Provenance and guardianship of taonga tree species

David Chagné

7.30 pm Tuesday, 19 May, Palmerston North Central Library, George Street, Palmerston North

David Chagné’s research uses genomics for developing fundamental knowledge and new tools for fruit trees and taonga species. His work has led to understanding the genetic control of many traits that are important to fruit tree growers and consumers such as disease resistance, fruit colour, texture and flavour.  His work on taonga species (mānuka, swamp maire, karaka) embraces new ways of working with, and for, Māori by embedding tikanga, Te Tiriti with co-innovation. David Chagné will present about his work on mānuka genetic diversity, to support regional provenance trademarking for honey, as well as the restoration of an endangered tree species in the Manawatū (swamp maire).

A murder in Texas

John Buckleton

7.30 pm Tuesday, 21 April, Palmerston North Central Library, George Street, Palmerston North

The advent of DNA revolutionised forensic science. Questioning has transitioned to how and when the DNA got there.  Most commonly an innocent pathway for DNA transfer is proposed. This is termed Activity Level Evaluation because it considers the activity that deposited the DNA. Since about 2022 this has become a matter of intense heated debate in the US. Some argue that there is no method by which one can infer which of two different transfer routes makes the findings more probable. Using a murder of a young woman in Texas, I will outline some of the issues.

John Buckleton FRSNZ is a Principal Scientists at the New Zealand Institute for Public Health and Forensic Science (PHF Science). He has had a long involvement in forensic science in New Zealand, Australia, the United Kingdom and the United States. He is one the developers of STRmix, a software package for the interpretation of forensic evidence that contains DNA from more than one person. That package has now been used in over 700,000 cases worldwide. The STRmix team won the Prime Minister’s Science Prize in 2018.

2026 Geoscience Lecture Tour

Do New Zealand’s active faults and volcanoes talk to each other? Insights from 25 years of trenching ancient faults

Pilar Villamor

 7.30 pm Tuesday, 17 March, Palmerston North Central Library, George Street, Palmerston North

Held jointly with Geoscience Society of New Zealand

This year’s Geoscience Tour lecture will review 25 years of trenching active faults in volcanic environments and how scientists’ perspectives on tectonics close to volcanoes changed through that time, from the simple utilisation of volcanic stratigraphy as timelines for paleo- earthquake history to a realisation that volcanic and tectonic processes are so intimately connected that one cannot be understood without the other. Pilar will show paleoseismic evidence based on criteria that she developed to distinguish types of earthquake-eruption associations. Paleoseismic data, combined with geomorphology, borehole data, and geophysics, revealed strong temporal links between fault ruptures and volcanic eruptions. She will also draw on worldwide historic examples and stress modelling to infer possible crustal processes that can explain these time associations. Collectively, these studies improve our understanding of how volcanic eruptions and unrest are linked to active faults and earthquakes in the TVZ.

Pilar Villamor is an internationally respected earthquake geologist and principal scientist whose research on active faults and volcano-tectonic interactions in Aotearoa New Zealand has had a transformative impact on our understanding of natural hazards.