Top researchers elected as Royal Society Fellows

November 7, 2014

Top researchers elected as Royal Society Fellows

Two top researchers Professor Nigel French and Professor Stuart Carr have just been elected as Fellows of the Royal Society of New Zealand. Of the 399 living Fellows, 27 are based at Massey University.

Fellowship of the Royal Society is an honour conferred for distinction in research, or the advancement of science, technology or the humanities.

Professor Nigel French
It was a very good week for Professor French from the Institute of Veterinary, Animal and Biomedical Sciences in Palmerston North. Not only was he named a Fellow, but the very same day he was announced as the founding director of the Governent’s new $5 million Food Safety Science and Research Centre.

“I’m thrilled, and feel very proud to be joining an amazing group of Fellows in the Royal Society. Credit must go to the team that I work with. The Royal Society’s statement mentions the work on campylobacter, but that was the result of teamwork over the last decade. Receiving this honour has been very much a team effort.”

A man of many interests, Professor French serves as the director of the Infectious Disease Research Centre (IDREC), director of the mEpiLab (the Molecular Epidemiology and Public Health Laboratory), and a principal investigator in the Allan Wilson Centre for Molecular Ecology and Evolution. Professor French works with global organisations on epidemiology and is currently in the UK where he is delivering a course, before heading to Malawi to attend a workshop on salmonella.

Professor French has made a major contribution to our understanding of the epidemiology and control of zoonotic disease of national and global importance. His research into probable sources of food-borne human campylopacteriosis in New Zealand has greatly assisted efforts to reduce the incidence of this disease.

Professor Stuart Carr
Professor Carr is from the School of Psychology at Albany and has spent over 25 years showing how everyday workplace dynamics impact global and local poverty, and poverty reduction. His work has led major international organisations to change their remunerations schemes for international and local workers, to improve motivation and decrease dependence on aid.

He says he is humbled and delighted to be appointed a Fellow.

“I was genuinely taken by surprise. It’s a big honour. Massey, the College and especially the School of Psychology has been very supportive of my work for many years,” he says. “It’s consistent with the ethos and goals of the University and, of course, poverty is a huge global issue that we all need to tackle.”

Dubbed by his peers as the world’s leading psychologist applying organisational and social psychology to the challenges of poverty reduction, Professor Carr’s work has been taken up by organisations including the OECD and the Global Development Network (GDN). His research speciality is the organisational psychology of poverty reduction, and includes both for-profit and non-profit humanitarian work organisations.

Professor Carr says receiving this honour is due to the teamwork involved across multiple disciplines.

“We have a major issue trying to tackle poverty reduction. The work I do is very much a result of teamwork, and a network of people who are willing to work across different disciplines on research into applied issues. It adds academic weight to this focus on how to reduce and, hopefully, eradicate poverty.

“In 2015, the UN will be involved in a new round of goal-setting, and poverty eradication is one of them. It’s good to have pro-social industrial psychology be a part of that process. There’s an energy in this field, including from many students worldwide, that is really positive. The social sciences are engaging with the issues for our time, and research is playing its part.”

Fellows of the Royal Society are involved in providing expert advice, promoting best and innovative research practice and disseminating information on the sciences and humanities. For more information on the work of the Royal Society of New Zealand, visit the website: www.royalsociety.org.nz

ENDS

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