Issue 140 – Tuesday 4 March 2025
Contents
HeadsUp
There’s pedestrian traffic down Symonds St, so it must be Week 1!
Wishing everyone a good start to the semester.
And in the spirit of wishing: may your lecture theatres, labs and tutorials be filled with actual students, and your assignment in-boxes with considered, well-referenced responses.
Tom (Acting HoS)
Announcements
HONO – is live now!
- Please click here for the latest information and updates
- Log in to Hono using your University username and password
- The quick video guides is also available to assist you in getting help faster or click on the Hono online help
- First pay run in Hono: Wednesday 5 March 2025
- Contact Michael Groom if you get stuck with anything
PhD Advisor Change
After 4(!) years Jennifer Eccles passes the PhD Advisor baton onto Luitgard Schwendenmann (l.schwendenmann@auckland.ac.nz) and Martin Brook (m.brook@auckland.ac.nz) as she jets off to Europe of R&SL.
Luitgard will primarily be managing active student facing activities – confirmations, signing off on annual continuation reviews, being the HoD referee on University of Auckland Doctoral Scholarship Extensions applications, and any changes to enrolment (extensions, suspensions, full time/part time, change of supervisors, thesis title etc). Hence if there are any issues Luitgard will be the first point of call beyond your supervision team and it is better to broach any issues sooner rather than later so she will have the opportunity to help early.
Martin will primarily be handling admissions and interfacing with the centralised examination process as needed.
Please note that unfortunately the examinations office have a backlog at the moment and we are managing comms to them so they are working on moving these along rather than just replying to hundreds of emails querying progress. Please flag with Martin if the process is taking longer than:
- 4 weeks for the thesis to be sent out to examiners
- Thesis with examiners > 12 weeks
- > 4 weeks once examination report returned for decision to be made (this can be much shorter but it varies)
- > 4 weeks for the oral examination to be scheduled once this decision has been made.
Generally useful documents in the Doctoral space are now hosted on Teams through ENV Group – Files under the path Documents – General – Postgraduate – Doctoral”
LINZ Geographic Information Science (GIS) Scholarships award to 2 undergrad students
We’re pleased to congratulate the recipients of this year’s Toitū Te Whenua Land Information New Zealand Geographic Information Science (GIS) Scholarships. Ka rawe! 🙌📢🎓The scholarships support recipients with their tertiary study fees. We’re proud to be helping develop the next generation of GIS specialists. Congratulations to:
- Anna Connell – Bachelor of Science (Geography and Environmental Science) at the University of Auckland
- Joel Plummer – Bachelor of Science (Geography) at the University of Auckland
CAPEX 2025
Proposals for CAPEX purchases in the upcoming round are now being solicited. Please fill out the following form by 31 March. https://auckland.au1.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_4Og4JcE5R8VQlPo
Please provide realistic cost and use estimates and only list people who have been consulted and who support the application. We’ll be arranging to have a member of the CAPEX committee to have a quick chat with applicants so the committee fully understands the proposal. If you have questions contact Kevin (k.simon@auckland.ac.nz).
Media contributions by Thomas Dowling
A paper to which Thomas Dowling and Te Kahuratai Moko-Painting contributed on orbital conservation, ended up in top 5% of media attention on all papers worldwide. Newsroom took a version of it here in the NZ media that Thomas wrote along with the UoA media team.
- A sustainable development goal for space: Applying lessons from marine debris to manage space debris: 1016/j.oneear.2024.12.004
Opinion: The number of satellites and other objects sent into Earth’s orbit is increasing like never before. Before space ends up awash with debris like the ocean, scientists are calling for global agreements to protect orbital space. The United States and China are in a space race, sending thousands of satellites into orbit every year.
Defence Science and Technology published a short story on the search and rescue with synthetic aperture radar work which Thomas is leading.
Research to help NZ search and rescue efforts
24 February 2025 | OUR SCIENCE. DST’s Sensing and Intelligence Programme is collaborating with the University of Auckland (UoA) to understand whether low cost, low tech, passive RADAR reflectors can improve the probability of detection of small marine craft in distress, by space-based Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) systems. This research is being done under a programme called SAR4SAR …
Outreach
Social media : We’d like to expand the School of Environment’s social media reach to other platforms beyond Facebook, but we need some foundation content to guarantee at least one post a month (ideally one a week!). Therefore, we need your content to celebrate and elevate your research and community activities. Please send the following to Kenzi Yee kenzi.yee@auckland.ac.nz (and cc: el.sharp@auckland.ac.nz) who is collating posts.
