RSWB

Upcoming Talks

September 2023
Sep 29
29 September 2023 6:00 pm - 7:00 pm
Presbyterian Community Centre, 94 Tenby Street
Wanaka, New Zealand

Professor David Wiltshire, University of Canterbury Sixty years ago New Zealander Roy Kerr helped revolutionize physics when he discovered the solution to Einstein's equations defining space around a rotating star […]

$5

Past Talks

August 2023
Aug 18
18 August 2023 6:00 pm - 7:00 pm

Professor Delwyn Moller (University of Auckland) Imagine if domestic flights crossing our skies each day were not only taking people places but also gathering vast amounts of critical environmental data […]

$5
Aug 11
11 August 2023 6:00 pm - 7:00 pm

Associate Professor Anna Garden and Dr Emilia Nowak, MacDiarmid Institute. The MacDiarmid Institute is a network of leading researchers from around the country united in a common goal: to create […]

Free
July 2023
Jul 28
28 July 2023 6:00 pm - 7:00 pm

Dr Shaun Wilkinson, CEO Wilderlab High-throughput DNA sequencing technologies make it possible to survey entire biological communities with as little as a single cup of water. The commercialization of environmental […]

$5,
June 2023
Jun 30
30 June 2023 6:00 pm - 7:00 pm

Professor Angus McIntosh, University of Canterbury In his talk, Angus will traverse the range of issues associated with climate change that confront our freshwater ecosystems. He'll talk about the challenges […]

$5
May 2023
May 26
26 May 2023 6:00 pm - 7:00 pm

Genomics has promised to transform medicine and medical practice but for the average New Zealander the evidence for this might seem lacking. My talk will address the technologies that have […]

$5
April 2023
Apr 28
28 April 2023 6:00 pm - 7:00 pm

Professor Murray Thomson, University of Otago Elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of New Zealand in 2022, Professor Murray Thomson is a prolific researcher in dental epidemiology and health […]

$5
March 2023
Mar 24
24 March 2023 6:00 pm - 7:00 pm

Professor Barbara Barratt, AgResearch and University of Otago Biological control is a natural phenomenon, but pest management using natural enemies has been manipulated by man for over 3000 years, with […]

$5
February 2023
Feb 24
24 February 2023 6:00 pm - 7:00 pm

Speaker: Dr Nic Rawlence, University of Otago. Aotearoa New Zealand has been described as the closest thing to studying life on another planet. Yet the animals that survived the arrival […]

November 2022
Nov 18
18 November 2022 6:00 pm - 7:00 pm

Speaker: Emeritus Professor Colin Townsend, University of Otago

You may not be surprised to learn that if New Zealand’s rivers were to be placed end to end they would total 9,471 km in length. But did you know that the streams that feed those rivers total more than 400,000 km! Did you know that the beds of such streams that have been reached by the introduced brown trout tend to be more slippery than those still occupied by native fish? Or that an ancient whitebait species became ‘landlocked’ into headwater streams of the South Island and evolved into 12 or more new non-migratory species? Or that streams whose beds are disturbed at an intermediate rate have a higher biodiversity than streams turned over by more frequent spates or not disturbed at all? Or which of the human-caused impairments (nitrogen, sediment, water abstraction, increased temperature) is most harmful to stream ecosystems? Well nor did I - until my research team started work three decades ago.

$5
October 2022
Oct 14
14 October 2022 6:00 pm - 7:00 pm

Associate Professor Arend Merrie MB ChB, PhD, FRACS, MInstD Arend trained in General Surgery in New Zealand gaining his Fellowship and a PhD on colorectal cancer in 2001. Following this […]

$5

Parkinson’s Disease and Stroke – Towards New Treatments

Friday 22nd May 2015 6 pm Presbyterian Community Centre Tenby St. Associate Professor John Reynolds, Associate Professor of Neuroscience, Department of Anatomy, University of Otago. Assoc Prof Reynolds will review recent work he and others have been undertaking towards new therapeutic approaches to Parkinson’s disease and stroke. He will describe an approach that his team is taking to restore the natural activity of the dopamine system that is lost in Parkinson’s disease. He will also describe novel and promising neurostimulation approaches designed to increase the functional gains obtained from rehabilitation following stroke.

Get Off the Grass: Kickstarting New Zealand’s innovation economy

Friday 17th April 2015 6 pm Presbyterian Community Centre, Tenby St. Professor Shaun Hendy FRSNZ, Professor of Physics, Director of Te Punaha Matatini, University of Auckland. Shaun Hendy is a physicist by training, formerly Professor of Computational Physics at Victoria University, a Fellow at Callaghan Innovation, and presently Professor and Director at Auckland university’s Te Punaha Matatini, a Centre of Research excellence (CoRE) which focuses on developing better economic and environmental policies for governments and business. In 2012 Shaun was awarded the Callaghan Medal by the Royal Society of NZ, and the Prime Ministers Science Media Communication Prize.. With the

The Spark of Life

Friday 20th March 2015 6 pm, Presbyterian Community Centre, Tenby St. Professor Frances Ashcroft FRS, University of Oxford, UK. 2015 Royal Society of New Zealand Distinguished Speaker Frances Ashcroft is a Royal Society Research Professor at the University of Oxford and Director of OXION, a training and research programme on the physiology of ion channels. Ion channels are unique proteins found in the membranes of all cells, which allow charged particles (ions) to flow in and out of cells, thus producing electrical signals. Frances’ thesis is a reductionist one, that all our activities, behaviours, sensory perceptions, conscious or unconscious thinking,

The 2013 Census: NZ’s evolving population

Friday 6 March 2015 6 pm Presbyterian Community Centre, Tenby St. Emeritus Professor Erik Olssen, Otago University, and Dr Malcolm McKinnon, Victoria University. The Royal Society of New Zealand has undertaken a major review paper about the 2013 census and New Zealand’s changing population, bringing together data and analyses from the 2013 Census and other sources, together with input from a wide range of researchers around the country. You are invited to hear a presentation from two eminent historians who were members of the review panel about what an evolving New Zealand society might look like.

New medicines in wound healing

Thursday 25th September 2014 6 pm. Presbyterian Community centre, Wanaka. Professor Colin Green, Professor of Ophthalmology and Translational Vision Research, Auckland Medical School.

Precision oncology: the future of cancer therapy

Friday 25 July 2014 6 pm. Presbyterian Community Centre, Wanaka. Professor Parry Guilford, Centre for Translational Cancer Research, University of Otago, Principal Investigator Pacific Edge Technologies Ltd

What’s in our Water

Thursday 19th June 2014 6 pm, Main Hall, Lake Wanaka Centre, Wanaka. Professor Nigel French, Food Safety and Veterinary Public Health department, Massey University .

Alzheimer’s disease: Is there any good news?

Friday 14 February 2014 6 pm at the Presbyterian Community Centre, Tenby St. Professor Cliff Abraham, Professor of Psychology and Director, Brain Health Research Centre, University of Otago

Is Exercise Bad for You?

Friday 20th September 2013 6 pm, Edgewater Theatre, Edgewater, Wanaka. Dr Lindy Castell, Research Fellow in Physiology, University of Oxford, UK