New Zealand Association Of Scientists Awards Celebrate The Achievements Of Scientists And Our Science System

The New Zealand Association of Scientists (NZAS) is pleased to announce its  annual medal winners for 2024. The NZAS medals have a long history and are among the most prestigious awarded across all fields of research in New Zealand.

The Marsden Medal is awarded for a lifetime of outstanding service to the cause or  profession of science, in recognition of service rendered to the cause or profession  of science in the widest connotation of the phrase. This year’s Marsden Medal is  awarded to Professor Mike Dragunow from the Faculty of Medical and Health Sciences at the University of Auckland. Professor Dragunow is a world-leading neuropharmacologist researching the causes of and developing treatments for disorders and cancers of the brain. He has published over 340 research articles and book chapters, received over 55 million dollars in research grants and supervised over 100 graduate students, as well as establishing world-leading research platforms, most notably the Hugh Green Biobank and the Freemasons Neurosurgery Research Unit. 

The Shorland Medal is awarded in recognition of major and continued contribution  to basic or applied research that has added significantly to scientific understanding  or resulted in significant benefits to society. The 2024 Shorland Medal is awarded to Professor Chris Bumby from the Robertson Research Institute at Victoria University of Wellington, also a Principal Investigator with The MacDiarmid Institute for Advanced Materials and Nanotechnology. Professor Bumby is a recognised international expert in the development of high-temperature superconducting (HTS) flux pumps, whose work underpins the design, demonstration and development of a series of novel engineering prototype devices by researchers at the Robertson Research Institute. He has also led a research team who have demonstrated a novel industrially-scalable process for hydrogen-reduction of New Zealand ironsand, with the potential to eliminate CO2 emissions from NZ’s steel industry. 

The Hill Tinsley Medal is awarded for outstanding fundamental or applied research in the physical, natural or social sciences published by a scientist or scientists within 15 years of their PhD. The 2024 Beatrice Hill Tinsley Medal is awarded to Associate Professor Miro Erkintalo from the Department of Physics at the University of Auckland, Waipapa Taumata Rau. Dr Erkintalo is a leading laser physicist who combines theoretical analyses, numerical modelling, and laboratory experiments to explore and develop novel sources of laser light for a host of applications ranging from telecommunications to sensing. His research has had broad impact, with many highly cited articles including five articles in Nature journals over the past three years. 

The Cranwell Medal is awarded to a practising scientist for excellence  in communicating science to the general public in any area of science or technology. The 2024 Cranwell Medal has been awarded to Dr Colin Miskelly from the Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongawera. Dr Miskelly is one of Aotearoa’s leading and most passionate ornithologists, specialising in bird conservation and the history of science. He has a strong record of public engagement across a range of platforms including numerous national and international media interviews, writing over 200 Te Papa science blog posts, and leading the development of the New Zealand Birds Online digital encyclopaedia, the definitive guide to the birds of Aotearoa New Zealand, which he continues to administer and update himself.

Dr Lucy Stewart, co-President of the Association, noted that this year’s awards demonstrate the range of value and impact that individual scientists bring to science in Aotearoa New Zealand. “It has been an extraordinarily difficult year for science and scientists in Aotearoa New Zealand, and it is important to remember that we have outstanding, world-leading work being done here which underpins our society, economy, and communities of learning. The Awards are the NZAS doing our small part to highlight this - it’s nice to have one thing to celebrate!”

The Awards are being presented privately to the recipients in Auckland and Wellington over the next two weeks, as there is no NZAS Conference in 2024. 

The full citations for the medals follow. 

Hill Tinsley Medal

Associate Professor Miro Erkintalo is the 2024 winner of the Hill Tinsley Medal. Dr Erkintalo is a leading laser physicist working in the Department of Physics at The University of Auckland. He combines theoretical analyses, numerical modelling, and laboratory experiments to explore and develop novel sources of laser light for a host of applications ranging from telecommunications to sensing. He has made many pioneering contributions that have substantially advanced several emerging photonic technologies, including ultrashort- pulsed mode-locked fibre lasers, nonlinear optical frequency converters, and microresonator optical frequency combs. Dr Erkintalo’s research has had broad impact, with many highly cited publications in the most prestigious journals of his field, including five articles in Nature journals over the past three years. He is a firm believer in collaborative research and ascribes his success to the many outstanding students and colleagues he has had the privilege to work with. 

