Issue 32-Monday 11th May 2020
Contents
HeadSup
Kia ora koutou
This time of year is usually marked by the wonderful Autumn graduation events, where families and friends come together to celebrate the success of our students. Toasting new graduates is one of my favourite jobs in the HOS role and I’m very hopeful that the Spring graduation will go ahead. Hearty congratulations to all who were planning on getting capped last week but were foiled by COVID-19. We are proud of you and your achievements!
The recent search for a Lecturer in Environmental Management / Environmental Geography resulted in a short-list of four outstanding applicants. I’m delighted to advise that Emma Sharp has accepted a lectureship and will take up the role in January 2021. In the meantime she will continue in her fixed-term capacity. Those of you who have worked with Emma will know that her appointment bodes well for our future. Congratulations Emma! Given the strategic opportunity afforded by another of the applicants, the Dean approved a second position in lieu of the failed search for a Professor in Environmental Management. An offer is in progress. If declined we will not appoint another candidate at this juncture.
Other staffing news, I’m very pleased to advise that Marie McEntee was successful in her request to change from Senior Tutor to Lecturer. Marie has been increasingly successful in attracting external research funding. This change to her conditions of service will afford opportunity to pursue her research interests. Congratulations Marie, well deserved!
There also is some movement in service and leadership roles. Michael Rowe is on leave in Semester two and is stepping down from his role as Chair of the Post-Graduate Research Committee. This is a major leadership role with a high service burden. During his tenure, Michael has streamlined processes and improved the strategic functionality of this sector of the school. Michael – thank you very much for a job well done. Michael has handed over to Luitgard Schwendenmann who is now in the role – thank you Luitgard! I’m very grateful to Anthony Fowler, who has been a steady hand in the PhD Advisor role. Anthony is stepping down so that he can take his RSL and Larry Murphy has kindly agreed to take up the role, effective Semester 2.
Lastly – thank you Joe! The cool games that have been going on during the lock-down are fantastic and it’s wonderful to see the images and notifications in p-cubed today. My only frustration is that for some reason unknown to me Mr Zuckerberg is refusing to let me re-join facebook! What did I do?
Ngā mihi
JR
Whakawhanaungatanga – communities
Flu vaccination reimbursement for staff
With most staff unable to receive the flu vaccination on campus this year, the University will instead reimburse the cost of obtaining the vaccine from your medical centre or local pharmacist. All permanent staff and all staff with a fixed term employment agreement are eligible for reimbursement.
Flu shots will be reimbursed through concur with the following codes 732 (Staff related Costs) 8606 (Cost centre).
There is a link below with more detail:
We are creating a list of COVID-related research going on the in Faculty with the aim of using this as a basis to set up a cross-faculty activity (form as yet to be decided). Could you please send details of your research project to Caroline Roughneen (c.roughneen@auckland.ac.nz). Note – we have a pretty good idea of new funded projects – but have less awareness of unfunded research, or situations where existing projects have been modified to focus on COVID.
Congratulations!
Master of Engineering Geology student William Mansell has won a scholarship from the Australasian Institute of Mining and Metallurgy (AusIMM) NZ branch for his thesis project at Maramarua coal mine. Congratulations William!
Congratulations!
Sophia Tsang successfully defended her PhD thesis “Modelling the Hazard Footprint and Consequences of Lava Flows in an Urban Environment” on 5 May 2020. The examiners commended Sophia for her impressive thesis and performance in the oral exam. Congratulations Sophia!
Congratulations!
Congratulations to Ben Simons (Supervisors: Shane Cronin, Jen Eccles and Art Jolly (GNS Science)) for successfully defending his PhD thesis, “Drivers of Variation in the Eruptive and Magmatic Processes of a Persistently Active Volcano, Yasur, Vanuatu” on 29 April 2020.
Capping at the Robinson Fowler house
Alex, Anthony’s youngest, would have paraded this year, but instead had to make do with being capped (with Angus & Pooh) by dad. A nice short ceremony, with family dialling in, and very cheap regalia hire this year (raincoat, scarf, and weird hat). Alex’s brother Michael, also a Computer Science major, did feel a bit short changed having set aside the normal three hours.
The ENV Lockdown Street Art Challenge
The School of Environment clubs have had, and continue to have, lots of activities to keep boredom at bay throughout Semester One! Students and Staff welcome to join and compete for the JR shield between disciplines (Geography, Geoscience, Geology, Environment). Be in it to WIN it for your major!
Congratulations to Geography for winning the ENV Lockdown Street Art Challenge! This competition continued throughout the level 4 lockdown and promoted isolated exercise where participants were given an object to map out in their run. Super successful and major fun! Here are some of the awesome tracks people created!
