Honours for Otago

The Royal Society of New Zealand has awarded the Thomson Medal for science leadership to University of Otago research and enterprise deputy vice-chancellor Prof Richard Blaikie.

Prof Blaikie is an Otago graduate, a Fellow of the society, and a professor of physics at Otago University.

He received the medal at an award ceremony in Auckland last night for his involvement in ''establishing and supporting nanotechnology as a strong sub-discipline'' in New Zealand and for his leadership of the MacDiarmid Institute, a leading Centre for Research Excellence.

He is a former deputy director, and director (2008-11) of the institute.

Prof Blaikie was ''very grateful'' for the recognition that the award had given to the ''service that I've put in to science leadership''.

The award provided ''positive feedback'' that was not his alone, but also reflected ''a lot of work by a lot of people'', Prof Blaikie said in an interview.

Associate Prof Ruth Fitzgerald, of the Otago University anthropology and archaeology department, was awarded the Te Rangi Hiroa Medal for her work as a medical anthropologist.

This work had placed ''many health issues such as genetic testing, disabilities, reproductive decisions and oral health in a New Zealand social and political context'', award officials said.

Prof Fitzgerald said the medal was a ''wonderful honour'' and ''it just means the world to me''.

Royal society officials said her research covered the anthropology of health and medicine in New Zealand with a particular focus on biotechnologies such as genetic testing.

Emeritus Prof Atholl Anderson, a Fellow of the society, and a former long-serving professor at Otago University, has been awarded the Humanities Aronui Medal.

Prof Anderson, formerly of Australian National University, received the medal for his ''outstanding contributions to the humanities through research on pre-European migration and colonisation of oceanic islands'', award officials said.

Prof Anderson, who now lives in Blenheim, was ''very pleased'' for the recognition he had received of his ''long research career'' , involving both the Pacific and the Indian Ocean.

The award selection panel had said that he was an ''outstanding researcher, writer and communicator of Maori history who has clarified the timing of human colonisation in Aotearoa''.

Prof Ian Reid, of Auckland University, was awarded the Rutherford Medal, the top New Zealand science medal, for his ''seminal contributions to the understanding and treatment of metabolic bone diseases such as osteoporosis and Paget's disease''.

Prof Reid was also awarded the Liley Medal by the Health Research Council of New Zealand.

Other awards: Beaven Medal, Prof Edwin Mitchell; Pickering Medal, Prof Margaret Hyland; Callaghan Medal, Dr Michelle Dickinson; Pou Aronui Award, Prof Margaret Mutu; the Mason Durie Medal, Prof Keith Petrie, all Auckland University; MacDiarmid Medal, Prof Valery Feigin, of AUT University; the Hector Medal, Dr Ian Brown, of Callaghan Innovation; Hutton Medal, Prof Lionel Carter, Victoria University of Wellington.