They were attending a day-long Rutherford Symposium, which celebrated the work of pioneering New Zealand scientist, Ernest Rutherford, who received the Nobel Prize for chemistry in 1908.
The prize was awarded for his investigations into the disintegration of the elements, and the chemistry of radioactive substances.
The Rutherford Medal (called the Gold Medal until 2000) is the Royal Society of New Zealand's top award for science and technology, and has been awarded annually since 1991.
Twelve Rutherford medallists attended the symposium, including Otago University Emeritus Prof George Petersen, Otago's only medallist, who said it had been "great" to meet fellow scientists.
Medallists who were absent were Prof Peter Gluckman, who is in Britain, and Prof Paul Callaghan, of Wellington, who is unwell.
Another recipient, Prof Alan MacDiarmid, who was also a Nobel laureate in chemistry, died last year.
The symposium was held on the fourth day of a large chemistry conference, and the more than 300 participants were treated to lively 20-minute talks on a dazzling array of subjects, from the mathematics of rotating black holes to the origins of life and the continuing lure of DNA.
Emeritus Prof John Walker, a soil science specialist from Lincoln University, ended his talk on "soils as part of the ecosystem" by wittily highlighting the ecological shortcomings of current human burial and cremation methods.
Such cremation methods effectively added to atmospheric pollution and conventional deep burying of bodies failed to recycle the phosphorous needed for plant growth, he said.
Symposium co-organiser Dr Allan Blackman said the gathering was a unique event which had proved a "fantastic" success.
