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Sir Neil Waters Distinguished LecturesThe Sir Neil Waters Distinguished Lecture Series was inaugurated in 2004 to honour the achievements of Sir Neil Waters, former Professor and Vice-Chancellor of Massey University. This distinguished lecture series is held annually in the Institute of Fundamental Sciences and intends to bring a leading and foremost international scientist in the fields of mathematics, chemistry or physics (on a rotating basis) to give a series of lectures at Massey University. The lectures take place in either the winter or summer semester breaks. Two talks will be an overview of a general nature suitable for staff, teachers, students and senior High School students alike. Students studying NCEA levels 2 or 3 in these subjects will find these talks of particular interest. The other two talks will target more specific topics of interest to researchers at Massey. Each lecture is one hour followed by a 15-minute discussion with our distinguished speaker.
Sir Neil Waters
He led Massey University for 13 years through a period of rapid growth and change, enrolment numbers more than doubling to over 28,000 during this time. He retired at the end of 1995. The economic and policy upheaval which occurred during the period of his Vice-Chancellorship affected the tertiary education sector as well, of course, as the country as a whole. Neil says that throughout the changes his vision for the University remained the same, namely that it be respected for its scholarship and he set out to encourage research at all levels through the establishment of a research administration, the allocation of funds and subsequent appointment of an Assistant Vice-Chancellor to manage and promote the University’s research enterprises. For various reasons stemming from the University’s background as an Agricultural College, research in non-agricultural fields had not been developed with staff often being appointed to teach rather than to advice their discipline. He notes that one of his real satisfactions was to observe the change in attitude towards the University by the movers and shakers in the country during the 1989-1990 period. Instead of being seen as fundamentally still an Agricultural College and an upstart addition to the university club the institution was quite suddenly being addressed as Massey University with its opinions being sought and respected. Neil’s later years as Vice-Chancellor were heavily involved with the establishment of a new campus on a green-field site at Albany in Auckland. This was accomplished without any special Government grants or assistance. He laid down the same requirement for the new enterprise, namely that it, too, must be a place of scholarship and research. To help promote this vision Joyce and he are very pleased to be associated with a lecture series which so clearly focuses on excellence and achievement. |
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Neil Waters graduated from the University of Auckland in 1957 with a PhD in Chemistry after a two-year stint as a temporary junior lecturer. In the mid-1960’s following post-doctoral study in the United Kingdom, w was appointed as a lecturer to the staff of the chemistry Department back in Auckland. His wife Joyce – whom he met “over the test-tubes”, or, more correctly, over the X-ray tubes when both were PhD students under the supervision of Professor, later Sir Frederick, Llewellyn – joined the Chemistry staff in 1961. Neil’s research at Auckland was supported by a succession of very able Masters and Doctoral students and he and Joyce subsequently joined some of them in the Oxford laboratory of Professor Dorothy Hodgkin, Nobel Laureate, during two periods of study leave. He also pays tribute to his research colleague, professor David Hall, and to two very supportive Heads of Department, Professor, later Sir Donald, Llewellyn and Professor Peter de la Mare. After being awarded a DSc in 1971 Neil was given a Personal Chair in Chemistry. He remembers that about that time he complained to the Vice-chancellor about the operation of the University’s Computer Centre and promptly found himself appointed to the University’s Computer Committee and subsequently, as an Assistant Vice-Chancellor, to the Chair of the Research Committee. In 1980 he was Acting Vice-Chancellor for the University for 8 months during the absence of the Vice-Chancellor on sabbatical leave. This experience led to an invitation to apply for the vice-Chancellorship of Massey University, a position to which he was subsequently appointed taking office at the beginning of 1983. Election to the Fellowship of the Royal Society of New Zealand in 1982 gave him particular pleasure as his direct involvement in research was coming to an end.