21 Ngā Puanga Pūtaiao Fellowships invest in Māori and Pacific STEM researchers

The fellowship will help to build and strengthen a diverse Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) research workforce by investing in talented Māori and Pacific researchers to realise their potential (Puanga). The Fellowship will facilitate Māori and Pacific Peoples who are future leaders in STEM research to enter into or progress through the Research, Science and Innovation workforce, building a career foundation that enables them to flourish.

The recipients of Ngā Puanga Pūtaiao Fellowships work in diverse areas of STEM including: environmental management and sustainability; biotechnology, biochemistry and biomedical research; data science and indigenous data sovereignty; environment and climate change; and computer science and cybersecurity.

Associate Professor Te Taka Keegan of Te Whare Wananga o Waikato University of Waikato said about Ngā Puanga Pūtaiao, “It has been both an honour and a privilege to co-chair the assessment panel with Associate Professor Dianne Sika-Paotonu. The fellowships address an important need, the lack of opportunities for Māori and Pacific Island researchers post PhD. This will also provide avenues for the successful recipients to further engage knowledge and understandings from their own unique perspectives in a wide variety of exciting disciplines.”

Associate Professor Dianne Sika-Paotonu of Te Whare Wānanga o Otāgo University of Otago further comments “the Ngā Puanga Pūtaiao Fellowships provide career development opportunities and pathways for Māori and Pacific researchers in Aotearoa New Zealand, towards generating solutions to help address challenges and issues in society. These Fellowships also support Māori and Pacific leadership contributions to help with broadening understanding, and building knowledge within the respective areas of research focus.”

On behalf of the selection panel the Co-chairs would like to congratulate the Ngā Puanga Pūtaiao recipients and wish them all the best in their STEM research endeavours.

Ngā Puanga Pūtaiao was administered by the Royal Society Te Apārangi on behalf of the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment (MBIE).

The recipients of Ngā Puanga Pūtaiao Fellowships are:

• Emily Afoa (Pūrangakura) - Tiakina te wai: Reimagining the delivery of water services by engineers
• Kendon Bell (Scarlatti) - Simulation modelling to support freshwater quality improvements and greenhouse gas emissions reductions
• Alan Cameron (Waipapa Taumata Rau the University of Auckland) - Double Trouble; Activating Cancer Prodrugs by Leveraging a Tumour Selective Oncolytic virus
• Rory Clifford (Te Whare Wānanga o Waitaha University of Canterbury) - Ngā Hangarau Ara: New Technology Pathways
• Tom Elliott (iNZight Analytics) - Data-driven web tools and Māori data sovereignty: building a data analytics platform for Aotearoa to share with the world
• Blaise Forrester-Gauntlett (AgResearch Limited) - Stem cell ART: using stem cells to develop and improve assisted reproductive technologies
• Roseanna Gamlen-Greene (Te Whare Wānanga o Otāgo University of Otago) - Working Together to Build Climate Resilience of Kaimoana
• Jasmine Hall (Te Herenga Waka Victoria University of Wellington) - Untangling tangles: a new approach to the problem of community identification.
• Mitchell Head (Te Whare Wānanga o Waikato University of Waikato) - Ngā waiata o te wairoro
• James Hewett (Te Whare Wānanga o Waitaha University of Canterbury) - Characterising the biomechanical properties of blood clots
• Matthew Hughes (Te Whare Wānanga o Waitaha University of Canterbury) - Iwi/hapū-led infrastructure development, and landscape evolution in the Anthropocene
• Siuta Laulaupea'alu (Te Whare Wānanga o Waikato University of Waikato) - Developing cybersecurity tools to combat mobile phone text-based scams in the Tongan Community
• Marjorie Lipsham (Te Kunenga ki Pūrehuroa Massey University) - He Rau Tauwhiro: The place of kaitiaki in contemporary Māori realities.
• Losa Moata’ane (Te Whare Wānanga o Otāgo University of Otago) - Tangi Mei Moana - (Cry from the Ocean)
• Acushla Sciascia (Te Kunenga ki Pūrehuroa Massey University) - Toitū te marae, toitū te hapori - Building whānau resilience through physical and virtual marae
• Kim Southey (Te Whare Wānanga o Waikato University of Waikato) - Māori data governance for housing using mātauranga Māori to inform data systems
• Jamie Taka (Waipapa Taumata Rau the University of Auckland) - Exploring the origins of protein allostery
• Alexander Trevarton (Waipapa Taumata Rau the University of Auckland) - Leveraging AI to Explore Breast Density and its Implications on Wāhine Māori Health in Aotearoa New Zealand
• Essie Van Zuylen (Te Whare Wānanga o Waitaha University of Canterbury) - Ngā harore pōhewanga o Aotearoa - The psychoactive mushrooms of New Zealand, understanding our fungal taonga species
• Alexandra Winter-Billington (Te Herenga Waka Victoria University of Wellington) - Integrating physically based modelling of debris-covered glacier melt and mātauranga Māori to improve the accuracy of projections of glacier change