Cranwell Medal

Dr Colin Miskelly is the winner of the 2024 Cranwell Medal. Dr Miskelly has been Curator Vertebrates at the Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa since 2010 and prior to that worked for the Department of Conservation since the early 1990s. Dr Miskelly is one of Aotearoa’s leading and most passionate ornithologists, specialising in bird conservation and the history of science. He has a strong record of public engagement across a range of platforms and has given numerous interviews to the national and international media. He has written over 200 Te Papa science blog posts, contributed to several museum exhibitions and edited several popular books. Perhaps his most significant science communication project to date was his development of New Zealand Birds Online – the digital encyclopaedia of New Zealand Birds. This website went live in 2013 and is the definitive guide to New Zealand birds, with a webpage for every living, extinct, fossil, vagrant and introduced bird species. Dr Miskelly obtained funding, managed over 100 expert authors who wrote species texts, over 600 photographers who collectively contributed more than 15 000 images, as well as writing a fifth of the species accounts himself. The site receives over 1 million views per annum and Dr Miskelly continues to administer the website himself and add new material.

Shorland Medal

Professor Chris Bumby is the 2024 winner of the Shorland Medal. Prof. Bumby is a recognised international expert in the development of high-temperature superconducting (HTS) flux pumps, and has made a significant contribution to the fundamental understanding of these devices, developing a theory that describes the key physics that underpins their highly unusual behaviour. This insight has enabled the design, demonstration and development of a series of novel engineering prototype devices by researchers at VUW’s Robinson Research Institute, which have attracted the interest of research groups around the world. As a result, HTS Flux pumps are now considered to be key enabling component for future high power-density HTS magnets and machines. Today, Prof. Bumby’s work and patents underpin a variety of research efforts into the applications of high-temperature superconductors, including by international collaborations developing new technologies for application in fields as diverse as superconducting electric aircraft, high-speed electric trains, and fusion energy generation. Beyond Planet Earth, HTS Flux pumps are also now being adopted by space engineers to realise entirely new concepts for compact, lightweight electromagnetic propulsion thrusters using high-temperature superconductors.

Prof. Bumby’s research also spans other areas of materials science and engineering. Over the last 7 years he has driven a rejuvenation of New Zealand’s R&D capability in the extractive metallurgy of titanomagnetite ironsand - New Zealand’s indigenous iron ore resource. He has built a research team who have together conceived, designed and demonstrated a novel industrially-scalable process for hydrogen-reduction of NZ ironsand, an approach which can eliminate CO2 emissions from NZ’s steel industry. This work has received widespread attention from government and industry alike, and was awarded the 2020 HERA Innovation award for its potential to deliver significant benefits to the NZ steel industry.

Marsden Medal

Professor Mike Dragunow is the 2024 winner of the Marsden Medal. Professor Dragunow is a world leading neuropharmacologist based at the University of Auckland, researching the causes of and developing treatments for disorders and cancers of the brain. He has published over 340 research articles and book chapters identifying key neurochemical mechanisms that underpin a range of brain disorders which have been cited over 37,000 times. He has served on multiple editorial boards, grant funding and Royal Society committees, as well acting as a consultant and Scientific Advisory Board Member for Biotech’s. He has been awarded over 55 million dollars in research grants and has supervised over 100 graduate students as well as teaching neuropharmacology to thousands of undergraduate science and medical students. He has established world leading research platforms notably the Hugh Green Biobank and the Freemasons Neurosurgery Research Unit utilizing human brain tissue generously donated by patients and families to grow and study human brain cells in the lab and most importantly to use these to test and identify new treatments for brain disorders. Mike has made impactful world leading contributions to the health sciences nationally and internationally.

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