University of Waikato appoints new professors

University of Waikato appoints new professors

The University of Waikato has promoted four of its leading academics to the rank of professor.
The newly appointed professors are:

Professor Bruce Clarkson, Department of Biological Sciences, School of Science and Engineering

Professor Bruce Clarkson, one of New Zealand's foremost plant ecologists, is the Director of the University's Centre for Biodiversity and Ecology, a research group established to foster collaborative research in the areas of freshwater and land-based ecology. Since 2002, he has also chaired the Department of Biological Sciences.

He is leader for a Foundation for Research Science and Technology Outcome-Based Investment grant from the FRST environmental protection and natural ecosystems contestable funds. The ten-year funding (2005-2015) of $922,000 a year is for research enabling restoration of freshwater systems and lake biodiversity. He is also leader of a second project (2005-2009) with FRST funding of $398,000 a year which is examining the restoration of indigenous ecosystems in urban environments.

In 2006, Professor Clarkson was awarded the prestigious Loder Cup, New Zealand's premier conservation award for his contributions to research and protection of the native flora. He has served on many research, industry, professional, community and government bodies, including acting as one of two independent reviewers of progress towards achievement of the New Zealand Biodiversity Strategy.

Among his many roles, he has been a member (2002 and 2006) of the Foundation for Research, Science and Technology Sustainable Resource Use Reference Group assessing contestable research bids, and is chairperson of the technical advisory committee for Waikato hydroelectricity generation consents, and a member of the Maungatautari Ecological Island Trust Science and Research Committee.

Professor Nan Seuffert, School of Law

Professor Nan Seuffert is an expert in jurisprudence, or legal theory, and the law as it relates to race, gender and national identity. She also teaches and publishes in the commercial area, especially on regulation of the stock market and company takeovers.

She is the author of Jurisprudence of National Identity, published last year, and has contributed to many edited collections and refereed journals internationally. She is a member of the editorial boards of a number of prestigious, international, professional publications, and was previously a member of the editorial committee of the New Zealand Universities Law Review (1996, 1997).

Her research projects span a range of topics related to domestic violence, feminism, sexuality, biculturalism and multiculturalism. She is a member of a research team titled Caring and Sharing in Domestic Relationship, funded by the International Institute for the Sociology of Law in Onati, Spain.

During a Resident Fellowship in 1998 at the University of California Humanities Research Institute, Professor Seuffert completed a study of the legal and pedagogical implications of multiculturalism in the United States, Canada, Australia and New Zealand. A special Monash University research grant the same year funded a project on Remapping Gender, Identity and the Asia Pacific Region. She was responsible for co-drafting and finalising a successful application to FRST for $1.4 million grant to study Laws and Institutions for a Bicultural New Zealand.

She gained her LLM with first class honours at Victoria University in 1995, and an LLM at Columbia University, New York, in 2002, where she submitted her doctoral thesis last year. Earlier, at Boston University School of Law, where she completed her Juris Doctor, she received a number of distinguished scholar awards, graduating Magna Cum Laude in 1987. She has been admitted to practice in New York, Massachusetts and Colorado, USA. She is a founding member of the Massachusetts Domestic Violence Council, and co-founder of a pro bono programme providing legal representation for abused women in Boston.

Professor Joseph Waas, Department of Biological Sciences, School of Science and Engineering

The effects of disturbance to wildlife habitats on the behaviour and the ability of endangered species to reproduce successfully are currently the major focus of Professor Waas's research. An eminent animal behaviourist, his primary research interests are in behavioural ecology, conservation biology and wildlife management.

His main behavioural work focuses on the function of animal signals in sexual and conflict encounters, particularly the use of "intention signals", and "triumph signals"; social recognition involving visual, sound and chemical cues; and the interplay of social factors and stressors in bird colonies. Recently, he has been looking at behavioural issues associated with the reintroduction of endangered species to managed habitats.

He is a primary investigator on the FRST-funded Urban Habitat Restoration project, led by Professor Bruce Clarkson, and has led two major Antarctic research programmes, supported by Antarctica NZ: a project to examine the effects of human disturbance on the breeding patterns of Adelie penguins; and a study investigating the breeding system of Weddell seals.

He is the founder and co-ordinator of the University of Waikato's teaching programme in animal behaviour, and primary lecturer in advanced animal behaviour courses.

Professor Waas leads one of the School's most productive research groups and has supervised more than 35 post-graduate students. He has received many distinctions in his field and published extensively, producing over 75 research articles in leading biological journals and books. Many science magazines have featured news articles on his work including the prestigious publication, Nature, and New Scientist magazine.

He serves on a number of animal welfare committees and is a regular reviewer for more than 20 academic journals.. He has been the university representative on the New Zealand Animal Welfare Consultative Committee, and deputy chairperson of the Waikato Animal Ethics Committee since 1997. In 2006, he was an invited participant at a number of international conferences, including the 11th International Behavioural Ecology Congress in France.

Before taking up his appointment at the University of Waikato in 1993, Professor Waas designed and conducted a number of Honours courses in animal communication and behavioural ecology at Queen's University, Kingston, Canada.

Professor C. Kay Weaver, Department of Management Communication, University of Waikato Management School

Professor Kay Weaver is a former policewoman and journalist with an international reputation for research into the social, cultural and political effects of media communication.

It was her experiences as a constable in the West Midlands Police Force and a stint on a provincial newspaper that inspired her return to education and the pursuit of a university degree that would allow her to explore how organisational and media communication shapes social behaviors.

Following her undergraduate studies, Professor Weaver worked for the Hansard Society for Parliamentary Government investigating the social democratic implications of the broadcasting of the British Houses of Parliament, and for the Broadcasting Standards Council researching the effects of film and television depictions of violence against women on media audiences. She then went on to gain her PhD in 1995 from the prestigious Department of Film and Media Studies at the University of Stirling in Scotland.

In New Zealand, Professor Weaver has worked with numerous organisations, including crown research institutes, the New Zealand Police, Greenpeace, and Mother's Against Genetic Engineering, investigating and advising them on how to communicate messages and campaigns to the public.

She has been a leading member of research teams that have brought more than $4million in external research funding from the Foundation of Research Science and Technology and the Ministry of Research Science and Technology to the University of Waikato.

Professor Weaver has produced four books and numerous journal articles and book chapters. Her most recent book, Critical Readings: Violence in the Media, was published last year. She is on the editorial boards of many professional journals, including, Crime, Media and Society, Feminist Media Studies, and the public relations journal, PRism.

She has received numerous distinctions and awards, including the University of Waikato's 1998 Staff Merit Award for her co-founding of the University's highly successful Bachelor of Communication Studies. In 2000-2001, she was awarded a Visiting Scholarship to The Institute for Research on Women and Gender, Columbia University, New York.

Professor Weaver's latest research project looks at the impact on the community of installing broadband internet access in Te Pahu, a rural community near Hamilton. She is examining how broadband changes community and family life, and how it impacts on children and people who work from home. The study is part of a larger five-year project, with Foundation of Research Science and Technology funding of $1.5 million.

Professor Weaver teaches communication and public relations at undergraduate and post-graduate levels and is the Director of the University's Bachelor of Communication Studies.

ENDS

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