Tag Archives: University of Auckland

Researchers Unlocking Renaissance Beauty Secrets

Researchers Unlocking Renaissance Beauty Secrets

Associate professor of art history at the University of Auckland Erin Griffey is a bit of a beauty maven. “I’m one of those people who reads the backs of beauty products,” she says. That’s…

Amy Maslen-Miller a Force for Samoan Scientists

Amy Maslen-Miller a Force for Samoan Scientists

New Zealander Amy Maslen-Miller is a new kind of researcher focused on indigenous agriculture. Young and passionate about what science can bring to food security, she is also keen to understand traditional approaches to…

Engender Technologies Innovates Artificial Insemination in Dairy Cows

Engender Technologies Innovates Artificial Insemination in Dairy Cows

New Zealand AgTech startup Engender Technologies “has created a new microfluidic and photonic technology to sort livestock sperm by sex to enrich X chromosome-bearing bull sperm cells,” writes Jennifer Kite-Powell…

Face Mask That Fights Pollution

Face Mask That Fights Pollution

“It’s a ubiquitous sight in cities like Beijing: pedestrians walking under a thick blanket of smog with their faces obscured by flimsy cloth face masks. These masks aren’t an ideal solution to dealing with the pollution,…

Parkinson’s Disease Breakthrough

Parkinson’s Disease Breakthrough

University of Auckland scientists have made a breakthrough in potential treatments for the debilitating Parkinson’s disease by identifying how it spreads in the brain. The scientists said they had the first strong evidence that the…

Antimicrobials from NZ Labs Help Make an India

Antimicrobials from NZ Labs Help Make an India

Eco-friendly antimicrobial agents developed by a team of researchers at the University of Auckland could contribute in some of the key identified sectors in the nation-building “Make an India” initiative, according to an Indian-origin…

Goat Milk Promises Cheap Cancer Treatments: New Zealand Scientists

Goat Milk Promises Cheap Cancer Treatments: New Zealand Scientists

“Genetically modified goat milk has been used to create a new biotechnology process that promises cheaper anti-cancer drugs, New Zealand scientists said Wednesday.” “Milking goats have been used to produce mono-clonal antibodies (MCA) in their…

Long-legged Arachnids Go to Battle

Long-legged Arachnids Go to Battle

Entomologists from the University of Auckland have found that harvestmen, Pantopsalis cheliferoides, which live in the wet forests of the North Island, are the first animals found to have different types of weapon in…

Next-Gen Facial Animation with the Auckland Face Simulator

Next-Gen Facial Animation with the Auckland Face Simulator

A team located at The Laboratory for Animate Technologies at the University of Auckland’s Bioengineering Institute, is developing multidisciplinary technologies to create interactive autonomously animated systems that will define the next generation of human…

New Zealand Scientist Attains International Pinnacle In His Field

New Zealand Scientist Attains International Pinnacle In His Field

The Riddet Institute’s Principal Investigator, Professor of Food Chemistry Laurie Melton, has been appointed as an editor of the prestigious Food Chemistry publication. Professor Melton’s appointment confirms New Zealand’s leading role in the Food Sciences…

Storyteller Wayne Mills Celebrates Reading with Kids’ Lit Quiz

Storyteller Wayne Mills Celebrates Reading with Kids’ Lit Quiz

In a quaint old theatre in Falmouth, Cornwall, a tall gentleman in a top hat stands facing the stage, like a conductor. The man is not just the ringmaster and question-setter for the

Artist Max Gimblett to Conquer London with Love

Artist Max Gimblett to Conquer London with Love

One of New Zealand’s most renowned and successful contemporary artists, Max Gimblett will be the subject of his first solo exhibition in the UK, “Love Conquers All,” at Kashya Hildebrand…

New Zealand, Germany to Cooperate in Bionic Arm Project

New Zealand, Germany to Cooperate in Bionic Arm Project

Scientists from New Zealand and Germany are to collaborate in developing a bionic joint they say will reduce workplace injuries and help people disabled by strokes. The exoskeleton a machine fitting over the outside of…