SCHOOL OF ENVIRONMENT QUIZ LINE
The ENV Quiz Line is continuing throughout Semester One! The quiz works like the “What Am I?” section of a pub quiz where a clue is posted each day until the round ends on the 4th day. If any students or staff would like to get involved or would like more information please visit the Facebook page (https://www.facebook.com/groups/543925486258412/). For any further queries please email Gina Swanney (gswa730@aucklanduni.ac.nz).
The ENV Proverb Photo Challenge
The ENV Proverb Photo Challenge is a new competition in where the participant takes a photo (no plagiarism) to illustrate a well known proverb. Proverbs are provided every two days with voting taking place in the afternoon of the second day! If anyone would like to be involved please visit the facebook page (https://www.facebook.com/groups/2305445616430070/). For more information please email Joe Fagan (j.fagan@auckland.ac.nz).
The Great ENV Lockdown Bake Off!
Dust your pans off and get creative! Every a couple of days a theme is set and your goal is to make the best creation! Share the photo/video and recipe to the Facebook group and voting will take place at the end of the 3rd day! If anyone would like to be involved please visit the Facebook page (https://www.facebook.com/groups/228086901863054/). For more information please email Michaela Dobson (mdob102@aucklanduni.ac.nz).
Meetings, seminars and events
Coastal Group Webinar
The next Coastal Group meeting/webinar will be held on Wednesday May 13th at 12:00 to 1:00 pm
News will be shared and short talks include:
- Shoreline changes in coral reef islands of the Federated States of Micronesia since the mid-20th century (Meghna Sengupta)
- On the use of directional wave spectra to identify swells approaching Majuro (Laura Cagigal)
All welcome to attend – please email Emma Ryan at e.ryan@auckland.ac.nz for the Zoom link if you don’t have a calendar invite already.
Volcanology, Geochemistry, & Petrology Research Group
The volcanology, geochemistry, & petrology research group (VGP) meets during the semester. Our final meeting of the semester will be on 26 May 2020 at 9 am on Zoom. Lena will be giving a talk titled “Subsoil alteration and degassing in the Rotokawa Geothermal Field, New Zealand” about her masters! As always, everyone is welcome to attend our meetings. Please contact me (Sophia Tsang: s.tsang@auckland.ac.nz) for the link if you don’t have a calendar invite. If you would like to take over my role in VPG next semester, please reach out! Additionally, if you have any updates (including new students or projects) you would like to see on the website or would like to contribute a blog post, please email David (dfar197@aucklanduni.ac.nz). For more information, please see our website: vgp.blogs.auckland.ac.nz See you soon!
Ako – Teaching and Learning
Pandemic, pedagogy and education: Teaching and learning remotely
Monday 11th May 2-3pm
https://auckland.zoom.us/j/99906458825
The COVID-19 lockdown has posed considerable challenges and opportunities for educators. This zoom is designed showcase pedagogies, innovations and tools to assist and enrich remote learning within the Faculty of Science at the University of Auckland.
We will begin with four short presentations (5-10 minutes) followed by the opportunity for audience participation. Ideally this will spark a collective conversation that is ongoing, the first in an online series with future opportunities for staff to showcase pedagogical insights and innovations.
Title: Using Canvas to facilitate student engagement
Speaker: Kaitlin Beare
Our remote learning reality has posed challenges to engage students in self-directed learning in large courses. I share insights into the successes and challenges in utilising Canvas to develop staff-student and student-student connections.
Title: Let’s fly to Muriwai – a virtual field trip.
Speaker: Nick Richards
Description: Field trips can be constrained because of a complex array of real world situations. A virtual field trip has been developed for a Stage 1 Earth Science course that integrates drone imagery, locality videos and other resources.
Title: Engaging with Oceanic ways during COVID-19
Speaker: Sonia Fonua
Embedding Tongan (and other Pacific) values in university teaching and learning spaces can benefit all students. I will share a model that employs a visual tool to enable explicit discussion and demonstration of values in any teaching and learning space.
Title: Engaging and motivating students via digital platforms for remote learning
Speaker: Rhys Jones
A range of engagement activities were created to engage and motivate students, before level-4 lockdown and were refocused and developed during lockdown. This session will include an overview of the activities developed, particularly the use of Google Sheets for students to answer video embedded quizzes, questions and games. They were also used to elicit ideas from students to help keep everyone engaged. Using student responses to direct and adapt activities and learning opportunities became integral, with the absence of in person teaching/live lectures.
From reactive to proactive: Virtual workshop on remote teaching and learning
ENV AKO Innovation Committee
Wednesday 13 May 2020 – 1-2 pm
Zoom: https://auckland.zoom.us/j/91922810088
The AKO Innovation Committee is inviting everyone to participate in a virtual workshop to identify and discuss key issues that staff and students have been facing in our experience of remote teaching and learning. We are hoping to gain insights from staff about how we can better support their practice. We will use these insights to set the groundwork for a subsequent series of more specific and topical webinars/workshops the committee is planning to organise to assist staff with their preparation for the remainder of the semester 1 and semester 2. The workshop will be recorded.
