NIWA marine geophysicist recognised with French Honour

NIWA marine geophysicist recognised with French National Order of Merit

Embassy of France in New Zealand
12 February 2015

NIWA Principal Scientist Dr Geoffroy Lamarche will be made a Knight of the National Order of Merit in an official ceremony to be held at the French residence on Friday 13 March.

Dr Geoffroy Lamarche is a French marine geophysicist who arrived in Wellington over 25 years ago and who has made a major contribution to strengthening scientific cooperation between France and New Zealand.

After completing his doctorate in geosciences in Grenoble, France, Dr Lamarche travelled to New Zealand for a year of post-doctorate research at Victoria University. Subsequently, he joined GNS Science to work on the active tectonics in the Wairarapa, and volcanic activity in the Taupo Zone.

In 1992, he moved back to France to join the IRD (Institut de Recherche pour le Développement) where he worked on the French-New Zealand programme, GeodyNZ, the first marine geodynamics research programme dedicated to mapping key segments of the modern and ancient plate boundaries around New Zealand. This programme was the foundation of the cooperation between our two countries in the field of marine geosciences. In 1998, he returned with his family to Wellington to join NIWA, where he is a Principal Scientist.

His major contribution is to the research programme Matacore, developed in collaboration with his colleagues from CNRS (Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique) in Rennes, France. The programme’s objective is the study of palaeo-historic abrupt climate changes and the impact of earthquakes on the evolution of submarine landscapes. Also notable, a symposium on New Zealand-France collaborative research he organised in 2002 allowed for the establishment of perennial relations between scientists from both countries.

Dr Lamarche is a member of the scientific council of the South Pacific Integrated Observatory for Environment and Terrestrial and Marine Biodiversity. Through this role, he has worked towards the reinforcement of New Zealand relations with France, New Caledonia, Wallis and Futuna and French Polynesia which culminated in the signing of a scientific cooperation agreement in June 2012 between GOPS and NIWA.

Another flagship collaboration project to his credit is the study of tsunami hazard in Wallis and Futuna, conducted in collaboration with IRD and co-funded by the French Ministry of Foreign Affairs Pacific Fund. Dr Lamarche is currently carrying out a similar study in Samoa, in collaboration with French-New Zealand architects with the particularity that the study includes an anthropologic approach to help reducing the vulnerability of the Samoan community to natural disasters.

The Ambassador of France to New Zealand, H.E. M. Laurent Contini is delighted to be awarding the honour to Dr Lamarche: “For over twenty years, Dr Geoffroy Lamarche has been a key player in the development of the scientific cooperation between France and New Zealand. It is for this inestimable contribution to the bilateral relations between France and New Zealand that I will be presenting Dr Lamarche with the award of Chevalier de l’ordre national du mérite.”

The National Order of Merit is an order of State founded on 3 December 1963 by President Charles de Gaulle. It is awarded for eminent merits in service to the nation. Ambassador H.E. Laurent Contini will present the honour to Dr Lamarche in the presence of his family as well as representatives of the French community and of the New Zealand Science Community.

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