Message from the Head of School
Kia ora koutou,
As signalled in our recent School webinar we are holding a series of Seminars in June to provide opportunities for staff and students of the School of Medical Sciences to reconnect. Loosely themed around the concept of “What I did during lockdown” we are staging two late afternoons and one lunchtime seminar that will be followed by opportunities to socialise with your colleagues and to celebrate the backlog of achievements that have accumulated during our absence from campus.
Each seminar will focus on a single theme but will consist of a number of short presentations on projects undertaken and successes achieved during the lockdown.
Seminar 1: Mahi-Tahi: Co-design kōrero
Thursday the 2nd of June Room 505-007 from 3pm to 4pm followed by drinks in the Atrium
Seminar 2: Teaching innovations: Tales from lockdown
Thursday the 16th June Room Robb/501-B09 from 12noon to 1pm followed by lunch in the Atrium
Seminar 3: New views of medical imaging: New staff, students, infrastructure and opportunities
Wednesday the 29th June Room Robb/501-B09 from 3:30pm to 4:30pm followed by drinks in the Atrium
More information on each session will be sent out closer to each seminar but in the meantime please make an effort to attend as many of these events as possible by saving the following dates in your calendar. Remember their prime function is to reconnect with colleagues and learn a bit more about our amazing School.
Nga mihi
Paul
Staff success
Professor Mike Dragunow, Department of Pharmacology and CBR is a renowned neuropharmacologist who has been honoured with both the 2024 Hercus Medal by the Royal Society and the 2024 Marsden Medal by the New Zealand Association of Scientists.
PhD Students success
Congratulations to Joshua Chang and Audrys Pauza, Department of Physiology for their successes at the recent Australasian Society for Autonomic Neuroscience (ASAN) meeting in Sydney.
Staff success
Please join me in congratulating Dr Michael Plunkett who was awarded a prize for his talk on ‘Autonomic reflex drivers of exercise limitation in pulmonary arterial hypertension’ at the 2024 Heart Lung Foundation (formerly GLREF) Scientific Session.
New staff
The Medical Imaging team is pleased to welcome Dr Ellen Woodcock, who is joining the team as a Professional Teaching Fellow in the PGDipHSc [Cardiac Ultrasound] Programme.
New PhD student
The Medical Imaging team is excited to welcome PhD student, Jiangfan Yu.
Sir Peter Gluckman research medal
Professor Julian Paton from the Department of Physiology is the 2024 recipient of the Sir Peter Gluckman Medal.
Partridge Laureates Family Foundation
Professor Julian Paton from the Department of Physiology, together with Dr Amanda Dixon McIver from IGENZ, Auckland, recently became the inaugural Partridge Laureates.
High impact papers
Associate Professor Samantha Holdsworth, Associate Professor Miriam Scadeng (HoD) and Dr Daniel Cornfeld (Honorary Fellow) from the Department of Anatomy and Medical Imaging were involved in a study that explores a specialised MRI technique.
PhD success
Congratulations to Thalia Babbage, Department of Physiology for successfully defending her PhD thesis.