Rutherford Foundation Trust 2015 Awards

  • Steven Joyce
Science and Innovation

Science and Innovation Minister Steven Joyce today announced the recipients of the 2015 Rutherford Foundation Trust Awards.

The Trust aims to develop the skills of New Zealand’s most promising young researchers by providing them with early career support.

“This year’s recipients are 10 of New Zealand’s most outstanding emerging researchers, working in fields from health to marine ecology,” says Mr Joyce.

“Two international PhD scholarships and eight postdoctoral fellowships have been awarded. The awards will allow researchers to further hone their knowledge and skills, and New Zealand benefits from the high quality of science they are able to produce.”

The fellowships are offered for two years’ postdoctoral research in New Zealand. The 2015 recipients are:

  • Dr Colm Carraher, Plant & Food Research, for research entitled Biosensing Volatile Compounds with Insect Odorant receptors
  • Dr Ashika Chhana, The University of Auckland, for research entitled “Cartilage damage and monosodium urate crystal deposition: understanding the interactions between osteoarthritis and gout
  • Dr Luke Fullard, Massey University, for research entitled Mathematical modelling of dense granular flow phenomena in simple geometries with application to industry, geophysics, and aviation safety
  • Dr Libby Liggins, Massey University, for research entitled Determining the potential for a range shift in a non-native marine ecosystem engineer
  • Dr Brie Sorrenson, University of Auckland, for research entitled The exact role of ß-catenin and type-2 diabetes risk variants in ß-cell function
  • Dr Lucy Stewart, GNS science, for research entitled Microbial Diversity in the Kermadec Arc
  • Dr Shaun Wilkinson, Victoria University of Wellington, for research entitled A bioinformatics approach to assessing diversity and hybridization in coral symbionts
  • The Freemasons Postdoctoral Fellowship enables recipients to undertake a fulltime research programme within New Zealand or in the United Kingdom on topics concerned with aging. This year’s recipient is Marsilea Harrison, Imperial College London, for research entitled Promoting Cartilage Regeneration by the Development of Growth Factor-Loaded Polymerosome Carriers with Analysis by Electrochemistry
  • The International PhD Scholarship (a grant-in-aid) contributes towards PhD study in any area of science, technology, engineering or mathematics at an eligible host research institution. The 2015 scholars are Samuel Hall-McMaster, to be hosted at Oxford University, for research entitled Cognitive skills that enable the pursuit of personally meaningful goals and Lauren Nicol, to be hosted at VU University Amsterdam, for research entitled Short-term acclimation to high-light in Arabidopsis thaliana

The Rutherford Foundation Trust was established by the Royal Society of New Zealand in 2008. It is supported by $1 million in annual government funding along with contributions from the Cambridge Commonwealth, the Cavendish Laboratory, the Freemason Foundation, and Antarctica New Zealand.

For more information on the recipients: http://www.royalsociety.org.nz/programmes/funds/rutherford-foundation/news/