Dr Moses Faleolo, Dr Jenni Hopkins, and Dr Helen Woolner have been awarded Mana Tūānuku Research Leader Fellowships, worth $1.16 million each.

This is the first year the fellowships, intended to support mid-career researchers, have been awarded by the Royal Society Te Apārangi.

About the recipients

Dr Faleolo is a lecturer in Criminology in the School of Social and Cultural Studies. He will use the fellowship award to progress his work developing a distinct “Pacific Criminology” and new approaches to preventing gang violence.

The Royal Society says Moses’ research “will provide the groundwork for culturally responsive and effective approaches to mitigate gang membership and crime in Aotearoa New Zealand and across the South Pacific”.

Dr Hopkins is a lecturer in Environmental Science in the School of Geography, Environment and Earth Sciences. She will use her fellowship to study the composition and dispersal of toxic volcanic ash with the aim of ensuring we are better prepared for any future volcanic eruptions.

Announcing Jenni’s award, the Royal Society commented, “a large volcanic eruption in Aotearoa New Zealand is only a matter of time … This internationally leading research will enhance our ability to forecast the impact of future volcanic hazards”.

Dr Woolner is a lecturer in Biological Sciences in the School of Biological Sciences. Her fellowship project will combine Pacific Island knowledge with genetic and biochemical analyses to investigate the potential of marine organisms to provide new antibiotics.

Her research will involve collecting marine organisms from the Cook Islands and Samoa, and identifying natural chemicals with antimicrobial activity that are harboured within marine fungi and bacteria.

The fellowships run for four years.

A total of 10 fellowships were awarded this year by the Royal Society. A full list of recipients is available here.