Comment from the President
Kia ora and welcome to the third issue of Chemistry in New Zealand for 2025. The year really does seem to be flying by.
As I write this I am preparing for my visit to the Waikato and Auckland NZIC branches, having already visited the Otago branch several weeks ago. I am looking forward to meeting members from all the branches and hearing their feedback. I have offered the branches an additional workshop of career development for chemists in addition to my president’s talk, which is one of the outcomes of reviewing the feedback gathered by Joanne Harvey during her presidency. We will be using the feedback that Joanne gathered, along with the feedback I gather during my visits to branches, to identify ways to improve the NZIC for members. I’m hoping to complete my visits to all branches by the end of the year which gives us 2026 to work on responding to the feedback.
In the next few months, we will be rolling out new processes for health and safety for NZIC events which will meet the current legislation. Thanks to Sam Eason for leading this work and creating most of the documents. Sam has also been guiding us through the process of gaining charity status which should have long term benefits for the NZIC.
The review of the science sector continues to bring changes to the science environment while rumour has it the outcomes of the university sector review will be made public soon. It will be interesting to see how these two reviews converge, what the outcomes will be and how the new Public Research Organisations (PROs) evolve. My view is that it will become increasingly important for chemists and researchers to collaborate and also work with the public and politicians to demonstrate the value of what researchers do and their contribution to society and the economy. The focus on applied research which benefits the economy will mean a shift in funding priorities where organisations such as the New Zealand Product Accelerator (NZPA) will provide new opportunities for researchers. The NZIC, through our membership of the Save Science coalition, will continue to challenge problematic outcomes of these reviews, for example, the underfunding of science in general.
On a positive note, it was good to see the government making some investment in practical science in schools with $40 million over 4 years for practical science kits in schools. I hope this is also accompanied by more resources for teacher training and professional development so that they get the most benefit out of these kits.
I’d like to finish by thanking all of those who contribute to the vibrancy of the NZIC – those on branch committees, the NZIC Council, the CiNZ team, everyone who attends and supports our events, and Sam for her hard work keeping us co-ordinated and moving forward.
What is the most important thing in the world?
He tangata, he tangata, he tangata. It is the people, it is the people, it is the people.
Noho ora mai
Michael Edmonds
NZIC President
