Research

Dr Binh Nguyen and Professor Colin Simpson

Predicting diseases by algorithm

Dr Binh Nguyen and Professor Colin Simpson have used data from 10,000 patients, combined with a state-of-the-art machine-learning algorithm, to better predict onset of the disease.

lab

A trans-Tasman research journey towards an effective vaccine for malaria

Malaria kills around half a million people per year, many of those children in developing countries. The University’s Ferrier Research Institute is part of a trans-Tasman collaboration aiming to change that.

kids being caring

From fleeing school to a career in education

Professor Carmen Dalli specialises in teacher professionalism in the early years and in studying the experiences of infants and toddlers in early childhood centres.

Associate Professor Kabini Sanga

At the centre of Kabini Sanga’s career is mentorship

Associate Professor Kabini Sanga has a distinctive way of bringing people together and helping them deal with their learning challenges, whether in the classroom or the boardroom.

(MRI) system

Improving the MRI experience

Ben Parkinson and Associate Professor Edgar Rodríguez have designed and built a magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) system as part of an international collaboration trying to make the system more accessible and comfortable.

Robinson Research Institute aiming very, very high

Two major funding successes for the Robinson Research Institute will catapult the University into the vanguard of efforts to develop a decarbonised world.

“Lupin and boxthorn” by Peter Lambert. (Screen print, 1983)

Kimihia te Matangaro: Reconnecting whānau to whenua through data science

A team of the University’s software engineers, data scientists, and humanities researchers is bringing new data analysis approaches to the task of reconnecting whānau to whenua.

A LINAC being operated using VR

A new reality for curing cancer

Dr Craig Anslow is working alongside Dr Brian Robinson to develop a tool that allows students to operate a virtual LINAC machine while an instructor observes.

staghorn ferns

Uncovering the social life of plants

A team led by Professor Kevin Burns from the School of Biological Sciences has found colonies of the fern on Lord Howe that cooperate and display behaviours more like those in ant or bee communities.

Circling the square

As Black Lives Matter protests broke out around the United States after the killing of George Floyd in May this year, Professor Joanna Merwood-Salisbury was not surprised to see one location for them was Union Square in New York.

Dr Flavia Donadelli

Why Wellington could be the natural home of reform and innovation

Dr Flavia Donadelli wrote about our predilection in the March 2020 issue of Policy Quarterly, published by the University’s Institute for Governance and Policy Studies.

Pulling back the curtain on building knowledge

The human face of research is highlighted in a documentary film and podcast series featuring three of the University’s leading academics.

Dr Helen Woolner

Traditional chemistry

Dr Helen Woolner has spent the past few years researching Samoan traditional medicine, working alongside fellow alumna, Samoa-based Dr Seeseei Molimau-Samasoni.

Professor Justin Hodgkiss

A material change to the New Zealand economy

The MacDiarmid Institute is now at the forefront of reshaping New Zealand into a sustainable, zero-carbon, high-wage economy and society fit for the environmental and other challenges of the twenty-first century and beyond.

VR headset

Walking the plank—an emotional VR experience

An emotional virtual reality (VR) experience used by School of Psychology researchers Dr Gina Grimshaw, Dr Matt Crawford, and Christopher Maymon.