2018

    Spring 2018

  • University of Wellington

    In September, the University Council voted to recommend to the Minister of Education that the legal name of the University be changed to University of Wellington.

  • Dozens of colourful spikey spheres orbiting an outstretch human hand.

    A boost for innovation

    Wellington has a growing reputation as a start-up city, and a new partnership between Victoria University of Wellington’s commercialisation arm, Viclink, and New Zealand financial services company Booster will take this even further.

  • Chancellor Neil Paviour-Smith and Pro-Chancellor Dame Therese Walsh posing in academic dress before the Hunter building

    Leading the way

    Two leaders on the Victoria University of Wellington Council are ensuring the University is primed for future success.

  • Whaakari / White Island, a volcanic rupture in earth's crust, with a plume of toxic smoke escaping from its magmatic, subterranean heart.

    Inside White Island

    The heart of Whakaari / White Island volcano is a boiling, toxic plume that has prevented attempts by researchers to get a glimpse inside—until now.

  • Two white shafts from columns of the Old Government Buildings frame New Zealand Parliament from the foreground, and between them rests Professor Claudia Geiringer.

    Citizen Kun

    What does it take to become a New Zealander? A Victoria University of Wellington academic tested this question with an unusual case and ended up breaking new ground in citizenship law.

  • Solid black human silhouettes explore an intensely blue ice cave.

    MOOCs breaking the mould

    “Quality education for everyone, everywhere”—this is the idea on which the edX online learning platform was founded by Harvard University and MIT in 2012, and it’s the aspiration that is continuing to push Victoria University of Wellington’s own programme of edX massive open online courses (MOOCs), to create a range of unique courses.

  • Stephen Marsland, Professor of Mathematics and Data Science, leaning against the mossy trunk of a tree.

    Conservation by numbers

    New Zealand has amazing birdlife: nocturnal parrots, birds that can’t fly, unique and beguiling birdsong, and varieties that turn up after 50 years of being thought extinct. Unfortunately, many native species require wildlife management programmes and their clever camouflage often makes them hard to monitor.

  • Extraordinarily beautiful and steep sided mountains, covered in a lush virgin forest, surround Professor James Bell's research crew aboard the Southern Winds vessel as they explore the serene waters of the Fiordland Marine Area, Te Moana o Atawhenua.

    Deep-sea dwellers

    We still don’t really know what lives deep in the waters of Fiordland—especially when it comes to the creatures lurking more than 40 metres beneath the surface— but Associate Professor James Bell is on a mission to find out.

  • Fire, fury, and foreign policy

    When Dr Van Jackson started writing his new book on the North Korean crisis, he wasn’t sure whether or not there would be a nuclear war by the time he’d finished it.

  • David Capie speaks at the Strategic Defence Policy Statement launch in the Victoria University Council Chamber

    Solving political puzzles

    How do small- and middle-sized states navigate an increasingly turbulent world? How do they find ways to construct order out of anarchy?

  • Tempted by our vibrancy

    Professor Margaret Hyland loved her 18 months as chief scientist at the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment (MBIE) and was sad to leave. But the opportunity to lead research at New Zealand’s top university for research quality doesn’t arise every day and was too tempting to pass up.

  • Authentic engagement

    Dr Lucy Baragwanath was at the coalface during one of the most complex governance projects in New Zealand in recent years, working in various capacities for groups involved in the amalgamation of Auckland’s local government into a single ‘super city’.

  • Students as cast and crew in a chiefly reddish yellow and green forest producing a film with essential filmmaking equipment, such as a video camera, clapperboard, cables, and highlighter vests.

    Putting creativity to work

    In a world where many traditional jobs are at risk of automation, creativity and imagination will play a crucial role in the future of human work.

  • Tahlia Crabtree, Andrew James, and Dr Jim McGregor stand on the roof of the MetService, large satellite imagery equipment around them, and the coastline of Wellington harbour in the background.

