As I mentioned in my last posting, I have recently spent time in Canada as a guest of their government. A key focus was to better understand how Canada, with an inherently low risk culture, was advancing its innovation agenda.… Read More »Our Waterloo
Recently I was the guest of the Government of Canada as the inaugural Prime Ministerial fellow—this is a reciprocal programme to exchange senior leaders between Canada and New Zealand. I started by attending the American Association for the Advancement of… Read More »Anti-scientism
The heightened centrality of science and innovation to New Zealand’s economic growth strategy is demonstrated in the reorganisation of government departments announced today. What was the Ministry of Science and Innovation will soon be a central part of the new… Read More »Science and innovation central to New Zealand’s future
I spent some time in North East England over our summer as a member of the International Advisory Board of the Wolfson Research Institute for Health and Well-being. This Institute seeks to create a truly multidisciplinary organisation with its 150… Read More »Boundaries, attitudes and where is the scientist going?
Today the Prime Minister presented the annual science prizes which, while in the name of the Prime Minister, are selected independently by committees appointed by the Royal Society of New Zealand. As before, it was an exciting reminder of the… Read More »A rewarding morning
Science is a human activity, and as with any other human activity there is both good science and bad science. There are also good scientists and bad scientists. The need for high integrity in the science system is obvious in… Read More »Human behaviours
Welcome to SciPoDS Welcome to the Centre for Science in Policy, Diplomacy and Society (SciPoDS), in the Public Policy Institute of the University of Auckland. Positioned at the nexus of science and public policy, SciPoDS combines a commitment to academic… Read More »Auckland Conversations
A recent issue of Nature (3rd November 2011) had two unrelated pieces that together merit comment. The first is a viewpoint by James Shelton, who is a science advisor at the US Agency for International Development, discussing a paper published… Read More »Collective responsibility
One of the achievements I was most proud of during my time as director of the Liggins Institute was the establishment of LENScience, which is the acronym for the Liggins Educational Network for Science (LENScience). It is one of a… Read More »Helping to contain a killer
Earlier this week, the Royal Society of New Zealand honoured a number of young and senior scientists with a range of medals and awards. The Rutherford Medal, the Society’s highest award, was presented to Professor Christine Winterbourn, a biomedical researcher… Read More »We’ve got talent