Issue 56 – Monday 24th May 2021
Contents
HeadSup
Two documents will increasingly loom large for us all in the School over the coming months: Taumata Teitei (the University’s Strategic Plan); and our own School Review document. The first is now published after various deliberations that occurred last year. It contains new imperatives for us all to consider and take forward. The second is still being crafted, largely thanks to the herculean efforts of JR, despite her having vacated the Head of School office for the rest of 2021. Elements of both documents will be raised for discussion at our School Retreat day on 10th June.
One word that’s increasingly pervasive in such documents as we look forward as a community of scholarship is transdisciplinarity. What does it really mean? That reputable source, Wikipedia, is a quick and easy starting point: “ a research strategy that crosses many disciplinary boundaries to create a holistic approach”. This suggests both opportunities and tensions, always a good combination for widening our world view.
In one sense as a School we have always been provisionally transdisciplinary; in other ways, in the words of that old Carpenters song, ‘we’ve only just begun’. It strikes me, however, that if we follow the call of Wikipedia (2021), one can’t cross a disciplinary boundary without having a disciplinary identity or legacy. So, its not a case of being thrown into the blender, getting ‘switched on’, and coming out as environment soup. Rather the image I see is sitting around a table in a process of deliberative discovery: the sorts of horizon-widening conversations well-familiar to some who have spent time within the walls of the Ontology Lab. No doubt, we’ll all have varying comfort levels for such processes. But kanohi ki te kanohi is surely the key. The Lone Ranger is not a role-model for transdisciplinarity! And it takes time.
My most memorable experience of this process was an outgrowth of an MBIE-funded programme in which eight of us met over the course of three years at either university campuses or NIWA offices. We slowly talked our way into a collective view of what resilience might look like in new housing developments. Among this ‘group of 8’ was a mātauranga Māori expert, a water scientist, an air quality expert, a psychologist and me a geographer. The resulting paper in Frontiers in Sustainable Cities may not change the world, but it certainly changed our way of seeing cities and sustainability. And on the far side of that process, I am no less a geographer, nor no less inclined to publish in front-and-centre geography journals. In other words, the transdisciplinarity quest is, for me, a non-binary pursuit: its both/and, not either or. And, in my view, much of what we already do in the School is more transdisciplinary that some corners of this campus. To that extent, the Review may well offer endorsement as well as encouragement of the potential leadership we offer in this quest.
The ‘Blue Skies’ research supported by the Marsden Fund is one such platform of support for this work. Its therefore been a pleasure to hear that three colleagues in our school have been invited to prepare full applications: a big well done to Nick Lewis, James Muirhead, and Tara Coleman (who is joining us in a fuller capacity from this week). Others may be associated with bids as AIs (please let me know). I for one will be busy with what time HoS-ship allows developing an application led by a Waikato colleague researching coastal leisure practices. Congrats too to Larry Murphy who is part of an Endeavour bid led by colleagues at CAI. Commiserations to all those who were not successful with EoIs. Receiving ‘thanks but no thanks’ letters is always hard. Do consider reworking and resubmitting next year!.
Transdisciplinary potential is always enriched by the ebb and flow within a scholarly community. We therefore begin a series of welcomes (before some wistful farewells) this Wednesday 26th at the 1030 am morning tea. Please come along to the 6th Floor Shared Common Room to welcome Carolyn Lundquist, Anthony Gampbell and Tara Coleman.
We have a rich mix in this School. Let’s stir things up and consider new possibilities but not forget the scholarly whakapapa that leads us each to this space and time.
Robin Kearns.
Whakawhanaugatanga – Communities
Flu Vaccination for Staff
All staff with a permanent or fixed term employment agreement are eligible for a vaccination, to be paid for by the University. For more information, click here.
Welcome to Carolyn Lundquist – Morning Tea, Wednesday 26th May
Come to meet Carolyn Lundquist on Wednesday, 26th May, a new member of our school who is part of our Joint Graduate School in Coastal and Marine Science with NIWA. Carolyn is a research scientist at NIWA and has a 0.2 FTE co-appointment to the university. She joined the faculty in 2012 and, until recently, was based in the Institute of Marine Science. Carolyn moved to New Zealand in 2000 after obtaining a PhD in Ecology at the University of California, Davis and the Bodega Marine Laboratory.
