An expert on the life and works of the writer Nabokov, the inventor of a woven flax cradle that saves babies’ lives, a Māori scholar whose work spans political economy and the environment, and a scientist studying mutant petunias have all won awards in the 2020 Research Honours Aotearoa.
They are among 17 researchers from the sciences and the humanities whose achievements are being recognised by the Royal Society Te Apārangi this year.
Whilst covid-19 put paid to the usual black tie dinner, the first of three tranches of winners were honoured in a small cocktail event at Wellington’s Government House on 5 November.
Clockwise from top left: Brian Boyd, Nick Albert, David Tipene Leach and Maria Bargh have all won awards in the 2020 Research Honours. Photo: Supplied
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Rutherford Medal
Distinguished Professor Brian Boyd, from the University of Auckland, has won the 2020 Rutherford Medal. Photo: University of Auckland
An English scholar described by the New York Times as an ‘academic superstar’ is the first researcher from the humanities to win the prestigious Rutherford Medal.
The Rutherford Medal has traditionally been awarded to scientists but this year, for the first time, the humanities have been eligible for the country’s top research medal.
Royal Society Te Apārangi President Professor Wendy Larner says that Distinguished Professor Brian Boyd, from the University of Auckland, is a fitting winner.
“In addition to being recognised as the world’s leading scholar on author Vladimir Nabokov, Professor Boyd’s other main area of interest is in the intersection of science with the arts and humanities. He has argued convincingly that storytelling and art creation have given humans an evolutionary advantage, and he champions for scientific theories and methods to be applied to the arts.”
“Indeed,” says Professor Larner, “he makes a compelling case for why the humanities are sciences and the sciences are humanities.”
Boyd has worked on a range of writers, from Shakespeare to Seuss, but a constant focus of his research has been the works of writer and butterfly expert Vladimir Nabokov and renowned philosopher of science Karl Popper.
“I especially like to work on people who cross the boundaries of the arts, the humanities and the sciences,” he says.
Te Puāwaitanga Award
Associate Professor Maria Bargh has won the 2020 Te Puāwaitanga Award. Photo: Victoria University of Wellington
The biannual Te Puāwaitanga Award is made in recognition of research that has made an eminent and distinctive contribution to Te Ao Maori and indigenous knowledge.
The 2020 award has gone to Associate Professor Maria Bargh, from Victoria University of Wellington.
The Royal Society Te Apārangi says that Associate Professor Bargh has two interweaving strands of work—political economy and environment—that contribute to self-determination for Māori, build Māori and Indigenous knowledges and practices, and are radically reshaping how Aotearoa New Zealand responds to environmental issues.
She is interested in climate change, biodiversity and renewable energy, both as it affects her own hapu as well as its wider impact on Māori communities.
Tahunui-a-Rangi Award
Professor David Tipene Leach has won the 2020 Tahunui-a-Rangi Award for leading the team that developed wahakura for safe shared sleeping. Photo: Eastern Institute of Technology
The Tahunui-a-Rangi Award is presented every two years to a person or team who has invented a unique, ingenious and significant device or process.
The 2020 Award has gone to Professor David Tipene Leach, a medical doctor and public health researcher at the Eastern Institute of Technology.
Professor Leach led a team applying mātauranga Māori to the issue of sudden unexpected death in infancy (SUDI). Shared sleeping and smoking are significant risk factors in SUDI, which is a much higher risk for Māori babies.
The solution was the development of a wahakura, a woven flax bassinet-like device which offered a safe sleeping space for an infant sharing its parents’ bed.
The wahakura and the accompanying Safe Sleeping programme led to a drop of 30 percent in Māori infant mortality from SUDI.
Hamilton Award
Dr Nick Albert has won the 2020 Hamilton Award for his research into colour in flowers. Photo: Plant & Food Research Ltd
The Hamilton Award is an Early Career Excellence Award for science, and in 2020 it has gone to Dr Nick Albert, from Plant and Food Research.
Dr Albert is a plant geneticist studying plant pigments, and his research has led to a better understanding of how plant cells turn genes on and off to control colour.
Dr Albert’s work began with mutant petunias and is now being applied in the development of fruits that are more colourful and contain higher amounts of health-promoting pigments. It is also helping in the development of fruit breeds that could better tolerate higher growing temperatures.
Pou Aronui Award
Professor Rawinia Higgins has won the Pou Aronui Award for her work in revitalising te reo Māori.
Gender equality
After two years of gender parity, only 30 percent of the winners of Research Honours this year are women, with six Māori recognised.
The number of women receiving Research Honours is on a par with the 2020 Nobel Prizes, which this year recognised a greater proportion of women than is usually the case.
