Institute for Advanced Study launched

massey-university

Tue Oct 02 2007 13:00:00 GMT+1300 (New Zealand Daylight Time)

Institute for Advanced Study launched

Tuesday, 2 October 2007, 4:11 pm
Press Release: Massey University

Tuesday, October 2, 2007

Massey University has created a New Zealand Institute for Advanced Study, allowing elite scientists to pursue fundamental scholarship with the aim of driving New Zealand forward and potentially earning New Zealand’s first Nobel Prize.

Governing Board chairman Professor Grant Guilford says the NZIAS will be unlike any other academic institution in New Zealand.

“Most developed nations have such an institute, characterised by interdisciplinary clusters of elite scholars with the ambition and capability to lead mankind’s cultivation and generation of knowledge. For many hundreds of years science has been organised within disciplines – for example ecologists working with ecologists or biologists collaborating with biologists. In the institutes for advanced study we break this traditional mould and bring together the top people from disparate fields to see what breakthroughs can arise – it’s a case of let’s put them together and see what happens.

“As well as enjoying the supportive and creative environment offered by the NZIAS to support their research, each will be able to mentor and develop the next generation of scholars so that New Zealand is best able to advance at a scientific and economic level.”

Professor Guilford, head of Massey’s Institute of Veterinary Animal and Biomedical Sciences, says the university’s history of foreseeing the challenges ahead enabled it to develop programmes recognised as critical to the economy, including agriculture, food and applied biological sciences; veterinary studies; engineering and technology, and finance. “This culture of innovation makes Massey the natural home for a progressive organisation such as the NZIAS. Developing a world-leading science capability is consistent with Massey’s leadership of learning in New Zealand.”

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Professor Guilford says that the NZIAS will secure international prestige for New Zealand as a whole, as well as enhancing the university’s drive for focused excellence.

“Each of the four professoriate is a world-leader in his field. This interdisciplinary grouping of pre-eminent scholars provides huge opportunity, both for them to pursue their research and for graduate students and post-doctoral fellows to aspire to study with the professoriate. We also anticipate that we will develop a schedule of visiting researchers, seminars and symposia to ensure that the influence of the NZIAS is promulgated throughout academia. It is certainly within the realms of possibility that the NZIAS could be the means by which New Zealand secures its first Nobel prize for work done here.”

The inaugural professoriate and their research teams are all working from the University’s Auckland campus. Associate and visiting academics will be selected to support the professoriate

The New Zealand Institute for Advanced Study will be officially launched by Minister for Research, Science and Technology Steve Maharey tomorrow (3 October) at 2pm.

The NZIAS Professoriate

Distinguished Professor David Lambert FRSNZ

Research Interests: Molecular Biology and Evolution.

Professor Lambert’s research is focused on aspects of evolutionary theory and evolutionary genetics, particularly in relation to species theory, the nature of Darwinian biology and ancient DNA.

“Our research has pioneered approaches to the estimation of evolutionary rates, as measured by changes in ancient DNA over time, and has made a special study of Adélie penguins from the Antarctic, representing one of the best sources of ancient DNA yet discovered, as well as ancient DNA from extinct moa,” Professor Lambert says.

Other research has enabled the reconstruction of the phylogenetic relationships among moa species testing the use of DNA barcoding to determine its efficacy to the identification of species of ancient life.

Distinguished Professor Gaven Martin FRSNZ

Research Interests: Mathematics

Non-linear analysis, elliptic partial differential equations and Beltrami systems are of particular interest to Professor Martin, as is geometric function theory, particularly as it interacts with conformal geometry, quasiconformal mappings and their generalisations. Professor Martin is also working on applications in non-linear elasticity and materials science, low dimensional topology and geometry, particularly hyperbolic geometry, discrete groups and their associated universal constants, such as minimal co-volume, and relations between arithmetic and geometry.

Professor Victor Flambaum FAA
Research interests: Physics

Challenging problems in atomic, nuclear, elementary particle, solid state physics and astrophysics are of interest to Professor Flambaum, in particular violation of the fundamental symmetries (parity, time invariance), test of the theories of Grand Unification of elementary particles and their interactions and the search for spatial and temporal variation of the fundamental constants in the Universe from the Big Bang to the present time. Professor Flambaum is also interested in many-body theory and high-precision atomic calculations, quantum chaos and statistical theory, high-temperature superconductivity and conductance quantisation.

Professor Paul Rainey
Research Interests: Ecology and Evolution

Evolutionary processes particularly, but not exclusively, evolution by natural selection are of interest to Professor Rainey. The research is both theoretical and empirical and makes use of microbial populations in order to observe and dissect evolution in real time. A growing focus is the evolutionary origins of multicellularity. Other interests include the ecological significance of diversity in natural microbial populations; evolutionary processes determining patterns of diversity in space and time; and the genetics and fitness consequences of traits that enhance ecological performance in populations of plant-colonising bacteria.

Professor Peter Schwerdtfeger FRSNZ
Research Interests: Theoretical Chemistry

Professor Schwerdtfeger addresses aspects of quantum chemistry and physics focused toward fundamental issues. Current research areas include parity-violation in chiral molecules, relativistic effects, the chemistry of heavy and superheavy elements, simulation of metallic clusters, quantum-electrodynamic effects in atoms and molecules, solid state chemistry and physics including high-pressure materials, surface science, chemical evolution theory and the mathematical and philosophical aspects of quantum theory.

Professor Victor Flambaum is scheduled to relocate from the University of New South Wales to NZIAS in 2009, with provision made for a further five professors to be selected.

NZIAS Scientific Board

Professor Rodney Bartlett
Graduate Research Professor: University of Florida
Schrödinger Medal
Guggenheim Fellow

Professor Lennart Carleson
Royal Institute of Technology, Sweden
Leroy Steel Prize - American Mathematical Society
Wolf Prize
Lomonosov Gold Medal - Russian Academy of Sciences
Sylvester Medal - Royal Society, London Abel Prize 2006

Professor Vaughan Jones DCNZM DSc FRS FRSNZ
University of California, Berkeley
Fields Medal
Onsager Medal
Inaugural Rutherford Medal

Professor Helmut Schwarz
Director of the Humboldt Foundation
Lise Meitner-Alexander von Humboldt-Award, Israel Ministry of Sciences
van't Hoff Award, Royal Academy of Sciences, Amsterdam
Otto Bayer Award for Chemistry
Thomson Medal

ENDS

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