- Blurb of about ~30 words
- A representative image
- Ideally, a link to a website/ Conversation article/ RNZ / Newsroom/ TVNZ/ The Spinoff, but not necessary.
Ngā mihi mahana, Emma
Health Safety & Wellbeing
Autumn can bring a number of health issues, including respiratory infections, allergies, and mood swings.
- Respiratory infections
- Flu: A highly contagious virus that can be reduced with a flu shot
- Common cold: Cooler temperatures and indoor gatherings can lead to more colds
- Bronchitis and pneumonia: These can become more prevalent as the weather cools
- Ear infections: More prevalent during the autumn and winter seasons
- Allergies
- Fall allergies: Can cause sneezing, congestion, and itchy eyes
- Asthma exacerbations: Fall allergies can worsen asthma symptoms
- Mood swings
- Some people may experience mood swings and irritability during the fall due to hormonal changes and disrupted routines
- Other health issues
- Sinusitis, Strep, Norovirus/Stomach Bugs, Vitamin D Deficiency, and Pink eye
How to stay healthy in autumn
- Wash your hands frequently with soap and water, especially after using public transport, coughing, or sneezing
- Use tissues to catch coughs and sneezes, dispose of them immediately, and then wash your hands
- Stay warm
- Ventilate your space
- Maintain a regular sleep schedule
- Eat a balanced diet
- Engage in relaxation techniques
Funding Calls
Spencer Foundation: Small Research Grants
This fund is intended to support education research projects that will contribute to the improvement of education. This program is “field-initiated” in that proposal submissions are not in response to a specific request for a particular research topic, discipline, design, method, or location. Goal for this program is to support rigorous, intellectually ambitious and technically sound research that is relevant to the most pressing questions and compelling opportunities in education.
- Value: up to USD50,000 (circa NZD85,600
- Duration: up to a maximum duration of 60 months
- Internal Deadline: 12pm, Monday 7th April
- Further Information (funding call, guidelines website).
If you are interested, please also get in touch with your FIRST
RSNZ: Catalyst: Seeding (Round1)
Catalyst seeding fund aims to supports activities that initiate, develop and foster collaborations leveraging international science and innovation for New Zealand’s benefit.
Notable eligibility changes for the 2025 funding opportunities: the Catalyst Fund investment plan (released in December 2024) identifies six priority research areas, which are:
- Quantum technology
- Health and biomedicine
- Biotechnologies
- Artificial Intelligence
- Antarctic research
- Space and Earth observations
*Note that 75% of the awarded Catalyst: Seeding contracts will be expected to be made up of proposals that align with the priority research areas. The remaining 25% of awarded contracts can be in any field of research including social sciences and the humanities.
- Value: Seeding General: up to $80,000 (excl. GST)
- Duration: for up to two years
- Internal Deadline: 12pm, Tuesday 08 April 2025
- Further Information (funding call, guidelines, registration info).
If you are interested, please also get in touch with your FIRST
RSNZ: Catalyst Leaders (Round 1)
This fund aims to supports incoming and outgoing targeted international fellowships for exceptional individuals that cannot be supported through other means. The following funding schemes are open in Round 1
- International Leader Fellowships (up to 3 awards): 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.
- Julius von Haast Fellowship Award (up to 1 award): Supports an internationally recognised researcher from Germany to undertake research in New Zealand for a minimum of 4 weeks per year for 3 years.
- Japan Society for the Promotion of Science (JSPS) Postdoctoral Fellowships (up to 4 awards): Supports excellent New Zealand post-doctoral researchers to do research in Japan for 12-24 months.
- New Zealand – China Scientist Exchange Programme (up to 10 Awards): Supports the development of research linkages with China by enabling New Zealand researchers to visit Chinese research organisations for 2-6 weeks.
- Value:
- International Leader Fellowships: up to $50,000 per annum.
- JSPS Postdoctoral Fellowship: Flights, insurance and living allowance.
- Julius von Haast Fellowship Award: up to $50,000 per annum.
- New Zealand-China Scientist Exchange Programme: Flights, insurance and living allowance.
- Internal Deadline: 12pm, Tuesday 08 April 2025
- Further Information (funding call, guidelines, registration info).
If you are interested, please also get in touch with your FIRST.
Publications | Articles
- Shin, H., Gardner, Z., Solomon, G., & Basiri, A. (2025). Diagnosing Spatial and Temporal Biases of OSM Contributors: Identifying Differences Between Gender and Age from an Online Survey. Annals of the American Association of Geographers, 1–21. https://doi-org/10.1080/24694452.2024.2447507