2004 Annual Report of the Royal Society of New Zealand

The Marsden Fund

The Marsden Fund was set up by the government in 1994 and has been administered by the Royal Society of New Zealand since 1 December 1995. It was established to support excellent fundamental research and excellent researchers, so as to increase the level of knowledge and research skills in New Zealand. The Marsden Fund was named after Sir Ernest Marsden, the founding Permanent Secretary of the DSIR in 1926.

The research supported by the Marsden Fund is investigator-initiated and not driven by commercial outcomes or immediate government priorities. In supporting excellent research, the government is ensuring that New Zealand is contributing to, and benefiting from, the advancement of knowledge globally, and is fostering diverse areas of research of a very high calibre. The Marsden Fund also provides for the long-term and sometimes serendipitous aspects of research, which may lead to profound or unexpected discoveries. The work may also catalyse important developments in previously unrelated and strategically important fields of knowledge.

A Marsden Fund Council has been appointed by the Minister of Research, Science and Technology. The Council and the Royal Society have signed a Memorandum of Understanding in which the respective roles of the Council and of the Society are formalised. The Memorandum indicates a strong role for Council in setting the strategic direction of the Fund, with executive support and policy advice from the Royal Society, and a continued active role for the Council in assessing applications to the Fund. Dr Diana Hill (Global Technologies) is the Chair with the other members of the ten-member Council being Deputy Chair, Dr Garth Carnaby (Canesis), Professor Rob Ballagh (University of Otago), Professor Peter Bergquist (Macquarie University), Professor Sally Casswell (Massey University), Professor Marston Conder (University of Auckland), Professor Charles Daugherty (Victoria University of Wellington), Jonathan Mane-Wheoki (Museum of New Zealand - Te Papa Tongarewa), Professor Pat Sullivan (Massey University), and Dr David Wratt (NIWA).

In 2004, applications were considered by 8 broad discipline-based panels, comprising 61 panellists in all. The convenors of the panels were drawn from the Marsden Council.

Funding in 2004 was increased by $1.5 million, bringing total annual funding to $34.289 million. In September, the annual round of new Marsden awards was announced - 71 new projects, including 25 Fast-Start grants - which were allocated $11.8 million for their first year of activity, and $33.2 million overall. A total of 972 preliminary proposals (744 Standard proposals and 228 Fast-Starts) had been received in February, of which 194 were asked to submit a full proposal. The final number of successful proposals represents a 7.3% success rate. The projects to be funded are listed in Appendix 1.

Marsden Fund Update, the quarterly newsletter edited by Anna Meyer, continued to publish a wide range of research stories and news on the Fund. The announcement of funding in September was again accompanied by extensive media coverage.

The first 20 Fast-Start recipients, who received their grants in 2001, have now completed their research, or are close to it. Some highlights are indicated below.

Dr Janet Wilmshurst (Landcare Research) has cleverly used the ages of seeds which have been gnawed by kiore (Polynesian rat), to ascertain the time when humans first settled in New Zealand. She has assumed that kiore arrived with the first human settlers and, by radiocarbon dating seeds preserved in wetlands, has found that the first settlements occurred 800 years ago.
Dr Ken Carlaw (Canterbury University) has measured productivity and technological change in a collection of 14 OECD economies (including New Zealand), and within the industries of New Zealand. Results have revealed that when investment quality change goes up (a measure of technological change), productivity decreases. This result supports theoretical predictions of productivity slowdowns when major new technologies emerge. It is only when the technology becomes established that productivity gains can be made. The research has resulted in a new theoretical model of technology driven growth.
Dr Stéphane Popinet (NIWA) has developed new mathematical and computational approaches to solve difficult fluid flow problems. His techniques are fast, and can cope with more complicated flows than previous models. They are applicable to scales as diverse as atmospheric flow in weather forecasting and wind flow around buildings.
Dr Paul Kench (the University of Auckland) has investigated the physical processes that control atoll reef island formation and change and has found that island shape is the most important parameter. He has generated a new theory on the formation of reef islands in the Indian Ocean (in Baa atoll, part of the Maldives) which suggests that the reefs may be able to cope with future rises in sea-level. In the wake of the Boxing Day tsunami which strongly affected the Maldives, the Royal Society of New Zealand has granted $7000 for Dr Kench to carry out an urgent re-survey of islands in Baa atoll in February 2005. This will quantify the physical impact of the tsunami and will add to knowledge of the robustness of the reef islands.
Dr Mike Clearwater (HortResearch) has investigated the mechanism of water transport in plants and, specifically, how plants cope with air bubbles in the xylem which appear as a result of drought and other causes of stress. He has found that magnetic resonance imaging, in which New Zealand is a leader, is an excellent non-invasive technique for this study. So far, he has discovered, contrary to other researchers, that there is no indication that plants can eliminate the bubbles in the xylem. This work has been published as a cover story in Plant, Cell & Environment.
Dr Angus McIntosh (University of Canterbury) has investigated the population ecology of stream insects that have larval and adult phases in their life cycles. He has found that predation by terrestrial wasps, and physical barriers such as culverts, affect the population distribution of caddis flies. His work shows that it is important to consider both the larval and adult stages of stream insects when investigating population dynamics, and has implications for the repopulation of urban streams and streams affected by mining and dairying.
Dr James Noble (Victoria University of Wellington) has investigated the way that objects in computer programs refer to other objects, and has designed methods to limit distant relationships which are a major source of problems in building correct software and improving it once it is built. Now a professor, Dr Noble has since gained another Standard Marsden grant which pursues this work further.
Dr David Hutchinson (University of Otago) has developed a new theoretical model for the behaviour of the Bose-Einstein condensate, a new state of matter that may provide an avenue into revolutionary new technologies such as quantum computing and atomic lasers. Other models have assumed that condensates form at a temperature of absolute zero, but in actual fact they form at slightly above zero. Dr Hutchinson’s model takes account of this and has been able to resolve some anomalous findings that have troubled researchers since 1997. This Fast-Start grant has led on to a new Standard grant being awarded to Dr Hutchinson to study Bose-Einstein condensation and related phase transitions in a two-dimensional trapped Bose gas.