USA Today: Breaking Down the All Blacks Haka

USA Today: Breaking Down the All Blacks Haka

USA Today has provided insight into the Haka, which has become a familiar rite to anyone who has watched a New Zealand team play in international sporting events. The Haka, drew headlines this summer as…

600-year-old Waka Found in New Zealand

600-year-old Waka Found in New Zealand

An ancient canoe with a sea turtle carving has survived 600 years in the South Island, creating a scientific stir around the world. A study of the waka by University of Auckland researchers appeared yesterday…

Sirocco the Kakapo a Great Conservationist Spokesbird

Sirocco the Kakapo a Great Conservationist Spokesbird

Sirocco the kakapo is a great spokesbird to travel New Zealand and share the conservation message, according to James Russell from the University of Auckland, who recently met the hand-raised bird. “The kakapo is an…

Graduation Address

Graduation Address

by Peter V. Rajsingh to the University of Auckland Business School May 7, 2103, Aotea Center   Chancellor, Vice-Chancellor, Members of Council, Members of the University, Graduands, Families and Friends… Kia ora koutou katoa! Heartiest congratulations to our Graduands – accomplished, celebrated,…

Lorde Royals Parody – Lawyers

Lorde Royals Parody – Lawyers

The Law Revue presents a parody of Lorde’s “Royals” called “Lawyers” about the life as a law student in NZ yearning to be a successful, cut-throat, wealthy lawyer. The…

Laurence Larson Blends Language Wooing Millions of Chinese Fans

Laurence Larson Blends Language Wooing Millions of Chinese Fans

Auckland University student Laurence Larson, 20, is generating a big following on social media where his music videos sung in the unusual blend of Mandarin and English have been viewed millions of times. With dreams…

Kiwi Students Win Big at Microsoft’s Imagine Cup

Kiwi Students Win Big at Microsoft’s Imagine Cup

A group of aspiring technologists from the University of Auckland have taken out one of three grand prizes and won $50,000 at Microsoft’s Imagine Cup in Seattle. Kiwi team Estimeet won the Innovation category at…

Former Hacker Keeping Secrets Safe at First Look

Former Hacker Keeping Secrets Safe at First Look

For the last month, 34-year-old former Aucklander Morgan Marquis-Boire has been the director of security for startup First Look Media, a website that has become the most prolific publisher of NSA leaker Edward Snowden’s…

Architecture Full of Romantics – Mark Wigley, Retiring Columbia Dean

Architecture Full of Romantics – Mark Wigley, Retiring Columbia Dean

New Zealand-born Mark Wigley has stepped down after 10 years as dean of the Graduate School of Architecture, Planning, and Preservation (GSAPP) at Columbia University. Under his leadership, the school has built on its…

Effortless New Zealand Electro Making Waves

Effortless New Zealand Electro Making Waves

Electro-pop duo Broods, comprised of brother and sister Georgia and Caleb Nott, have helped draw the eyes of the music industry to a country that had only rarely troubled the international charts, Laura Barnett…

Kiwi Doctor to Perform Double Arm Transplant

Kiwi Doctor to Perform Double Arm Transplant

New Zealand Doctor Simon Talbot will lead a surgical team to give a quadruple amputee both his arms back. Will Lautzenheiser, filmmaker and former BU professor, lost all four of his limbs three…

Richard Branson Hosts New Zealand Scientist on Private Island

Richard Branson Hosts New Zealand Scientist on Private Island

A New Zealand scientist has spent a week with Richard Branson on his private Caribbean island playing chess, eating sushi and discussing technology and sustainability. Auckland University lecturer Dr Michelle Dickinson was one of eight…

Four Prestigious US Music Schools Excited about Sylvia

Four Prestigious US Music Schools Excited about Sylvia

Eighteen-year-old Auckland pianist Sylvia Jiang has been offered full scholarships to four prestigious American music school: Juilliard School, Yale School of Music, Peabody Institute of Johns Hopkins University and New England Conservatory. Jiang started learning…

