University of Auckland researchers shine at 2024 Royal Society Awards

Of the ten medals and awards presented by the Royal Society Te Apārangi and the Health Research Council of New Zealand at a 2024 Research Honours Aotearoa event on 20 November in Auckland, seven conducted research at Waipapa Taumata Rau, University of Auckland. 

Liggins Institute professor and president of the Royal Society Te Apārangi, Distinguished Professor Dame Jane Harding, paid tribute to all the researchers being celebrated for their outstanding work.

She says the Society has a vision for an Aotearoa New Zealand that is guided and inspired by science and research, and has an ambitious long-term strategy to achieve that goal.  

“The Research Honours Aotearoa forms an important part of the Society’s mandate to encourage, promote, and recognise excellence in science, technology and the humanities. 

“This year’s winners include leaders who have advanced the frontiers of knowledge across a broad range of disciplines and worked tirelessly to share their expertise."

She said it was also important to celebrate bright new talents making innovative contributions to their fields.

“Importantly we acknowledge all those who have supported our winners to achieve excellence – their whānau and friends as well as colleagues at their research institutions.”

Associate Professor Daniel Hikuroa (Faculty of Arts) received Te Puāwaitanga Research Excellence Award, recognising eminent and distinctive contributions to Te Ao Māori, and to Māori and Indigenous knowledge.

Hikuroa is internationally recognised as an expert in transdisciplinary research that weaves Indigenous knowledge with science and the humanities, investigating how ancestral ideas, including mauri, ora, and whakapapa can complement cutting-edge science.

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Professor Andrew Allan FRSNZ, from the Faculty of Science and Plant & Food Research, won the Hutton Medal for outstanding research in plant genomics and breeding.

Allan leads a laboratory studying plant genomics and metabolism, and how plants respond to their environments. Unconventionally for fundamental research, he works with plants that are economically important crops, such as apples and kiwifruit, instead of model plants.

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Professor Michael Dragunow FRSNZ (Faculty of Medical and Health Sciences) was awarded the Hercus Medal for his world-leading research on the causes and treatments of disorders of the brain.

Based at the Centre for Brain Research, Dragunow is a neuropharmacologist who has made major contributions to our understanding of brain pharmacology and is developing innovative drugs.

His research has focused on identifying the causes of, and treatments for, brain disorders such as epilepsy, Alzheimer's, motor neurone, Huntington's and Parkinson's Disease.

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Professor Mark Mullins (Faculty of Arts) has received the Pou Aronui Award for a career of scholarship on religion in modern Japanese society, and decades of service that have positioned Aotearoa New Zealand at the forefront of global thinking on the sociology of religion.

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Dr Timothy Angeli-Gordon won the Cooper Award for investigating the electrical and cellular mechanisms causing chronic gastrointestinal disease, and using bioengineering techniques to diagnose and treat patients with gut problems.

Gastrointestinal disorders can cause major clinical, economic, and societal burdens. Patients who have debilitating symptoms often have limited options for diagnosis and treatment.

Angeli-Gordon has studied the bioelectrical signals that coordinate the contraction of the muscles in the gut, and how problems with bioelectrical activity can cause disorders of the stomach.

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Dr Lara Greaves (Ngapuhi, Pakeha, Tarara) was awarded the Early Career Research Excellence Award for Social Sciences for interrogating large datasets to explore the complex relationships between Māori identity, social well-being and health.

Greaves is an associate professor of Political Science at Te Herenga Waka Victoria University of Wellington, but also a Senior Research Fellow of Statistics in the Faculty of Science at the University of Auckland.

Her work spans political science and social psychology, reshaping understanding of the complex relationships between Māori identity, social well-being, and health.

As well as the Royal Society Awards, the Health Research Council of New Zealand presented the Beaven Medal for excellence in translational health research to Professor Cynthia Farquhar FRSNZ and her team in the Faculty of Medical and Health Sciences. 

This team’s clinical trials of gynaecology and fertility treatments have changed how women and couples with unexplained infertility are treated world-wide, and led to less invasive treatments and better health outcomes for women and their families.

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