Waikato Uni officially opens coastal research field centre

24 November 2011

University of Waikato officially opens coastal research field centre in Tauranga

The University of Waikato will hold two ceremonies to officially open its coastal research field centre in Tauranga early next month.

Based at the harbour’s edge in Sulphur Point Marina, the new field centre will provide a base for university staff as well as students doing field research in and around Tauranga Harbour.

A dawn ceremony and official opening unveiling the centre take place on Wednesday December 7.

University Chair in Coastal Science Professor Chris Battershill says “This is the first time a lab has been put together in Tauranga. To date a lot of the field work we’ve done has had to be taken to Hamilton to be processed.”

“It'll be great for the students to have a dedicated lab to process their field work in. Due to the nature of coastal work, now they have a base where they can do useful stuff when their research is hampered by bad weather.

“We are always increasing our ability to do fieldwork. In Tauranga we have access to all kinds of different and significant marine reserves, and to top this off we have an active volcano sitting off the coast,” says Professor Battershill.

“Waikato is one of the premier universities in New Zealand for multidisciplinary aqua science and the only university in the southern hemisphere to have a working tertiary partnership dedicated to coastal marine science.”

The field centre will also be home to Bay of Plenty Polytechnic and Te Whare Wānanga o Awanuiārangi tertiary partnership students.

The base will be formally opened with a dawn blessing planned for 5.45am, and an official opening at 4pm where University of Waikato Dean of Science and Engineering Professor Bruce Clarkson and Bay of Plenty Regional Council Chairman John Cronin will be guest speakers.

The Tauranga field centre is part of the university’s recently launch Environmental Research Institute.

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