Carolyn is an applied marine ecologist, whose work provides scientific and social-scientific input to inform decision-making for coastal and ocean management at local, national, regional and international scales. Some recent projects include: spatial management of fishery impacts on deep sea corals in the South Pacific, ecology and management of mangroves and other coastal wetland ‘blue carbon’ habitats and impacts of climate change on the seafood sector. She is part of the science leadership team in the Sustainable Seas National Science Challenge and leads the development of marine spatial planning tools for improving management of cumulative impacts in New Zealand’s marine ecosystems. She is also involved in the Nature Futures Framework, a new global biodiversity scenarios framework for IPBES (the biodiversity equivalent of IPCC), where she cochairs the IPBES task force on scenarios and models of biodiversity and ecosystem services.
Tech Update
The Technical team is accepting expressions of interest from academics and professional staff to run tours of the facilities, please follow the link and let them know what spaces are you interested in seeing. https://auckland.au1.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_bPdgSa2sz6Qq7z0
Some disruption to the normal approvals of Field Activity Plans is about to start, please send your plans well in advance.
3MT Workshop from Te Tumu Herenga | Libraries and Learning Services
Hey ENV postgrads, do you want to participate in the 2021 Three Minute Thesis competition, but need some support getting your presentation on point? We are running a 3MT workshop for you! We realized that our standard workshops we are doing for the School of Graduate studies are too close to the Science Faculty heats, so we are offering an extra one just for Science.
Keep an eye out on the Faculty communications, for the date and time (first week of June) or contact Donna MacColl at donna.maccoll@auckland.ac.nz and she’ll make sure you get sent the registration link.
Bring your idea and we’ll help you refine your structure, style, content and delivery. There will also be time to workshop your 3MT presentation in a friendly and supportive atmosphere.
Still in the early stages? Check out the resources at Preparing your presentation.
RTEA Quiz Night Recap
After a brief pandemic related hiatus, the School of Environment Pub Quiz made it’s triumphant return on Wednesday the 19th of May, hosted by the RTEA at new Shadows. A great turnout meant the teams were packed in like sardines, and the questions were hotly contested. In the end, the quiz was won by a group of Human Geographers – the team “A Time and a Place” (see picture attached), consisting of Jack Barrett, Nick Webber, Emily Stevens, Laura Bates, Ingrid Petersen & Angus Dowell. They were followed by Geologists “Daddy and his Henchman” and Environmental Scientists “The Hardest Question” . These teams won Prezi Vouchers worth $100, $50, and $30 respectively. A great time was had by all, and the event seemed to be a great success.
In terms of the JR Shield, Environmental Science actually won the night, with an average of 38.25 points per team! Geography came in 2nd with 37.63, followed by Geology with 31.5. GIS brought up the rear with 35.5.
Thanks to those able to come, keep tuned for the next quiz!
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Integrated Ocean Discovery Program News
Call for scientists to sail: Integrated Ocean Discovery Program (IODP) Expedition 390 & 393, South Atlantic Transects 1 (7 April to 7 June 2022) and 2 (7 June to 7 August 2022) – Deadline 31 May 2021
For further information, see: http://iodp.tamu.edu/scienceops/expeditions/south_atlantic_transect.html
New Zealand participants need to apply via the Australian and New Zealand IODP Consortium (ANZIC). Please contact Lorna Strachan (l.strachan@auckland.ac.nz) or Ingo Pecher (i.pecher@auckland.ac.nz) for more information.
Seminar & Events
Coastal Group Meeting/Seminar
The next Coastal Group meeting/seminar will be held on Monday May 24th at 12:00 to 1:00 pm in the Coastal Lab (302-460).
News will be shared and we will hear from Meghna Sengupta sharing some results from her recent PhD research exploring shoreline changes on coral reef islands.
All welcome to attend – please email Megan Tuck at megan.tuck@auckland.ac.nz if you wish to attend and don’t have the calendar invite already.
“TWO GEO-PHOTOGRAPHERS: Joseph Divis and Lloyd Homer”- an illustrated talk by Simon Nathan
Date: 25th May 2021
Time: Arrive 5:30pm for networking, Tapas, finger food and light refreshments. Talk starts 6:00pm.
Venue: Astor Tapas Bar and Eatery, Shop 6/145 Quay Street, Shed 23 Princes Wharf, (before you reach the Hilton on harbour bridge side), Auckland CBD, Walking distance from ferry or Britomart
RSVP: For catering purposes, RSVP your intention to attend by email to ktstanaway@xtra.co.nz and OR vhbull@tenements.co.nz
H&S: Out of consideration for others, please do not attend if you are unwell.
