Giving back to the next generation of researchers
David Day is the donor behind the David Day Award which supports postgraduate students in the Centre for Biodiversity and Restoration Ecology.
These days David is ‘semi-retired’ in his native Tasmania, where he loves being five minutes away from the centre of Hobart whilst living in the middle of the bush.
David has always had a great interest in the sciences and conservation but his first degree and subsequent career was in business and management. He still uses those skills as a volunteer to help conservation causes such as Sprout, an organisation that supports small-scale sustainable food producers.
In 2011 David took a took a career break to do something for himself and pursue his passion for the environment by completing a Master’s degree in Conservation Biology at Te Herenga Waka—Victoria University of Wellington.
He found the course aligned perfectly with his interests. A coursework Master’s allowed him to explore a broad variety of subject areas such as earth sciences and climate change.
David says there is no better place in the world to study conservation than New Zealand with its long history of tackling conservation issues.
“There is so much happening in innovative, leading-edge practice.
"My academic experience was outstanding from the way it was taught in seminars, where students could debate ideas with the experts, to the fieldwork and exposure to different projects.”
David says he also appreciated the focus on cross-disciplinary and cross-institutional collaboration to tackle difficult problems.
“I had such a great experience at the University and thought ‘What could I do to show my gratitude for something so good?’
"I was a mature-age student on a career break and unlikely to make any significant research contribution myself, so I started to look at how I could help researchers better achieve the things they wanted to do.”
Knowing that quality fieldwork can be expensive, he wanted to remove barriers for students.
“They may be able to stay in the field for longer or double their sample size which will lead to a more robust result. I create the possibilities and who knows where it might lead?”
The David Day Award has supported a range of projects from the viral infections in bees, invasive hawkweeds, the impact of superphosphate on endangered matagouri plants and the skull features of New Zealand birds.
Johannes Fischer’s research on the endangered kuaka / Whenua Hou diving petrel resulted in a new species being described. Johannes is now a technical adviser in the Department of Conservation’s threatened seabird team.
“I enjoy feeling a part of it although I sometimes have to do some extra reading to understand the details of their research!" says David.