    Weather dependent

    The weather is one of the most enduring topics of conversation—and Victoria University of Wellington’s new Master of Meteorology (MMet) is certainly getting people talking.

  • Better, faster, stronger government

    A new accelerator programme supported by Victoria Business School is helping put Wellington on the world map for government innovation.

  • A laptop with Newsroom.co.nz up on the screen

    A room with a view

    Victoria University of Wellington’s supporting partnership with the news and current affairs website Newsroom is going from strength to strength, with nearly 200 think pieces, analyses, and other articles now contributed to it by the University.

  • Forensic psychology researcher Annabelle Wride folds her arms and poses beneath an atmospheric blue sky.

    Outside the mind

    “We learn about these theories and challenges in the classroom, but we don’t really see them,” says Anjela Frost, a current Master’s student in Forensic Psychology. “Completing this internship has given me the chance to see how forensic psychology actually works in the real world.”

  • CoLiberate cofounders and Wellington's most influential health and science workers, Sarah Tuck, Bop Murdoch, and Jody Burrell.

    A global shortage of self-esteem

    A social enterprise based in Wellington’s CBD is at the forefront of a global movement to bring mental health out of the shadows.

  • A bespectacled Dr Natalie Plank in a bouffant hair net and lab coat holds up for inspection, between latex-gloved hands, a transparent biosensor.

    From the lab to the living room

    Fertility can be a fraught issue for many people, and fertility tests are an expensive and timeconsuming process. But senior lecturer and MacDiarmid Institute principal investigator Dr Natalie Plank plans to change this by creating technology that will move routine fertility tests from the lab to the doctor’s office, or even the patient’s home.

  • Professor Arthur Grimes smiles in blue suit and pink shirt.

    The economics of happiness

    For Professor Arthur Grimes, an important aspect of wellbeing is the ancient Greek concept of eudaemonia, or purpose in life.

  • A new born baby being captured on by the camera of a smartphone.

    Sharing the love

    How early is too early to jump online and announce the arrival of your new bundle of joy?

  • Professor Gregor Coster sits besuited between the dark, polished woodwork of a table and a wainscot wall.

    New faculty hits the ground running

    Establishing a faculty is a formidable task—but then, the dean of the new Faculty of Health, Professor Gregor Coster, is someone who does triathlons for relaxation.

  • Bruno Marques and Jacqueline McIntosh stand together amoung shrubs at the entrance of Zealandia.

    Bringing locals and land together

    A group of academics from the Faculty of Architecture and Design is forging connections between locals and the land in a research partnership with eco-sanctuary Zealandia.

  • Professor Jacqueline Cumming stands and smiles before a mosaic of pharmaceutical bottles and boxes.

    Celebrating 25 years in style

    Professor Jacqueline Cumming has devoted much of her career to under-researched areas of New Zealand’s health system including, most recently, the performance of primary healthcare services.

  • Dr Fiona Hutton captured on the LCD screen of a video camera.

    The myth buster

    Dr Fiona Hutton wasn’t at Victoria University of Wellington long before people were emailing the Vice-Chancellor, demanding he sack her. She had appeared in the media talking about clubbers and recreational drugs. “I’d only been here a year or so. I thought, ‘Hmm, this is going well.’”

  • Alumni profiles

    Graduates of Victoria University are making an impact on the health and wellbeing of our society. We caught up with two alumni who shared their advice, experience, and memories.

  • Chris Bowden stands before the stone tomb.

    Breaking the silence

    Chris Bowden talks about his research into male suicide-loss survivors.

  • Student holding sign reading 'Future proof our rangatahi'

    Taking charge

    Addressing the challenges faced by young people struggling with their mental health is high on the agenda at Victoria University of Wellington.

  • Reducing health inequalities

    An endowment fund is being established to help grow the work of the internationally renowned Centre for Women’s Health Research / Te Tātai Hauora o Hine.

