designed to assist students with the direction their project is going in.
Supervisors will be introducing their students. The topics will be grouped into disciplines allowing associated staff to attend and moderate the seminars.
This is an on-campus event. It does not involve Zoom-style or digital presentations from off-campus sites.
RTEA (Te Rōpū Taioa / Environment Association) – Annual General Meeting
The new student association for all disciplines within the SoE, RTEA (Te Rōpū Taioa / Environment Association), will have it’s first Annual General Meeting on the 4th March 11:30am in room 302-130. The RTEA welcomes both staff and students from within the SoE to come and find out about the student association!
If you wish to come to the AGM please fill out the google form (https://forms.gle/bMooWexRFdTovmz98) for catering purposes.
For further enquires please email the RTEA: rteauoa@gmail.com
Bickie Briefings
When & Where?
Every week from 10.30-11.00 am starting Thursday 04 March onwards, Level 6 common space unless otherwise advised.
Who?
Everyone – all post-graduate students and staff are welcome, please come.
Why?
Find out what’s happening and what’s coming up in the next week, hear about our successes, and help build our Earth Sciences Community. And there will be bickies of course!
Aotearoa Bike Challenge
The Aotearoa Bike Challenge began Monday 1st February!
The Aotearoa Bike Challenge is a fun, free, competition to encourage more New Zealanders to experience first-hand the joys and benefits of riding a bike. There are many prizes up for grabs and it only takes a 10 minute bike ride to enter the prize draws.
Register now at aotearoa.bike. In February, you’ll have loads of chances to win amazing prizes for riding and encouraging others to ride too! If you are logging your first ride make sure you identify a UoA encourager to maximize our points – Jennifer Eccles or anyone else you have heard about this from!
AusIMM University Roadshow Student Event 10 March 12-1pm 302-G20
The Australasian Institute of Mining and Metallurgy (AusIMM) is running a roadshow around the NZ universities early in semester 1. Smart extraction and use of resources is key to facilitating the global energy transition, including meeting the Paris Agreement, and also attaining the 17 UN Sustainable Development Goals. This is an opportunity for students (undergraduate and postgraduate) to hear more about the resource sector including career pathways and employment. The myriad of resource sector careers includes environmental science and management, geology, GIS, remote sensing, geophysics, and engineering. Please advertise this to your students via Canvas and contact Martin Brook for further details
Job Opportunity
Assistant/Associate/Full Professor – Chair in Mineral Resources Geology at Oregon State University
Application URL: https://jobs.oregonstate.edu/postings/97932
For full consideration apply by 4/30/2021, applications close 6/30/2021
The College of Earth, Ocean, and Atmospheric Sciences (CEOAS) invites applications for a tenure-track (Assistant/Associate/Full Professor) faculty position to fill the newly created Barrow Family Endowed Chair in Mineral Resource Geology. Areas of research focus could be rooted in field-and laboratory-based investigations of ore genesis, evolution, and exploration. Specific areas of interest include the role of fluids in crustal processes, structural and tectonic controls on magma and fluid flow, magmatic and hydrothermal processes that determine the concentration and dispersion of mineralized materials, geothermal or active magmatic or metamorphic systems, or related fields. Research strategies should integrate field mapping and investigations with petrology, structural geology, remote-sensing, high-temperature and isotope geochemistry, and/or other lab-based or modelling approaches.
Rangahau – Research
2021 Research Outlook report
Please read the 2021 Research Outlook report (Read here) produced by staff at the University and UniServices for insights into the Government’s position on strategic research planning. It may help you align any of your upcoming research proposals with current Government trends and priorities potentially leading to a higher likelihood of success. Or for regular information, sign up for UniServices’ monthly Business and Government Update by emailing communications@uniservices.co.nz.
Research and Funding Opportunities
Te Whitinga Fellowship – supporting 30 excellent Early Career Researchers for two years
- Eligibility: Applicants must be either Aotearoa New Zealand citizens, or permanent residents. Applicants must have a PhD conferred on or after 01 January 2017 (Exemptions may apply). Applicants should not currently hold a research role, unless that role is fixed-term and due to end before 31 December 2021.
