Top researcher wins at entrepreneur awards
Fri Jul 01 2016 12:00:00 GMT+1200 (New Zealand Standard Time)
Top researcher wins at entrepreneur awards
01 July 2016
Associate Professor Cather Simpson
The University of Auckland’s Associate Professor Cather Simpson has won the Baldwins Researcher Entrepreneur Award at this year’s Kiwinet Research Commercialisation Awards.
Associate Professor Simpson is a physicist and chemist and the founder of the Photon Factory, a state-of-the-art pulsed laser research and teaching laboratory based at the University.
She holds a wide range of science appointments across New Zealand research organisations including the MacDiarmid Institute and the Dodd Walls Centre for Photonic and Quantum Technologies.
Dean of Science at the University of Auckland, Professor John Hosking, congratulated Associate Professor Simpson on her award.
“The University is very proud of the outstanding work being produced by our researchers and Cather’s win is much deserved,” he said. “My very warmest congratulations to her and her team for this wonderful achievement.”
Associate Professor Simpson’s work was also recognised internationally this month when the start-up company she founded, Engender Technologies, won its category at the World Cup Challenge held in Silicon Valley.
Engender, which uses a highly innovative method to screen sperm for dairy herds by using lasers for sex selection, was the only New Zealand company in any category at the US awards.
Associate Professor Simpson is a passionate believer in making science accessible to people of all ages and from all walks of life.
A past recipient of a teaching excellence award, she is a founder of the University of Auckland’s Science Scholars programme which brings together New Zealand’s best young science scholars to foster creativity, innovation and achievement. The programme is based on similar programmes at leading universities overseas.
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