Big Boost for Victoria University Researchers
Victoria University researchers have been given a big boost
with the Marsden Fund backing six proposals to the tune of
more than $1.8 million.
Three research proposals from the
School of Mathematical and Computing Sciences and one each
from the School of Psychology, School of Biological Sciences
and the Treaty of Waitangi Research Unit were supported by
the Fund. As well, two Victoria staff members are
collaborating on a project being hosted by another research
organisation.
One of the projects is funded from the
Fast Start fund – a fund for researchers in the early stages
of their careers – while the others are from the standard
fund.
Dr Maryanne Garry, Senior Lecturer in the School of
Psychology, has received $445,000 over three years, to study
how different kinds of evidence can create false memories.
The research will have important implications for
understanding how memories can be modified and how people
make sense of their past.
Dr Richard Hill, Director of
the Treaty of Waitangi Research Unit at the Stout Research
Centre, has received $420,000 over three years. He and his
team will investigate how Maori have attempted throughout
the 20th Century to achieve the recognition of
rangatiratanga (sovereignty) by the Crown that was promised
under the Treaty of Waitangi, and the State's responses to
this. The bicultural and interdisciplinary project aims to
explore the heart of the relationship between Crown and
Maori throughout the last century.
Dr Jeff Shima,
Lecturer in Marine Ecology in the School of Biological
Sciences, has received $100,000 in Fast Start funding over
two years. Dr Shima’s research will investigate the extent
to which the offspring of coastal fish, which usually
develop in offshore waters before returning to coastal
habitats, are “lost” from the populations into which they
were born and successfully “captured” by more distant
populations as they grow in offshore waters. Understanding
these population movements may help to determine the
effectiveness of marine reserve designs and the response of
natural systems to pollution, climate change and
fishing.
Professor Geoff Whittle, from the School of
Mathematical and Computing Sciences, has received $223,737
over three years to investigate “matroid minors,” which is
the study of finite geometric structures that has
considerable applications in computer science.
Dr Matt
Visser, along with a researcher from Canterbury University,
has received $384,000 over three years to address the most
challenging problem facing mathematical physics - finding a
theory that incorporates Einstein's theory of general
relativity with Quantum Field Theory. While Einstein's
theory predicts well phenomena at the large scale of
planets, it does not explain phenomena at the very small
subatomic level where quantum theory reigns. A number of
"theories of everything" have been proposed, but Dr Visser's
approach is quite novel. It is motivated by his work
showing that sound waves in extremely cold fluids behave in
a remarkably similar way to light in Einstein's theory.
This suggests that Einstein's equations are not accidental
but a natural consequence of certain types of theory.
Professor Estate Khmaladze, from the School of
Mathematical and Computing Sciences, along with researchers
in the Netherlands and Germany, has received $239,064 over
three years. He will investigate the statistical theory that
underlies a wide range of physical phenomena, from
earthquakes to possum eradication, the distribution of
mineral deposits in the earth to that of galaxies in
space.
As well, two staff members, Professor Phil
Garnock-Jones from the School of Biological Sciences and Dr
Vanessa Thorn, from the Antarctic Research Centre, are to
participate as associate investigators in research lead by
Dr Ian Raine from the Institute of Geological and Nuclear
Sciences. That research will test the idea that some New
Zealand alpine plant groups might have originally come from
Antarctica.
Victoria University Vice-Chancellor Stuart
McCutcheon praised the work of the University’s
researchers.
“Research is one of the features of what
makes a university special and sets it apart. The success
of Victoria’s staff in gaining Marsden Fund backing for
their projects shows their commitment to excellence and the
University’s efforts to support them achieve the best.
“Several of the projects show the initiative of our
staff in creating partnerships and working in collaboration
with other research centres and universities, both in New
Zealand and internationally. That two of our newest staff
members, mathematicians Dr Visser and Professor Khmaladze
who both joined us this year from prestigious international
institutions, have been awarded substantial grants is
testimony to the University’s standing as a research
institution.”
This is the eighth application round for
the Marsden Fund, a government research fund established in
1994 to support excellence in research administered by the
Royal Society of New Zealand. Applications to the fund are
very competitive. Of the 801preliminary proposals, only a
fifth were invited to submit a full proposal of which only
86 were successful. Over three years, the grants announced
today are worth more than $36 million.
Issued by
Victoria University of Wellington Public Affairs
For
further information please contact
Antony.Paltridge@vuw.ac.nz or phone +64-4-463-5873