Dinner 7pm at your own cost at the restaurant
Joseph Divis and Lloyd Homer both photographed aspects of New Zealand’s landscape and mining history. Divis was a working miner from 1909-39. Photography was his hobby, and he recorded life in mining towns where he lived, particularly Waiuta and Waihi. Homer worked for the NZ Geological Survey in the late 20th century, specializing in aerial photography before the days of drones and satellites. The work of these two photographers is now a valuable heritage resource, recording both the natural environment and the nature of past mining.
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Simon Nathan has produced books illustrating the work of both photographers. He will have copies of the book about Lloyd Homer for sale on the night ($30 cash per book).
Master Student Research Seminars
We will run a seminar series show-casing Masters thesis research on 9 June 20201 (9am to 3 pm Rm 303-130; lunch for presenting students & supervisors at noon in 4th floor tea room). The sessions 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.
Draft schedule:
Earth-Geology (Martin Brook chair) 9-11 am
Env Science (Luitgard chair) 11 am – 12 noon
Env Science & Management, Geog (Kevin Simon chair) 1-3 pm
School of Environment 2021 Staff Retreat Day
Dear Staff,
The Staff Retreat Day will be held on Thursday 10 June at Old Government House from 8:30am – 4:00pm, followed by drinks & nibbles. Morning tea and lunch will be provided as well. All staff are welcome to join. Please RSVP here by Wednesday 2 June for catering purpose.
Below is the tentative agenda.
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Faculty of Science MBIE Endeavour Fund research ideas and collaboration hui
Are you thinking of applying to the MBIE Endeavour Fund? Come along to discuss your research idea and collaborate with others in the faculty. Hear from others who have applied for or received MBIE funding. Find out what resources and support are available to help you with your research idea and funding application.
When: Thursday 17 June, 1:30pm to 3pm
Where: 303-G14
Register here, or email Kathryn Howard
Learning and Teaching Symposium – reimagined.
“Designing for learning – the new University of Auckland approach to Learning and Teaching”
Time : 9.00 am – 12.00 pm
Location : Building 109, Room LibB15
Date : 7th July , 2021
The Symposium will feature a Strategy Panel on Education, featuring Vice-Chancellor Dawn Freshwater.
Register for the event here
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Introductory R Workshop 2021
An introductory R Workshop is being run on Thursday 15th and Friday 16th of July. This will be led by Daniel Barnett, from the Statistical Consulting Centre, in the Department of Statistics.
As per our previous introductory R workshops, the cost is $300 for UoA students and staff.
You can pay using your PRESS account, research grant, or other UoA account.
You can also opt to use a debit/credit card (however we will have to also add GST for this type of payment and payment can only be made at the Student Resource Centre on main campus).
The payment authorization form for UoA participants paying from a UoA account is available here .
The cost for non-UoA attendees is $500 + GST. Please contact me for directions to the Student Resource Centre.
We will be sending out a pre-workshop information email the week prior to the course, however here are some of the details:
Location
We will be in room 302.190. Building 302 is on the corner of Symonds St and Wellesley St. The room we will be using is on level 1, room 190.
Time and schedule
The approximate schedule for both days is attached (since this is the schedule from our previous course, it may yet be altered very slightly).
We will start at 9am and finish at 5pm.
Morning and afternoon tea will be provided and there are cafes handy nearby for lunch.
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Computers
We will be using a Faculty of Science computer lab.
You are also welcome to use your own laptop, however please make sure that you have downloaded R and RStudio onto your machine before the workshop (they are free to download).
We will also include some instructions re how to do this in our pre-workshop information email.
Access to computers and internet
We will arrange access to the lab computers for all non-UoA participants.
We will also have a guest wireless password for non-UoA participants who are bringing their own laptops.
UoA staff and students will be able to access the FoS computers using their normal UoA upi and password.
I hope you can make it on the 15th and 16th July, and we look forward to seeing you there.
Uni Services Commercialization workshops
The next UniServices Commercialisation workshops are coming up soon:
– General: 18 June
– Cleantech: 30 September
Please register on this page if you would like to attend.
The workshop will provide you with an opportunity to identify potential commercial value in your research and insight into how UniServices and the University of Auckland Inventors’ Fund can support this development.
At the workshop we use the Lean Canvas methodology to develop an actionable and focused business plan. This can be used to inform a development roadmap, and customer validation and intellectual property strategies going forward. A PDF of the Lean Canvas can be found here.
The sessions are also used to help you improve how you communicate your idea and its potential.
