Photo credit: Nava Fedaeff

KEYNOTE SPEAKERS

Simon Cox

Principal Scientist, GNS Science

Dr Simon Cox is a Principal Scientist at GNS Science in Dunedin, with professional expertise in the fields of geological mapping and tectonics. Simon graduated with a PhD from University of Otago in 1993, then developed consulting experience in the mineral industry. Simon now sits in GNS Science’s Natural Hazards Division, where his work involves: fault and earthquake research in the South Island; the mapping of rock avalanches, earthquake-induced landslides and alluvial fan flooding hazards; and building a digital geological map dataset of Antarctica. He has led immediate earthquake response, was part of the Alpine Fault Drilling Project, run experiments on Southern Alps hot springs, and an Earthquake Hydrology project that demonstrates liquefaction damage during the 2010-2011 Canterbury earthquakes was exacerbated by leakage and release of groundwater from artesian aquifers. As a regular recipient of national geoscience awards, he is well respected in the New Zealand earth science community. Widely recognised as a public speaker and communicator of science, Simon also maintains close ties with local iwi/Māori, supervises research students, collaborates internationally and is cited globally, and has a wide-network to science end-users.

John Crouch

MetService

John is a Severe Weather Forecaster at MetService in Wellington with over 30 years forecasting experience. Although he has worked mostly for MetService, he has also worked in Fiji as a tropical forecaster, and as a meteorological expert for the America True yachting syndicate during the 2000 Americas Cup regatta in Auckland. Johns expertise lies in the forecasting of severe weather around New Zealand, with an emphasis on severe convective weather or thunderstorms. John played a key part in the design and implementation of the current severe thunderstorm forecasting and warning program at MetService. Johns other area of expertise lies in the field of radar meteorology, particularly the use of weather radar to diagnose and understand New Zealand weather systems, and other phenomena such as volcanic eruptions and bird migrations. In this keynote presentation, John will talk about the precipitation part of the hydrological cycle and show how the installation of a modern polarimetric weather radar at Hokitika is giving a new insight into the mesoscale and microphysical processes associated with the production of heavy rain along the South Island West Coast and Southern Alps.

Bronwyn Hayward

University of Canterbury

Bronwyn is Associate Professor in the Department of Political Science and International Relations and Director of The Sustainable Citizenship and Civic Imagination Research group. Her research focuses on the intersection of sustainable development, youth politics and democracy.
Bronwyn is a lead author for the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change Special Report on 1.5 and an Expert Advisor for IPCC AR6 and SR 1.5. She is co-primary investigator with University of Surrey's ESRC funded CUSP: Centre for Understanding Sustainable Prosperity, she leads the CYCLES Children and Youth in Cities lifestyle Evaluation study in 7 global cities.
She was an Erskine funded visiting Fellow with University College, Oxford, UK 2017. Recent books are Sea Change: Climate politics and New Zealand (BWB, 2017) and Children, Citizenship and Environment (Routledge, 2012).
She is a member of the International Social Sciences Council steering committee - Transformative Research and co-researcher with University of Oslo, Voices of the Future project.
Bronwyn was lead author for two reports for UNEP's global survey of 18-35 year olds lifestyles and sustainability and a trustee for the UK Foundation for Democracy and Sustainability. Outside academia Bronwyn worked for children's media, serving as a Ministerial appointment to the NZ Broadcasting Standards Authority, and trustee for the SPARK Foundation. She was inaugural joint winner of UC Arts Conscience & Critic of Society Research Award 2014.