- Grant Value: $75,000 towards the researcher’s salary, $75,000 in organizational overheads, $10,000 for research-related expenses for two years at 0.8 FTE.
- Guidelines here and for further information visit the website here.
- Internal Deadline: Monday, 12 April 2021.
- To register: email submissions@auckland.ac.nz: your title, full name, email address, faculty and department and include Te Whitinga Fellowship in the subject line.
Market Economics Geography Masters Research Scholarship
The Scholarship was first established in 2011 and is funded by Market Economics Ltd, an independent New Zealand based consultancy that specializes in market and economic analysis and environmental and ecological research.
The main purpose of the Scholarship is to encourage postgraduate research into the field of human/economic geography, including GIS, by rewarding demonstrated ability and lowering financial barriers.
Application status: Apply now
Applicable study: MA or MSc in Geography with a research focus on quantitative analysis in human or economic geography or GIS
Opening date: 23 February
Closing date: 6 April
Tenure: One year
For: Assistance
Number on offer: One
Offer rate: Annually
Value: Up to $5,000
Royal Society Te Apārangi Catalyst: Seeding
Catalyst: Seeding facilitates new small and medium pre-research strategic partnerships with international collaborators that cannot be supported through other means. Funding is for research exchanges, research activities, and expenses related to hosting workshops for new strategic research partnerships with international collaborators.
- Grant Value: $80,000
- Project Duration: Up to 2 years
- Funders website (including guidelines, FAQ’s)
Internal Deadline: Wednesday 7 April
Please contact your RPC for details on how to register for the portal.
Royal Society Te Apārangi Catalyst: Leaders
Catalyst: Leaders supports incoming and outgoing targeted international fellowships for exceptional individuals that cannot be supported through other means.
Funders website contains further eligibility details and guidelines. Please contact your RPC for details on how to register for the portal
- International Leader Fellowships
Supports exceptional individuals from any country outside New Zealand to catalyse science and innovation capability and capacity development in New Zealand for a minimum of 4 weeks per year for up to 3 years.
- Grant value: Up to $50,000 per annum for up to three years (comprising of $20,000 stipend, $20,000 research and travel allowance, $10,000 host institution administration)
- JSPS Postdoctoral Fellowships
Supports excellent post-doctoral researchers to do research in Japan for 12-24 months. Preferred start is 1 September 2021 but no later than 30 November 2021.
- Grant value: Round trip air-ticket (based on JSPS regulations, Monthly maintenance allowance of ¥362,000 (~ NZ $5160), Settling allowance of ¥200,000 (~ NZ $2850). Overseas travel, accident and sickness insurance is covered
Internal Deadline: Wednesday 7 April
Food and Health Seed Fund Application
Thanks to continued support from the Faculties of Business and Economics, Engineering, Medical and Health Sciences and Science, the Food and Health Programme is again able to run a seed funding round to provide up to $10,000 seed funding (per project) for cross-disciplinary/cross-faculty, food and health related projects this year.
To apply, please complete Food and Health Programme Seed Fund Application, and email to Dee Nolan d.nolan@auckland.ac.nz, by Noon, Tuesday 16th March 2021. Successful applicants will be notified late March. Projects will be required to be completed by the end of this calendar year.
Further details on criteria and conditions of award can be found on Page 6 of the application form or here,
Please contact Dee Nolan directly if you have any queries.
Laura Bassi Scholarship
The Laura Bassi Scholarship, which awards a total of $8,000 thrice per annum, was established by Editing Press in 2018 with the aim of providing editorial assistance to postgraduates and junior academics whose research focuses on neglected topics of study, broadly construed. The scholarships are open to every discipline and the next round of funding will be awarded in April 2021:
Spring 2021
Application deadline: 31 March 2021
Results: 25 April 2021
All currently enrolled master’s and doctoral candidates are eligible to apply, as are academics in the first five years of full-time employment. Applicants are required to submit a completed application form along with their CV through the application portal by the relevant deadline. Further details, previous winners, and the application portal can be found at: https://editing.press/bassi
Call for application: PBRF fund
The purpose of this fund is to increase the quality and international reach of the School research output. This year, the fund will be distributed in two contestable application rounds in March and July 2021.