Health, Safety and Wellbeing Committee
On behalf of the Health, Safety and Wellbeing Committee we would like to start an initiative to bring us closer to identifying and understanding the safety and wellbeing issues concerning staff and PG students from the School of Environment.
As a part of this initiative we will distribute ‘wellbeing suggestion/information boxes’ around the breakout spaces in the school. Then, once a month we will ask a question related to an issue affecting people’s wellbeing which anyone will be able to answer by dropping an anonymous message into a box. The boxes could also be used to express any other concerns not related to the monthly discussion topic. We hope that these Wellbeing boxes will encourage the employees and the students to submit their concerns related to the questions appearing in the P-cubed. These questions will be also printed and stuck to the Wellbeing boxes. Our boxes are marked with the attached graphic so should be easy to spot.
We hope this will give us a clearer indication of areas of concern among staff and students and a platform to take action if required.
Question of the month:
First question is concerned with a crucial aspect of people’s wellbeing. You can either indicate the existence of a situation or describe this situation in a bit more detail.
Have you been exposed to or heard of others being exposed to any type of harassment within the School of Environment?
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Wahapū
A new support system for doctoral candidates
Wahapū is a comprehensive digital system for managing doctoral candidature. It will be used by doctoral candidates, supervisors, academic heads and all other parties involved in managing doctoral processes. Wahapū is currently being rolled out to an initial cohort of candidates and supervisors. All candidates under the 2011 or 2016 PhD Statutes are eligible for access and PhD students are encouraged to transfer to the 2020 PhD statue and go digital! Please note that there is a backlog waiting migration. Students expecting to go through the provisional year process in the next three months should stay on their existing 2016 statute until after confirmation to ensure they can use the existing process. For more information see : https://www.auckland.ac.nz/en/students/academic-information/postgraduate-students/information-for-new-doctoral-candidates/Wahapu.html
Rangahau – Research
PhD Outputs Award
Purpose: To support our recently completed PhD students to increase the impact of their PhD research by allocating financial support from the Faculty of Science to PhD supervisors to employ PhD students for a period of time after their submission date to work on publications and other research outputs.
Full details are included in the PhD Output Award guidelines and application form available on the Science Staff intranet https://www.sciencestaff.auckland.ac.nz/en/about/research/phd-output-award.html
The closing date is Monday 31st May
Impact Fund
Purpose: We want to provide strategic support to help our researchers in their impact and engagement activities. Research Impact is “The contribution that research and creative practice makes to society, the environment and the economy”.
Full details are included in the Impact Fund guidelines and application available on the Science Staff intranet https://www.sciencestaff.auckland.ac.nz/en/about/research/impact-fund.html
The closing date is Monday 31st May
Early Career Researcher Grant (ECRG)
The Early Career Researcher Grant consists of a $10,000 payment given to persons in the first five years of their postdoctoral research career.
The grant can be spent on travel, accommodation, consumables and care requirements, subject to AINSE discretion. For more information, click here.
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EQC Biennial Grants Programme 2022 – EOI
The Earthquake Commission (EQC) promotes and supports research in disaster risk reduction in New Zealand. Every two years, EQC’s Biennial Grants programme invites experienced and emerging researchers to submit proposals for public good research (available for public use).
Grant Value: $50,000-$70,000 is the preferred range, with a maximum of $100,000
Timeline:
• Applications open 1 June, at which point further information and application guidelines will be available on the EQC website.
• Internal Deadline for EOI submission is 10am, Tuesday 15 June 2021
Submission Process:
Register interest in this funding scheme by emailing submissions@auckland.ac.nz cc RPC/RPM.
Registered participants will be sent the confirmed EQC submission information once this has been released by EQC.
Further details of the funding scheme can be found on the funders website.
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: A maximum of NZ $80,000 (excl. GST) in total is available per proposal for projects lasting up to two years.
Internal Deadline: 5pm Tuesday 6 July 2021.
Submission process: Please contact your RPC for submission details. See the funders website for further information.
Catalyst: Leaders Julius von Haast Fellowship Award
• Supports an internationally recognized researcher from Germany to undertake research in New Zealand for a minimum of 4 weeks per year, providing $50,000 per annum for 3 years.
• The Fellow must be a German national or permanent resident with an international reputation as an innovative researcher. He/she must be currently working within the German research/science sector and have been employed for no less than five years (in total) in public or private German research or academic institutions
Internal Deadline 5pm, Tuesday 6 July 2021.
Submission process: Please contact your RPC for submission details. See the funders website for further information.
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 P-cubed-content for next edition of P-cubed by Friday