Lamingtons Are Ours Beyond Doubt

Lamingtons Are Ours Beyond Doubt

Lamingtons are definitively of New Zealand origin, with an 1888 watercolour painting by New Zealand landscape artist JR Smythe showing that the coconut covered cake is not really Australian and only an imitation of…

New Zealanders’ Discovery Defended in London Review of Books

New Zealanders’ Discovery Defended in London Review of Books

New Zealander Constant Mews’ academia-shaking discovery of the lost love letters of legendary lovers Heloise and Aberlard is being defended in the London Review of Books after a new book cast doubt on their…

New Zealand’s Warm Weather Patterns to Continue

New Zealand’s Warm Weather Patterns to Continue

The year 2013 was New Zealand’s second hottest year on record according to Auckland University climate scientist Dr Jim Salinger, with the winter season found to be the warmest and temperatures hitting 1.3 degrees…

Shipwreck Find Could Alter Our History

Shipwreck Find Could Alter Our History

Timbers from a shipwreck found in Kaipara Harbour have been dated to some 70 years before Captain Cook, identified as having originated in Southeast Asia as early as 1700. Captain Cook’s Endeavour encountered New…

Close up with Cinematographer Stuart Dryburgh

Close up with Cinematographer Stuart Dryburgh

Acadamy Award-nominee New Zealander Stuart Dryburgh is interviewed in the August issue of American Cinematographer magazine as part of the “Close-Up” section of the publication which each month features a member of the American…

Auckland Students Feminist Video a Hit

Auckland Students Feminist Video a Hit

YouTube’s parent company, Google, has admitted the site made a mistake when it removed Auckland University law students’ viral parody video of Robin Thicke’s “Blurred Lines”. The video received over 300,000 views before it was…

Dancer Bound for Fame in San Francisco

Dancer Bound for Fame in San Francisco

Eighteen-year-old Aucklander Joel Walsham has become the first New Zealander to be awarded a scholarship to prestigious United States dance university, LINES Ballet in San Francisco. Early this year Walsham flew to the United…

Timothy McFarland: ‘Unrivalled Teacher’ and Expert on Medieval German Literature

Timothy McFarland: ‘Unrivalled Teacher’ and Expert on Medieval German Literature

Hamilton-born Timothy McFarland taught medieval German literature ‘with passion to generations of students,’ at University College London. ‘If the impact of a great university teacher is on the horizons they open up and the…

Big Ears Of The Insect World

Big Ears Of The Insect World

The iconic New Zealand weta has ears similar to those of a whale, researchers at the University of Auckland have found. The ears of this 8cm-long Auckland tree weta are the white disks that…

Collected Stories of Our Time

Collected Stories of Our Time

Auckland University has launched the first anthology of New Zealand literature bringing together fiction and non-fiction, poetry and prose into one volume. The 1184-page Anthology of New Zealand Literature was edited by Jane Stafford…

Computer Games Raise Spirits

Computer Games Raise Spirits

A computer game designed to lift teenagers out of depression is as effective as one-on-one counselling, researchers at the University of Auckland have found. Researchers tested an interactive 3-D fantasy game called SPARX on…

Well-being in Advanced Age

Well-being in Advanced Age

Older Maori who are engaged in cultural practices and connected to their traditional community have a higher quality of life, according to a ground-breaking study by researchers at the University of Auckland called, “Life…

Chicken Little Might Be Right

Chicken Little Might Be Right

Over the past ten years, the height of clouds has been shrinking according to researchers at the University of Auckland. The time frame is short, but if future observations show that clouds are truly…

Sustainability Success Inspires

Sustainability Success Inspires

Along with its other exports, New Zealand has given us a template for sustainability success according to Huffington Post writer Craig Comstock. “New Zealand, apart from supplying the setting for The Lord of the Rings, is a…

