SGEES Professor received top science honour
SGEES Prof Ralph Chapman is a member of the research team which has been presented with the 2014 Prime Minister’s Science Prize.
SGEES Prof Ralph Chapman is a member of the research team which has been presented with the 2014 Prime Minister’s Science Prize.
The He Kainga Oranga/Housing and Health Research Programme has worked nationwide for more than 15 years to understand and address quality deficiencies in housing, particularly as they affect vulnerable groups such as children, older people and those with chronic health conditions such as asthma.
The multi-disciplinary 28-member team is led by Ralph’s wife Professor Philippa Howden-Chapman from the University of Otago and is made up researchers in the areas of social science, epidemiology, biostatistics, engineering, physics, ar-chitecture, building science and economics.
Prof Chapman carried out the economic analysis (cost-benefit study) of a housing insula-tion intervention, and subsequently supervised an economic analysis of a home heating intervention. He is currently engaged in a study focusing on older people with Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD), and the merits of helping them heat their houses in winter. The economic assessments have been signifi-cant in the overall programme’s policy credibility.
The team’s research, which has involved thousands of New Zealanders participat-ing in ‘community trials’, has earned international acclaim from organisations such as the World Health Organisation and the International Energy Agency, and in-formed policy developments for successive New Zealand governments.