In September

The Mt Cass Saga

Thursday 2 September, 8.00pm
C3 Lecture Theatre, University of Canterbury

Dr Mary Glen Metcalf, MSc in Organic Chemistry (University of New Zealand, 1948); PhD  in Medicine (University of Otago, 1972)

Towards the end of 2007 Dr Metcalf read two reports:  the first being a Department of Conservation publication "The Recreation, Amenity and Ecological values of the Mt Cass Ridge" which recommended that the ridge be acquired as a recreational park or scenic reserve, and the second being a Press article describing the proposal by MainPower NZ Ltd to build a wind farm on the same ridge. The two proposals appeared incompatible. Dr Metcalf will 'walk' us along the top of the ridge before describing its remarkable ecological attributes, then give an account of the ongoing saga to save it for the instruction and delight of future generations of New Zealanders.
Editor: for background information on the Mt Cass ridge issue see: http://www.aridgetoofar.org.nz/

From 1961 to 1973 Dr Metcalf worked as a Scientific Officer in the Medical Unit at the Princess Margaret Hospital developing analytical methods for measuring steroid hormones. In 1973 she was awarded a Career Fellowship by the Medical Research Council of NZ. She retired in 1991. She is the author of 72 scientific papers on topics ranging from steroid analysis, breast cancer, the hormone changes which occur in women throughout reproductive life, to the premenstrual syndrome..

Hochstetter Lecture: A geochemist’s window into Earth's origins, past and future

Tuesday 14 September, 8.00pm
A2 Lecture Theatre, University of Canterbury

Professor Joel Baker, School of Geography, Environment and Earth Sciences, Victoria University of Wellington

Professor Joel Baker's research interests have led him to look at applications of chemical and isotopic methods to a wide range of problems and big questions in earth, ocean and space sciences. Using newly collected data, Professor Baker will cover topics as diverse as the origins of our solar system, what happens to volcanic rocks just before an eruption and the use of ice cores in the study of past climate change. This lecture is held in association with the Geoscience Society of New Zealand.

Joel gained his BSc and MSc (Hons) at Victoria University, and his PhD at the University of London, being awarded a UK Commonwealth Scholarship to undertake PhD research on the age and origins of continental flood volcanism in Yemen. In Denmark, Joel led the establishment of a host of analytical techniques in a Geochemistry Laboratory he was responsible for there, based around the emerging method of multiple collector inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry, which has produced revolutionary advances in geochemistry and cosmochemistry. In 2005, Joel returned to NZ to take up a Senior Lectureship at Victoria University of Wellington. For further details see: www.gsnz.org.nz/information/hochstetter-lecture-i-8.html

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Information on up-coming lectures can be found here

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