Honorary doctorates for black hole mathematician

Honorary doctorates for black hole mathematician and ‘godfather’ of bitumen

A Kiwi mathematician whose work ushered in ‘the Golden Age of Black Hole Physics’ and a Taranaki engineer whose companies are global leaders in bitumen technologies and heavy engineering are to be honoured by the University of Canterbury (UC).

The University Council will confer a Doctor of Science (honoris causa) on Professor Roy Kerr and a Doctor of Engineering (honoris causa) on John Matthews at its December graduation ceremonies. Both men are UC alumni who have gone on to major international success in their respective fields.

Professor Kerr is a mathematician best known for discovering the Kerr vacuum, an exact solution to the Einstein field equation of general relativity. His solution models the gravitational field outside an uncharged rotating massive object, and provides exact representation of untold numbers of massive black holes that populate the universe. He was awarded the Hughes Medal of the Royal Society in London in recognition of these achievements.

Professor Kerr’s career took him from Kurow, where he was born in 1934, to the University of Cambridge, Syracuse University in New York, the Wright-Patterson Air Force Base in the United States and the University of Texas, before a 22 year teaching career at UC.

Professor Kerr retired from his position as Professor of Mathematics at the University of Canterbury in 1993, where he had been head of the Mathematics Department for 10 years; but this was not the end of his accomplishments.

In 2008, he was appointed to the Yevgeny Lifshitz ICRANet Chair in Italy and he was a made a Companion of the Order of Merit of New Zealand in 2011. His life was the subject of the semi-biographical 2009 book Cracking the Einstein Code. In 2013, Professor Kerr was the first New Zealander to be honoured by the Albert Einstein Society in Switzerland with the Albert Einstein Medal.

Mr Matthews is Managing Director of New Plymouth-based Technix Industries Limited and director of many associated companies.

Mr Matthews has been in the bitumen industry for more than 50 years – he is referred to as the ‘Godfather’ of bitumen. After gaining a Bachelor of Engineering (Mechanical) at UC in 1963, Mr Matthews commenced work in New Plymouth where he undertook the design and build of Russell Matthews Industries Limited (RMI) bulk bitumen terminal at Port Taranaki. By the 1990s he had designed and built the largest bulk bitumen terminal and integrated bituminous products manufacturing facilities in New Zealand, importing the first shipment of a petroleum product into New Zealand by an independent operator since the Todd organisation sold to BP in the 1960s.

With the development of bituminous products research, manufacturing, and distribution activities and the development and expansion of roading contracting companies, the Technix group of companies became the second largest in this business in New Zealand.

Mr Matthews has numerous New Zealand and world firsts – two of them associated with the development of a bulk bitumen terminal in Suva, Fiji. He became the first to transport a 400 tonne tank, the largest in the world, across an ocean by barge from New Zealand to Fiji. He also designed and installed the first floating ship-to-shore bulk bitumen transfer pipeline.

In addition to being a technology leader in bituminous products, Mr Matthews also built up Fitzroy Engineering Limited from an initial staff of seven to more than 1,000 at its peak. Although Mr Matthews has since sold the business, it continues to be the largest heavy engineering fabricator in New Zealand.

Mr Matthews worked with world-renowned, New Zealand film-maker and kinetic artist, Len Lye, during the 1970s. The association culminated in some of Len Lye’s kinetic sculptures being made at Fitzroy Engineering Ltd by Mr Matthews and then exhibited at the Govett Brewster Art Gallery in 1977. In 1980, Mr Matthews with Lye and other New Zealanders, established the Len Lye Foundation. Mr Matthews has been Chair of the Foundation since its inception and is also the prime champion of the soon-to-be-opened Len Lye Centre in New Plymouth.

Mr Matthews has been involved in many other philanthropic projects, including spearheading efforts to save the Taranaki Opera House, setting up and funding the Technix Computer Awards and being a major funder and supplier of workshop facilities to the Len Lye Foundation for more than 35 years.

Technix has had a long association with UC. It has funded many postgraduate students for Masters and PhD projects relating to both Technix and Len Lye in UC’s Mechanical Engineering Department. Four of these students will graduate alongside Mr Matthews and Professor Kerr when they are awarded their honorary doctorates at a graduation ceremony in Christchurch in December. The ceremonies will take place on 15 and 17 December.

ENDS

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