  • Professor Kevin Dew sits at a table, some common pharmaceuticals haphazardly spread before him, a white bay window in the rear.

    A healthy dose of subjectivity

    Is your home really a thriving therapeutic centre? Would you tell your GP you take alternative medicine? And are hospital decisions about treatment truly objective?

  • Keeping the peace

    How integral is the pursuit of peace to the New Zealand psyche? Victoria University of Wellington academics Geoffrey Troughton and Philip Fountain explore how New Zealanders have been inspired by visions for peace in their new book, Pursuing Peace in Godzone: Christianity and the Peace Tradition in New Zealand.

  • Making a life after trauma

    Hours after the 2011 Christchurch earthquake, Kaikōura-based doctor Chris Henry crawled through the burning CTV building to rescue those who were trapped. Six years later, his daughter Chessie interviewed him in an attempt to understand the trauma that led her father to burnout, in the process unravelling stories and memories from her own remarkable family history.

  • Doctors Adam Grener and Markus Luczak-Roesch sit at a table on which there is a stack of Charles Dickens' nineteenth-century classics.

    Mapping the world of Dickens

    What if you could browse through all the literary works of an author and see underlying narrative structures in an instant? Victoria University of Wellington researchers Dr Markus Luczak-Roesch and Dr Adam Grener have created a visual program that aspires to do just that.

  • Who's in my room?

    James, who studied a Bachelor of Commerce and now works for accounting firm Grant Thornton, returned to his former room to meet current resident Kyndra Garton, who is in her first year of a Bachelor of Science in Biology and Environmental Science.

  • Tricia Walbridge in front of her name on the Hunter Fellow board

    A quarter century of service

    Looking back over the course of her 27-year fundraising career at Victoria University of Wellington, former executive director of the Victoria University Foundation Tricia Walbridge says Boxing Day 2005 was one of her most memorable days on the job.

  • Investing in the future

    The future is looking brighter for more young New Zealanders thanks to a new Victoria University of Wellington philanthropic programme.

  • Kay Hancock smiling in a yellow scarf and black rimmed reading glasses. Her hair is blonde, shoulder length, and cut in bangs.

    So ready to read

    Anyone who attended school in New Zealand from the 1960s onwards will recognise the covers, but it’s the words and philosophy of the Ready to Read series that capture PhD researcher Kay Hancock.

  • MP Kiritapu Allan leans forward from a green leather chair onto a rimu timber bench in the grandly furnished heart of New Zealand Parliament, the Chamber.

    From Paengaroa to Parliament

    Alumna and Labour MP Kiritapu (Kiri) Allan has had a remarkable journey to Parliament from a small town in the Bay of Plenty, and it all came about through a chance meeting with a patron in an Auckland bar.

  • Joanah Ngan-Woo in possession of the ball gets tackled round the legs in a game of rugby.

    Rugby career kicks off

    Joanah Ngan-Woo became part of history earlier this year when she was named as one of 28 rugby players to receive a professional contract with the Black Ferns.

  • Original 1943 VUWAFC team

    75 years of football

    At a time when most of the world’s football fans were preoccupied with the FIFA World Cup, a group of alumni and students had something more important to celebrate.

  • Rebecca Stewart and chefs from her business Pomegranate Kitchen present a range of traditional Middle Eastern cuisine.

    Kitchen stories

    It was the disconnect between media representation of refugees and the reality of their day-today lives that led alumna Rebecca Stewart to start a not-for-profit social enterprise.

  • Oceania unveiled

    Senior lecturer in Art History Dr Peter Brunt describes himself as a “student and a lover of art”, but as co-curator of the United Kingdom’s first major show to explore Oceanic art, he may be being modest.

  • The last photograph

    The extensive photography collection of the late gallerist Peter McLeavey is on display at Adam Art Gallery/Te Pātaka Toi, giving visitors a rare look into the iconic Wellington figure’s life and private obsessions.