Antarctica research team win PM’s prize
Scientists making ‘truly outstanding contributions’
It’s the big white elephant in climate change’s room, holding in its icy stores the equivalent of 60m of global sea-level rise. Solving the puzzle of how Antarctica is responding to a warming world couldn’t be more critical to the future of the planet — and it’s no exaggeration to say our understanding would be much cloudier, if not for a small team of Kiwis.
That team, comprising geologists, glaciologists, climate and social scientists from Victoria University, Niwa and GNS Science, have been acknowledged for their enormously important work, with the Prime Minister’s Science Prize.
The scientists have already found that Antarctic melt, driven by climate change, could contribute to global sea level rise of 1.4m by the year 2100 — a higher threshold than the metre predicted in the most recent United Nations stocktake. In some parts of New Zealand, where there was land subsidence, that rise could be as high as 2m.
Nominator Professor Dame Jane Francis, Director of the British Antarctic Survey, said the team has put New Zealand at the forefront of global environmental research.
“Their research has made truly outstanding contributions to this major topic of concern. Their work has impact on a global scale.”
The team’s leader, renowned glaciologist Professor Tim Naish, said the work had involved annual expeditions by scientists who drill deep cores of sediment and ice below the floating icy fringes of Antarctica to understand how ice sheets responded during past times of warm climate.
Though working in difficult, subzero conditions for weeks and months is challenging, Naish said scientists had bigger concerns.
“The effects of global warming are incredibly urgent. The science tells us we have got to act if we are going to prevent serious things happening to Earth’s climate system and polar ice sheets,” he said.
“Ultimately, we are going to see at least half a metre of global sea level rise by 2100 — that can’t be avoided, even if we meet the Paris Agreement target.
“That means 700 million people who live close to the coast will be impacted by high tide flooding. Covid-19 might be killing a lot of people, but climate change still remains our biggest existential threat.”
With the new evidence, scientists are moving focus to communicating with decision makers on how to avoid the worst impacts of climate change.
“There is still time to avoid major meltdown of Antarctica by controlling our emissions, in line with the Paris climate agreement.”
Naish said winning the prestigious prize was a “huge honour” for the team.
“All of us find it so rewarding that we can contribute to this important research area, and make a difference for New Zealand and on the world stage. Our team has diverse expertise and we’ve come at this problem from many angles, from fundamental discoveries to applied research.
“We have international colleagues who look at us and say, ‘How did you guys in such a small country put together such a functional, worldclass team?”’
Among some of the team’s bestknown scientists are glaciologist Associate Professor Nick Golledge, ice core expert Associate Professor Nancy Bertler, geologist Dr Richard Levy, geologist Associate Professor Rob McKay, sea level rise expert Dr Rob Bell, climate scientist Professor James Renwick, coastal hazard expert Dr Judy Lawrence, and academic and science historian Associate Professor Rebecca Priestley.
Part of their $500,000 prize will support a two-year post-doctoral research fellow to work with the NZ SeaRise Programme on Antarctic ice sheet dynamics and implications for sea level rise in New Zealand.
Other winners Dr Miro Erkintalo
The world-leading University of Auckland physicist received the Prime Minister’s 2019 MacDiarmid Emerging Scientist Prize for his pioneering contributions towards new laser technologies.
He has introduced a theoretical model for the description of a new technology that can convert a single laser beam into hundreds or thousands of beams of different colours, known as a microresonator frequency comb.
His nominator, Professor Roberto Morandotti, of Montreal’s Institut National de la Recherche Scientifique, said “micro-combs” are projected to have a big role in many future technologies and “therefore quite likely to have wide societal impact as well”.
Professor Rangi Matamua
The Tu¯hoe astronomer, who has raised awareness about the significance of Matariki, is the Prime Minister’s Science Communications Prize winner for 2019.
Matamua didn’t realise the significance of the manuscript crafted by his ancestor when first given it, but came to fall in love with Ma¯ori astronomy and educate thousands of New Zealanders about Matariki.
Through his research, he has discovered a narrative of the Matariki constellation comprising nine stars. Matamua has drawn a large following on social media with podcasts and videos in English and te reo Ma¯ori. His web series reached one million views in four months and more than 20,000 people follow his Living by the Stars Facebook posts.
Dr Michelle Dalrymple
The Christchurch teacher is the first maths teacher to win the Prime Minister’s Science Teacher Prize.
Head of the mathematics and statistics at Cashmere High School, she used engaging and novel ways to connect her students and other teachers into mathematics and statistics, and said a fundamental part of her teaching is incorporating whanaungatanga, or teaching through relationships.
Her nominator said her teaching stands out because it was strongly based on cutting-edge mathematics and statistics education research, while providing creative and fun strategies that are inspiring for her students.
Thomas James
A robot designed for elderly and people with disabilities to take wheelie bins to and from the kerb has won the 17-year-old Christchurch student the Prime Minister’s 2019 Future Scientist Prize.
A Year 13 student at Burnside High, Thomas designed “Wheelie Drive” after noticing his elderly neighbour and grandparents struggled to use their wheelie bins.
For a student who doesn’t study technology or design, Thomas showed great tenacity in researching and problem solving. He used lego models for his first prototype before learning about micro-processors, programming, autonomous navigation and sourcing the many intricate components he needed to build a full-size self-navigating robot.