Please carefully check the guidelines Click Here, and submit your application form Click Here to the Rangahau committee by 1 March 2021.
If you have any questions or concerns, please contact Melanie Kah (melanie.kah@auckland.ac.nz)
Puke Ariki Postgraduate Scholarships 2021
We are happy to announce that applications for the Puke Ariki Postgraduate Scholarships funded by the George Mason Charitable Trust, are now open.
Established in 2002, these scholarships support the studies of postgraduate students who carry out research relating to Taranaki’s natural history.
The scholarships are awarded annually, up to a maximum of $7500 for PhD research and $5000 for Masters or honors level research. The scholarship is intended to support students who are studying full time at a postgraduate level. Applications for the 2021 scholarships close on 12 March 2021.
Please click on this link: Puke Ariki George Mason Scholarship Terms and Conditions 2021, for application details and criteria that we would appreciate you promoting to candidates through your usual channels.
Please don’t hesitate to contact Melanie Kah if you need to clarify anything further.
Masters Scholarship
Interested in the effect of plant pathogens (kauri dieback) on plant soil interactions? Fully funded Masters Scholarship (living stipend plus fees) available. Start date. March 2021. Please contact Luitgard Schwendenmann (l.schwendenmann@auckland.ac.nz) for further information.
New Publications
Jamie Howarth, Alan Orpin, Yoshihiro Kaneko, Lorna Strachan, Scott Nodder, Joshu Mountjoy, Philip Barnes, Helen Bostock, Caroline Holden, Katie Jones, and M. Namik Çağatay (in press) Calibrating the marine turbidite paleoseismometer using the 2016 Kaikōura earthquake. Nature Geoscience.
S.E. Grasby, D.P.G. Bond, P.B. Wignall, R. Yin, L. Strachan, S. Takahashi (in press) Transient Permian-Triassic euxinia in the southern Panthalassa deep ocean. Geology.
Nardini, A., & Brierley, G. (2021). Automatic river planform identification by a logical-heuristic algorithm. Geomorphology, 375, 107558. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.geomorph.2020.107558
Fryirs, K., Hancock, F., Healey, M., Mould, S., Dobbs, L., Riches, M., … & Brierley, G. (2021). Things we can do now that we could not do before: Developing and using a cross-scalar, state-wide database to support geomorphologically-informed river management. PloS one, 16(1), e0244719. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0244719
Kurniadi, A., Weller, E., Min, S.-K., and Seong, M.-G. (2021). Independent ENSO and IOD impacts on rainfall extremes over Indonesia. International Journal of Climatology, doi.org/10.1002/joc.7040.
Wheaton, B., Waiti, J. T. A., Olive, R., & Kearns, R. (2021). Coastal Communities, Leisure and Wellbeing: Advancing a Trans-Disciplinary Agenda for Understanding Ocean-Human Relationships in Aotearoa New Zealand. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, 18(2), 450. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph18020450
Yasuhara M, Huang H-HM, Hull P, Rillo MC, Condamine FL, Tittensor DP, Kučera M, Costello MJ, Finnegan S, O’Dea A, Hong Y, Bonebrake TCC, McKenzie NR, Doi H, Wei C-L, Kubota Y, and Saupe EE. 2020. Time machine biology: cross-timescale integration of ecology, evolution, and oceanography. Oceanography 33 (2), https://doi.org/10.5670/oceanog.2020.xxx
Pamungkas J, Glasby CJ, Costello MJ. 2021. Biogeography of polychaete worms (Annelida) of the world. Marine Ecology Progress Series 657, 147-159. https://doi.org/10.3354/meps13531
Lin, H-Y, Corkrey R, Kaschner K, Garilao C, Costello MJ. 2020. Latitudinal diversity gradients for five taxonomic levels of marine fish in depth zones. Ecological Research https://doi.org/10.1111/1440-1703.12193
ENV IT Committee Updates
Software for teaching in 2021 – please reply ASAP
This is only for software needed for teaching (labs. and FlexIT).
