Awards

Ms Michelle Carter

1.  PhD student Michelle Carter received conference funding from the NZ Marine Sciences Society’s First Overseas Conference Travel Fund to attend the International Bryozoan Conference, Boone, North Carolina, USA (July 2007). Michelle presented two talks and a poster.

2.  Honorary mention for student poster: M. Carter, D Gordon & JPA Gardner. 2005. The enigma of a bryozoan polymorph: the avicularium. Poster presentation at the joint NZMSS/Bioinvasions/MARGINS conference, Wellington, NZ. 22-26th August 2005.

Mr Ashley Coutts

PhD student Ashley Coutts received second prize for his poster: A. Coutts & T. Dodgshun. 2005. Ships’ sea chests: an overlooked mechanism for species transfers? Poster presentation at the joint NZMSS/Bioinvasions/MARGINS conference, Wellington, NZ. 22-26th August 2005.

Mr Tyler Eddy

PhD student Tyler Eddy has been awarded $8000 by Education NZ from their Postgraduate Study Abroad Awards. The funding is to allow Tyler to conduct underwater research in Chile in September and October 2007 at Archipelago Juan Fernandez. The research is a comparison of bottom-up and top-down coastal management strategies with respect to their impact on marine community structures.

Ms Irene van de Ven

Dick and Mary Earle Scholarship in Technology. MSc student Irene van de Ven was been awarded this prestigious scholarship to support her MSc research which was based at 2 mussel farms in the Marlborough Sounds. Irene was investigating the impact of disturbance and direct predation by decorator crabs on mussels attached to aquaculture lines in the field.

Dr Ann Wood

Dr Ann Wood of the Centre for Marine Environmental and Economic Research in the School of Biological Sciences has been acknowledged as one of New Zealand’s brightest researchers with a Post Doctoral Fellowship from the Foundation for Research, Science and Technology. The research will be mentored by CMEER Director, Associate Professor Jonathan Gardner. Dr Wood’s research will study the population connectivity and evolutionary relationships of Siphonariid limpets – common to rocky shores throughout New Zealand. These limpets will be used as a model group for addressing long-standing questions about the biogeographical history of New Zealand’s marine biota, the evolution of reproductive strategies, and the role of planktonic larvae in the dispersal of marine species. The research will contribute to the design of effective conservation measures to maintain New Zealand’s unique biodiversity.

Dr Kaijian Wei

Dr Kaijian Wei has been awarded a China Scholarship Council Post Doctoral Research Fellowship to work with Dr Jonathan Gardner. Dr Wei’s research will focus on the application of microsatellite markers to study the population genetic structure of wild and farmed populations of the endemic New Zealand greenshell mussel, Perna canaliculus.

Dr Adele Whyte

1. Whilst a PhD student Adele Whyte was awarded the top prize - Best Student Poster at Conference for her poster: ALH Whyte, JPA Gardner, AG Clark, G E Raumati Hook, TW Jordan. 2005. Metallothionein induction following cadmium and mercury exposure in an endemic New Zealand green mussel Perna canaliculus. Poster presentation at the 5th International Conference on Metallothionein, Beijing, China, 8th-12th October 2005

2. On completion of her PhD, Dr Adele Whyte was awarded the National Maori Academic Excellence Award in March 2007 for her research on environmental toxicology in the greenshell mussel (page7).

 www.victoria.ac.nz/home/publications/victorious_autumn_2007.pdf