CSST research director resigns
THE director of research at the Centre for Space Science Technology (CSST) in Alexandra has announced her resignation, just six months after beginning the role.
CSST announced on its website earlier this week that Dr Delwyn Moller was resigning ‘‘to undertake pure research of a more academic nature, whilst CSST will continue with its regionally focused work and research’’.
When approached for comment, Dr Moller said it had been ‘‘an honour to assist CSST in its startup phase and help the company to achieve early milestones’’, and she looked forward to ‘‘hopefully collaborating with the team in the future’’.
Dr Moller’s appointment was announced in January this year and she moved to Central Otago to take up the role in February.
Dr Moller used to work for Nasa, and since 2008 had been working for Remote Sensing Solutions (RSS) as a principal systems engineer focused on nextgeneration sensors and products for Earth observation.
When asked what Dr Moller’s resignation meant for CSST, chief executive Steve Cotter said ‘‘in a small organisation each member of the team plays a critical role, so Delwyn will certainly be missed . . . while this is a setback, Delwyn helped set us on a good course . . . ’’
When asked if anything else had contributed to Dr Moller’s decision, Mr Cotter said ‘‘Delwyn has indicated to us that she is interested in pursuing research of more of an academic nature. We appreciate that this would have been a difficult decision for her to make, and we value the contribution she has made to CSST during the past six months’’.
Mr Cotter said regional research institutes such as CSST were a ‘‘new format for New Zealand’’, and ‘‘ have an emphasis on the commercialisation of technology, not just blue sky research. I think there will always be researchers who prefer to work in an academic environment to working in a more commercial environment. Our goal is to find ways to make the path to commercialisation one that is attractive to researchers wanting to make a meaningful contribution to the global body of knowledge’’.
Work at CSST would continue as usual, while the CSST team would ‘‘reflect on what our current needs are and decide whether minor adjustments need to be made to the [director of research] role before we begin the recruitment process’’, Mr Cotter said.
Dr Moller’s last day at CSST will be October 5.
CSST is a regional research institute based in Alexandra that has $14.7 million of government funding to help New Zealand’s businesses, industries, government and research community access new and existing Earth observation (EO) imagery and data and develop EO data products and solutions specific to users’ needs. It opened in July 2017 and now has 11 staff.