Rangahau – Research
Research and Funding Opportunities
Faculty of Science – Healthy People Healthy Communities Seed Funding
We invite applications from members of the Faculty of Science for seed funding to support research projects. Funding of up to $2000 per project is available, with a particular focus on supporting collaborations across disciplines, Schools and Departments. Further details are available in the attached application form.
Applications are due by 9am Monday 1 June 2020.
Click here to view the Theme’s recent Health Hui which showcases three previous seed funding awardees highlighting how they uses HPHC Theme seed funding to advance their research.
Spencer Foundation: Research Grants on Education: COVID19 Related
The COVID19 Related Research Grants support education research projects that will contribute to understanding the rapid shifts in education in this time of crisis and change.
There are two primary categories of projects of particular interest for this special grant:
- supporting studies that aim to understand and disrupt the reproduction and deepening of educational inequality caused by the COVID19 crisis
• opportunities to remake or image new forms of equitable education opportunities when there is great disruption and change.
Grant Value: Maximum of £50,000 (approx NZD 75,900); awarded for 1-3 years.
Internal Deadline: June 2, 5pm
Further guidelines are available at the funders website
Royal Society Te Apārangi – Catalyst Fund update
As previously signalled, we received confirmation from MBIE that the April Catalyst: Seeding and Catalyst: Leaders call has been cancelled. We anticipate the next Catalyst Seeding and Catalyst Leaders call for applications to open on 30 July 2020. Funding from the cancelled April call will be made available for the next call. Further details for the July calls will be made available at the time of the call.
- Cancelled: applications for the 2020 New Zealand – Germany Science & Technology Programme (under the April Catalyst: Seeding call)
- Postponed: applications for Julius von Haast Fellowship (under the April Catalyst: Leaders call) will be accepted in the July Call
AINSE Early Career Researcher Grants (ECRG) – applications now open (applications close 31 July 2020).
The Early Career Researcher Grant (ECRG) is offered by AINSE Limited (the Australian Institute of Nuclear Science and Engineering) to suitably-qualified persons holding a postdoctoral position at an AINSE Member Institution and/or Organisation (the University of Auckland is a member institution) and wishing to undertake work in collaboration with ANSTO. Applications will be received up to 11:59pm AEST 31st July 2020.
Website: https://www.ainse.edu.au/ecrg/
ECRG Flyer: https://www.ainse.edu.au/wp-content/uploads/2020/05/ECRG-2020-Flyer.pdf
Facebook post: https://www.facebook.com/AINSEltd/posts/2617565655192629
The AINSE ECRG is a one-time payment offered to scholars who are in the first five years of employment as an Early Career Researcher, with allowances made for career breaks of a reasonable time-frame. The recipient must be listed on an approved proposal to commence work at an ANSTO facility between 1st October 2020 and 31st December 2021.
The award provides a grant of A$10,000 excl. GST that can be spent on travel, accommodation and consumables relating to the recipient’s approved ANSTO proposal, and carer requirements, subject to AINSE discretion. The grant will be delivered to the host institution and placed into the recipient’s research account. Responsibility for establishing taxation liability lies with the grant recipient.
The Terms & Conditions, application form, and an ANSTO Capabilities & Facilities Guide can be
found on the AINSE website: www.ainse.edu.au/ecrg. For enquires and further information, please contact AINSE at ainse@ainse.edu.au | +61 2 9717 3376.
New publications
- Suzanne Bull, Greg H. Browne, Malcolm J. Arnot and Lorna J. Strachan (2020) Influence of mass transport deposit (MTD) surface topography on deep-water deposition: an example from a predominantly fine-grained continental margin, New Zealand. In: Geological Society, London, Special Publications, 500; Subaqueous Mass Movements and their Consequences: Advances in Process Understanding, Monitoring and Hazard Assessments. https://doi.org/10.1144/SP500-2019-192
- Le Heron, E., Le Heron, R., Logie, J., Greenaway, A., Allen, W., Blackett, P., Davies, K., Glavovic, B., and Hikaroa, D. (2020) Participatory Processes as Twenty-First Century Social Knowledge Technology: Metaphors and Narratives at Work. Chapter 11 in Sustaining Seas: Oceanic Space and the Politics of Care; Ed Probyn, E., Johnston, K., and Lee, N. Rowan & Littlefield International, London, New York.
Copy deadline for next edition of P-cubed: Friday 22nd May to Farnaz: f.sheikh@auckland.ac.nz