‍Comment from the President

Welcome to the first issue of Chemistry in New Zealand for 2025. I hope your year has started well. 

This is my second time as NZIC president, having previously occupied the role in 2013, at a time when those of us in Christchurch were still affected by the Christchurch quakes. In 2025 it appears that it will be political tremors that will be one of our collective challenges, as the review of the science and university sectors progress. In such uncertain times our strength is working together, both within the NZIC and with our fellow scientific organisations to show all of New Zealand the important role chemistry, and more generally science, plays in creating a healthy and thriving society and economy.

As I start my presidency, I see many positive changes have occurred over the past twelve years, with improvements to the website and journal, and updates to our policies. Thank you to all previous presidents and council members for their hard work in leading these changes. In particular, I would like to thank Joanne Harvey for her leadership over the past two years. Working with Joanne and Samantha Easton, our NZIC administrator, has made this transition to the presidency very straightforward.

I write these comments a week after attending the NZIC conference in Dunedin. What a fantastic event! Congratulations to the organisers for putting together such a great selection of inspiring and informative talks. Congratulations also to the speakers and the winners of the NZIC prizes in 2024. Your achievements are truly inspiring.

You will see from my biography that my background is different to many previous presidents. While I have experience as a researcher and educator, I have also spent time in management and leadership roles and my current position has less time pressure than your typical academic. I hope to leverage these differences to focus on advancing the NZIC as much as possible over the next two years. Areas of particular interest to me include: (1) supporting students and early career researchers, (2) connecting more with our colleagues in industry, (3) advocating the importance of chemistry to the public and to politicians, (4) connecting with, and creating more value for, NZIC members, as well as growing our membership and (5) inspiring students to take up careers in chemistry. After all, the students of today are the chemistry professionals (and NZIC members) of tomorrow.

In this edition of Chemistry in New Zealand you will see an article from me exploring the diverse roles our chemistry PhD graduates take up after they graduate. This project was inspired by a lack of information about where our graduates end up, and it was pleasing that one of the conclusions I was able to draw was that the vast majority of graduates are in careers relevant to their studies at least six years after graduating. There is more research to do in this space, but this preliminary research is a reminder of how important our graduates are to industry, academia, government research and advisory services, not just in New Zealand but also internationally.

While I have listed my priorities, it is important to me that I understand your priorities and what you want from the NZIC. Consequently, I will be aiming to visit branches in 2025, so that I have time to hear from you and respond to your suggestions in 2026. I look forward to meeting as many of you as possible within the next year and wish you a happy and productive year in 2025. With all the change occurring in the science and university sectors I am reminded of the following whakatauki:

‍E tu kahikatea, hei wakapae uroroa Awhi mai, awhi atu, tatou, tatou e.
‍‍Kahikatea trees stand together; their roots intertwine, strengthening each other. We all help one another and together we are strong.

Noho ora mai

‍

Michael Edmonds
‍NZIC President

Biographical note

Michael Edmonds is the manager of the Biomolecular Interaction Centre based at the University of Canterbury, providing support to the 70+ researchers engaged in a range of multidisciplinary research programmes and projects spanning science and engineering. Michael completed his undergraduate and PhD studies in organic chemistry at Massey University under the guidance of Dr (now Professor Dame) Margaret Brimble. Following postdoctoral fellowships with Professor Ari Koskinen in Oulu, Finland (1996) and Professor Andrew Abell at the University of Canterbury (1997-1999), Michael moved into the polytechnic sector (2000-2020) working as a lecturer before moving into management, spending his last seven years as Head of Engineering and Architectural Studies at Ara Institute of Canterbury. After taking time off to complete an MSc in organisational psychology (2021-2022), Michael took on his current role in July 2022.