Highlights from researchers with Standards awards for 2004 are:

Associate Professor Mervyn Merrilees (the University of Auckland) is looking at the smooth muscle cells comprising artery walls. Disease-prone thickened artery walls contain less elastin fibres and increased levels of cholesterol binding molecules; the team have used a chance finding to try to understand the mechanism by which a particular gene, called V3, effects these changes, in order to create disease-resistant blood vessels. They have carried out experiments in which the effect of the V3 gene has been nullified, creating arteries enriched in elastin. The team has funding from three sources to continue the work, which has implications for the treatment of atherosclerosis and lung disease.
Associate Professor Geoff Krissansen (the University of Auckland) has led a team which has played a major role in unravelling the process by which the body’s own immune system can attack the nerve fibres of the brain and spinal cord, causing the debilitating disease multiple sclerosis. This has led to the development of an antibody-based treatment pioneered by the Auckland Medical School, which has the potential to relieve suffering in human MS patients.
Associate Professor Phil Yock’s multi-institutional MOA team has used the technique of gravitational microlensing to make several novel discoveries, including the first definitive detection of a planet by gravitational microlensing and the detection of the most distant known planet, 17000 light years away. In 2002, Japanese collaborators in the MOA team were successful in gaining funding for a 1.8 m telescope. This was opened at Mt John in Canterbury in late 2004 and is the largest telescope in New Zealand.
Associate Professor David Wharton (University of Otago) has discovered that Antarctic nematodes appear to employ different strategies (dehydration, extracellular freezing, intracellular freezing) to cope with subzero temperatures, dependent on the rate of freezing. Their novel ice active protein (which resists damage caused by freezing) is not similar to other ice active proteins such as antifreeze or ice nucleation proteins, and thus appears to be a new type of ice active protein.
Professor Barry Scott (Massey University) and his team have discovered the synthetic pathway of paxilline. This is an extremely potent toxin in mammals, made by the fungus Penicillium; until now, its method of biosynthesis was not known.
Dr Henrik Kjaergaard (University of Otago) has made calculations which show that water dimers account for 1% of the atmosphere’s total absorption of sunlight, and therefore must be included in climate change models. His results have recently been verified by a German experimental group, who has published them in the prestigious journal, Science.
Professor James Sneyd (the University of Auckland) is using a mathematical modelling approach to see how intracellular calcium waves are co-ordinated into intercellular waves, which in turn control the secretion of enzymes. He has successfully modelled the propagation of waves within the pancreas, which produces digestive enzymes.
Professor Dame Anne Salmond’s book, “The Trial of the Cannibal Dog: Captain Cook in the South Seas”won the non-fiction category of the 2004 NZ Montana Book Awards. Professor Vincent O’Sullivan’s book “John Mulgan - Long Journey to the Border”was also nominated.
Previous Marsden-funded research by linguistics researchers at the University of Canterbury on the origins of New Zealand English (NZE) has extensively documented the early stages of NZE of speakers born between 1850 and 1890. This work has led to two further Marsden-funded projects to the Canterbury team. The first of these, awarded to Dr Jennifer Hay, is investigating NZE of speakers born in the “intermediate stage”between 1890 and 1930; this is the “missing link”between the early stages and the well documented NZE of today and the time when NZE became distinct from Australian English. The second project, led by Professor Margaret Maclagan, is analyzing how the pronunciation of the Māori language has changed from the late 19th century until today.
Professor Barry Reay (University of Auckland) published a book, “Rural Englands”, which focuses on the life of English rural workers from 1830-1930 (a previously neglected group of people in other histories of England). Professor Reay has explored the diversity of English rural communities during this period, and has found that the extent of local variation was such that it forced a rethinking of the concept of a “rural England”; this term needs to be replaced with “rural Englands”instead.
Professor Brian Nicholson and Professor Hugh Morgan (both from the University of Waikato) are investigating the chemical structure and mode of action of Salvarsan, an arsenic compound that was introduced in 1910 by Paul Ehrlich as a highly successful specific cure for syphilis. The team has successfully synthesised Salvarsan and determined its true structure using electrospray mass spectrometric techniques. They have also been able to back up their results by analysing a rare original Salvarsan sample prepared by Ehrlich, thus solving a nearly 100 -year old mystery.
Dr Hamish Campbell (Institute of Geological and Nuclear Sciences) is leading a multi-disciplinary and multi-institution team of researchers who are studying the origins of the flora and fauna of the Chatham Islands. This is in the light of recent evidence which suggests that the islands may have emerged from the sea as little as 4 million years ago. Preliminary studies have revealed that several birds, insects and plants on the Chathams are not as different to their New Zealand relatives as might have been expected, and may have migrated to the Chathams much more recently than previously thought.

Dr Jason Gush rejoined the staff of the Research Funding unit early in the year on a temporary assignment until August as an additional Research Assessor. In October Dr Andrea Knox, resigned from her position as Evaluation Officer for the Royal Society and Jason was appointed to a permanent position in her place.