Engines Off For Clean Hulls

Engines Off For Clean Hulls

Scientists at the National Institute of Water and Atmospheric Research (NIWA) and Auckland University have found a possible answer to a multi-million-dollar problem for shipping companies around the world. Switching off a vessel’s generator…

Sharks on Holidays

Sharks on Holidays

Scientists from the National Institute of Water and Atmospheric Research (NIWA), Department of Conservation (DOC), and University of Auckland have discovered that the great white shark, can travel thousands of kilometres on seasonal migrations,…

Sleeping Right in Pregnancy

Sleeping Right in Pregnancy

Auckland University researchers have found a link between sleep position in the final hours of pregnancy and the risk of late stillbirth. Women who did not sleep on their left side on their last…

Pregnancy Breakthrough

Pregnancy Breakthrough

Scientists at Auckland University’s Liggins Institute and the Crown Research Institute AgResearch have helped find a link between a woman’s diet during pregnancy and her child’s chances of becoming overweight. Professor Peter Gluckman, who…

Talking Clinical Ethics

Talking Clinical Ethics

Associate professor and chair of the department of philosophy at the University of Auckland Tim Dare recently delivered the keynote talk, entitled “Challenges to Clinical Ethics Committees”, at Washington and Lee University’s Medical Ethics…

Robotic Tai Chi

Robotic Tai Chi

Christchurch-based gaming company Stickmen Studios and researchers at the University of Auckland have teamed up to customise a robot that will help elderly people stay active through interactive games. The robot is called Eldercare…

Wired for drive

Wired for drive

Auckland UniServices has launched a technology allowing cars to charge wirelessly, employing the same technology used to charge electric toothbrushes. The company behind the technology, called HaloIPT, is a technology development company founded by…

Apprentice Acumen

Apprentice Acumen

Paloma Vivanco-Coutts, 29, is the first New Zealander to appear on reality television show The Apprentice UK. Peruvian-born Vivanco-Coutts has been living in London since 2006. She recently married a New Zealander and is…

Calcium Cancer Link

Calcium Cancer Link

Professor Ian Reid and colleagues at the University of Auckland have found a link between calcium supplements and a higher rate of heart attacks. The research team pooled the results of 11 clinical trials…

Undersea utterances

Undersea utterances

Researcher Shahriman Ghazali of Auckland University has discovered that fish communicate with each other in a secret language of grunts, growls, chirps and pops. Predators may even hunt out prey by intercepting fish talk,…

Sound Return

Sound Return

Researchers from the University of Auckland have discovered a potent new drug which once injected into the inner ear could reverse hearing loss caused by prolonged exposure to loud noise. The chemical agent ‘ADAC’…

Sizing Up Pacific Atolls

Sizing Up Pacific Atolls

Professor Paul Kench of Auckland University’s environment school and coastal process expert Dr Arthur Webb of the Fiji-based South Pacific Applied Geoscience Commission have found that despite rising sea levels some Pacific Island coral…

Exercise Habits Studied

Exercise Habits Studied

University of Auckland researchers have compared the exercise habits of 84 first-time mothers in a study which has shown that exercise during pregnancy may help babies start life at a healthy weight. The women…

Solid selection

Solid selection

Porirua-born sculptor Michael Parekowhai has been selected to represent New Zealand at the 2011 Venice Biennale. Parekowhai, 42, received the Arts Foundation of New Zealand Laureate Award in 2001 and works as an associate…

Understanding Terroir

Understanding Terroir

Auckland University scientists are working with winemakers attempting to solve the puzzle of terroir by researching yeast varieties indigenous to West Auckland vineyard Kumeu River Estate. The study has uncovered close to 100 new…

Sweet Solutions

Sweet Solutions

Researchers at the University of Auckland are working with dairy company Fonterra to develop a “medical dessert” which is proving to be useful in reducing the side-effects of chemotherapy in cancer sufferers. The ice cream, called ReCharge,…