New professors at University of Canterbury

15 February 2006

New professors at University of Canterbury

The University of Canterbury has promoted three academic staff to professorships and 18 to associate professorships.

The new professors are Rob Hughes (Psychology), Bob Manthei (Education) and Harsha Sirisena (Electrical and Computer Engineering).

The new associate professors are: Terry Austrin (Sociology and Anthropology), Neil Boister (Law), Margaret Burrell (Languages and Cultures), Tim Davies (Geological Sciences), David Gleaves (Psychology), Randolph Grace (Psychology), Richard Hartshorn (Chemistry), Sinniah Ilanko (Mechanical Engineering), Chigusa Kimura-Steven (Languages and Cultures), Milo Kral (Mechanical Engineering), Mark Milke (Civil Engineering), Roger Reeves (Physics and Astronomy), Gregory Russell (Chemistry), Adrian Sawyer (Law), David Fortin (Management), Alexander Tan (Political Science and Communication), Matthew Turnbull (Biological Sciences) and Lianne Woodward (Psychology).

Professor Hughes was born and raised in Christchurch. After studying for a BSc in psychology and zoology and an MSc (first class honours) in psychology at UC he took up a lectureship at the Queen’s University of Belfast (Northern Ireland), where he also completed his PhD studies.

Professor Hughes returned to UC in 1968 and has since held the positions of lecturer, senior lecturer and reader/associate professor in psychology. His general areas of teaching and research expertise are the effects of drugs on behaviour. He is interested in the later effects of drugs (especially caffeine and the active ingredients of party pills) on the unborn and the newly born.

Professor Manthei came to UC in 1974 after working as a psychiatric social worker in the United States and a child welfare officer with the then Department of Social Welfare in Christchurch. His research interests include school counselling trends, training and supervision of counsellors and stress in counselling and teaching.

Professor Manthei is a registered and licensed psychologist and is a member of the New Zealand Psychological Society’s Institute of Counselling Psychology.
Outside of work, Professor Manthei enjoys a good game of basketball and is well known for his enthusiastic television commentaries from events around the world including the Athens Olympics. He will be calling the basketball at the Commonwealth Games in Melbourne next month.

Professor Sirisena holds a BSc (first class honours) in electrical engineering from the University of Ceylon and a PhD in control engineering from the University of Cambridge.

He joined UC in 1971 as a lecturer in electrical engineering after working in Sri Lanka as an engineer in the Government Electricity Department and a lecturer at the University of Ceylon. His current research interests are in the fields of intelligent control and computer and telecommunications networks.

ENDS

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