President's column

As I write this, it is the beginning of week two of term 1 at the University of Canterbury and the campus is humming with activity. It is great to see so many students engaging in tertiary studies, including chemistry. Our local branch has already planned a schedule of activities for the year, including working with ChemSoc students to organise a student BBQ. We are looking forward to an active year for the Canterbury branch, and I hope other branches will be doing the same.

Our first event for the year was the Global Women’s Breakfast on 10 February which was attended by around 30 people. The guest speaker was Professor Lucy Johnston, Deputy Vice Chancellor of Research & Innovation at the University of Canterbury who spoke about the importance of not only doing good science but also sharing it with the public. In a time of increasing dis- and misinformation we need more scientists sharing the great work they do. She also reflected on the importance of connecting with others in the workplace and supporting their success. I know several other branches also celebrated the Global Women’s Breakfast and I hope they all went well.

The Global Women’s Breakfast got me thinking about the number of women we have in our discipline. According to the 2025 New Zealand Association of Scientists survey (NZAS, unpublished), 29% of New Zealand chemical scientists are women. This is higher than fields such as engineering (24%) and physical sciences (21%) but lower than other fields including medical and health sciences (65%) social sciences (61%) and environmental sciences (52%). It is interesting to reflect on why this variation exists across different fields, and what we could do to better attract all genders into chemistry related careers.

The NZAS survey also demonstrated that chemistry can be described as a source qualification; a degree in chemistry can be applied across a range of fields, with graduates finding jobs in diverse roles including the medical, engineering, agricultural and environmental sciences. Also, it would be surprising to find anyone with degrees in any of these fields hadn’t studied a few chemistry courses. Chemistry is indeed the central science.

At the recent NZIC Council meeting, we discussed last year’s survey of members, including feedback on the content of Chemistry in New Zealand. Members seem to enjoy a range of content, but some members also expressed reticence to contribute material because they don’t feel they have enough technical knowledge to contribute. However, feedback indicates that readers appreciate a mix of technical and non-technical topics, so I would encourage you to consider contributing when it is your branch’s turn to provide content.

The NZIC works closely with SCENZ (Secondary Educators of New Zealand), and I would like to acknowledge Ian Torrie who has represented SCENZ for many years and recently stepped down as one of our SCENZ representatives. Ian represented SCENZ thoughtfully and with passion.

This year, both the NZIC and the ChemEd conferences will take place in November; the NZIC conference (15 -19 November) will be at the University of Waikato and the ChemEd/BioLive conference (18 – 20 November) at the University of Canterbury. I hope members will take the opportunity to attend (and present) at these conferences.

I would like to finish by encouraging you all to nominate colleagues (or yourselves) for NZIC awards (as well as other awards, e.g. Royal Society Te Apārangi, New Years Honours, etc). There is so much talent within our ranks that needs to be celebrated. For some NZIC awards the person needs to be a member, so you may need to encourage some people to sign up first. We need to be celebrating the achievements of our members.

Wishing you a productive next few months, where your challenges and hard work are rewarded.

‍Whāia te iti kahurangi, ki te tūohu koe, me he maunga teitei

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Seek out the treasure you value most dearly. If you bow your head, let it be to a lofty mountain.

Noho ora mai

Michael Edmonds
NZIC President

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