Last September, IT asked us to send software requests for 2021. If you need anything beyond what you have requested back then, please contact me ASAP (say, Wed., 20 Jan., COB). I will compile a list via the IT Committee, hoping IT can accommodate late requests.
Please provide as much information as possible from the list below:
| Requester Name |
| Requester Username |
| Faculty |
| Software Vendor |
| Software Name |
| Software Version |
| Course Name |
| Lab Location(s) |
| Teaching Week Required |
| Comments\Customisations\Modules etc |
| Tester Installation |
| Source Files Location |
| *FlexIT? |
| License Owned |
*Please be ready for another lockdown…
Even if it is the same software as last year, IT need to know – software will not be carried over from last year. IT needs more time than in previous years to make sure software works off FlexIT.
Thank you, Ingo
More Information
Need to store and share research data? Request Research storage or UoA Dropbox for research
Queries about virtual machines? Virtual machine consult or Nectar Research Cloud?
ResearchHub: connects people, resources, and services -research-hub.auckland.ac.nz
Remote working issues: Please refer to the remote working page. If you do not find the answers to your questions, please log a call on the IT Portal for any IT-related issues or contact the Staff Service Centre for other queries.
Two-factor authentication: Authy
https://www.auckland.ac.nz/en/about-us/about-the-university/identity-and-access-management/two-factor-authentication/download-authy-for-desktops.html
YubiKeys work but of course require a USB port.
VPN: Instructions on how to install
VPN, Linux: FortiClient is running fine on Linux. Check the VPN link listed above.
VPN, Mac desktops: (information from April, may be outdated). Students may need IT to make their machines mobile and install FortiClient directly from the website. They will also need to set-up two-factor authentication by downloading an app like “Authy” on their phones and then setting up their University of Auckland account. I suggest people do this part before IT gets to them to make the process faster. To do that, they can use the instructions on this page:
To get a mobile account set up, log a service request or go to one of the service kiosks. It is unclear how this is being done remotely but I am sure this can be done. Please let me Ingo (i.pecher@auckland.ac.nz) know if you have managed to install FortiClient on their macs remotely.
FlexIT and Remote Access
FlexIT is straight-forward for remote access to computing power and programs. Alternatively, check if your project/group or so has a virtual machine. Remote desktop access to specific machines can be set up by IT but may note be reliable. Check the Staff Service Center https://uoaprod.service-now.com/sp.
Remote access is possible to some workstations in the geocomputational lab for research, and on a needs basis. This may be a viable solution for specialized data analysis. Please look into alternatives: It is unclear however, if/how on-site desktops can be maintained, if needed..
FlexIT access and requests: Use the FlexIT form in the IT Portal to request access as a staff member, to ask for an application be added, or to report any issues or faults.
FlexIT, Linux: Please check FlexIT link: https://www.auckland.ac.nz/en/students/my-tools/flex-it.html. It does not have any information on Linux but should be useful for “translation”.
Depending on your browser (in particular, Firefox), you also need to do the following, from https://communities.vmware.com/thread/595554.
“…tested with the Horizon 4.8.x and 4.10.x clients and Firefox v64.0. Both are 64bit versions, running on Ubuntu 18.04.1
- Download the client from the VMWare Horizon Client for 64-bit Linux
- In Firefox, open about:config and click through the warning.
- Add a new boolean entry called network.protocol-handler.expose.vmware-view and set the value to false
- Create a file called `test.html` somewhere on your computer and put the following in it: test
- Open the file in Firefox and click on the link, which should prompt you for a path to open the link.
- Select /usr/bin/vmware-view and it should work for future uses! “
(1) was provided by UoA but I think it works with generic software from VMWare as well.
Check with Ingo (i.pecher@auckland.ac.nz) if you run into problems.
Software licenses: Software vendors have relaxed their licensing to allow students to install software at home, rather than relying on Flex IT. There is a running list here https://www.auckland.ac.nz/en/students/my-tools/flex-it/install-software.html
Please email content to Martin for next edition of P-cubed by Friday 5th of March 2021
Is this a Science competition?