Volume 55 No 2 April 2007 - New Zealand Society of Soil Science

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Alan Hewitt - Landcare Research I love soils – especially the complete entities out there in the field. I came to this happy state out of geology and chemistry during a very enjoyable year at Lincoln Uni. way back in ’73. Starting in soil survey with DSIR Soil Bureau in Otago I relished the challenge of understanding how landscapes worked and how to predict soil properties by reading the land surface clues - and without digging too many holes. A PhD followed at Cornell returning home to develop the NZ Soil Classification. I have worked and published in many aspects of soil science including land evaluation, soil quality, carbon dynamics, erosion, environmental risk analysis, data modeling, and latterly databases. A current focus is to provide better national coverage of soil information, centered on the S-map project. In travels about NZ I am constantly appalled at the profound levels of ignorance about soil. We must do better in making soils understandable and knowledge about soil and its services more accessible. I work at Landcare Research at Lincoln as a Research Leader and live at Rolleston with Liz on an acre of non-high-class soil. My acre keeps me busy mowing the stones, and irrigating. I also paint landscapes and portraits and stretch to painting soil profiles, even using soil as a painting medium. Roger McLenaghen - Lincoln University I started my career in soil science at Lincoln College, as it was then named, as a Laboratory Technician way back in 1974. At that time I was working for the late Terry Ludecke with Prof Walker as head of Department. My technical training was from Christchurch Polytechnic were I completed an NZCS in chemistry. Some of the Postgraduate students I worked with in those early days were Bill Risk, Phil Hart and Stuart Ledgard. Once I completed the NZCS I was fortunate to be able to further my studies and completed a number of Lincoln degree papers, cumulating to a PG Dip Agric Sc in 1990. During this period I was appointed Tutor in Soil Science. A role I continue to this day. As tutor I am responsible all of the diploma and undergraduate soil science laboratories. I also lecture to the diploma students. I consider myself as a generalist as I teach into a wide range of soil science topics. Currently my main research focus has been on the use of green manure crops, working with postgraduate students and Leo Condron. ___________ 51
Vince Neall – Massey University The Chair of the Organising Committee for the Joint Australian and New Zealand Soil Science Society’s Conference in December 2008 is Vince Neall. He is Professor in Earth Science at Massey University, having centred his research career around the pedological/geological interface. He first took Pedology as part of his undergraduate degree in Geology and Zoology at Victoria University under the guidance of Colin Vucetich, during the first year Pedology was offered as an undergraduate paper in 1966. He then did BSc(Hons) in Geology and spent six months with Antarctic Division of DSIR, mapping the geology of the Rennick Glacier/Bowers Mountains area of Northern Victoria Land. He was then offered a Junior Lectureship at VUW and enrolled for a PhD. Vince’s PhD thesis was entitled “Some aspects of the Pedology and Geology of Western Taranaki”; it involved mapping and dating tephras, lahars and volcanic debris-avalanches that had not been previously identified, as well as conducting an element cycling study on young Coriaria ecosystems at 1200m altitude on the northwestern flank of Mt. Taranaki/Egmont. On completion of his PhD Vince was offered a Lectureship in Soil Science at Massey University in 1973. Initially he taught with Jim Pollok the Pedology paper and helped out with the third year teaching. Before long he has invited to create an Earth Science programme at Massey, within the BSc degree, which began producing graduates in 1978. This provided the Department with an essential supply of postgraduates, who went on to take the BScHonours and MSc programmes in Earth Science and Soil Science. Vince was also very much involved in the creation of the Graduate Diploma and MA in Emergency Management at Massey. Over his time Vince has been Chief Supervisor to 13 PhDs, 5 Masterates and numerous BSc(Hons.) dissertations. His research interests have ranged from meteorites to marine cores, but his central focus has been on volcaniclastics, volcanic soils and volcanic hazards. Over the years Vince was the first chair of the Egmont Volcano Scientific Advisory Group established by the Taranaki Regional Council. He has been a member of the Ruapehu Crater Lake Scientific Advisory Panel to the Minister of Conservation. He has been a member of New Zealand’s UNESCO National Science Subcommission and joined the New Zealand delegation to the World Science Congress in Budapest in 1999. He was awarded a Fulbright Research Scholarship to the United States in 1979-1980 when he worked with Pete Birkeland at the University of Colorado in Boulder, and Rocky Crandell and Don Mullineaux of the Volcanic Hazards team at the U.S. Geological Survey in Denver. It was fitting that Mt St Helens erupted as the Neall family were half way across the Pacific on their return journey home. Over the years Vince has been elected a Fellow of the Geological Society of America in 1991, and a Fellow of our own Society in 1995. He was awarded a New Zealand Science and Technology Medal in 1997, along with an Environmental Award from the Taranaki Regional Council. In 2000 he was the Society’s Norman Taylor Lecturer. In recent years Vince has been working in New Britain, Papua New Guinea, with Robin Torrence, an archaeologist with the Australian Museum in Sydney. They have been investigating artefacts and manuports in volcanic ash beds extending back 40,000 years. The changing nature of the active tectonic environment with major earthquakes, uplift and a number of plinian volcanic eruptions, during which people were living there, has been one of the fascinating highlights of his career. Vince is ably supported by Jacqueline Rowarth, Professor of Pastoral Agriculture at Massey University, who has recently returned from Australia, and has agreed to take over the Secretarial duties for the Conference. Committee members include Brent Clothier (HortResearch), Alison Collins (Landcare Research), Grant Cooper (Horizons Regional Council), Lance Currie (Massey), Alec Mackay (AgResearch), and Sarah Siebert (Massey). 52
Page 1 and 2: Obituaries Ken Lee and Colin Vuceti
Page 3 and 4: ***Your contributions are required*
Page 5: The need for this knowledge is a cl
Page 9 and 10: Percy Sladen Expedition to the New
Page 11 and 12: articles Soil Biology: A Core New Z
Page 13 and 14: New Zealand Society of Soil Science
Page 15 and 16: and England were published by 1911.
Page 17 and 18: Studying soil formation In 1933 Tay
Page 19 and 20: By the mid 1940s Taylor had formali
Page 21 and 22: processes, and facilitated the stud
Page 23 and 24: surveys of Christchurch, Dunedin, P
Page 25 and 26: Dr Clifford V. Fife started at Mass
Page 27 and 28: David Houlbrooke, Alison Rutherford
Page 29 and 30: Professor Gerold Wefer from the Uni
Page 31 and 32: Lincoln University We welcome Dr Ti
Page 33 and 34: The technical committee believes th
Page 35 and 36: Soil News Editor Iris Vogeler and I
Page 37 and 38: one of the organising committee mee
Page 39 and 40: Recording another soil, John Bruce
Page 41 and 42: Nitrous oxide (N2O) is a potent gre
Page 43 and 44: Upcoming Conferences SOIL - The liv
Page 45: Job vacancies Soil chemist position

Volume 55 No 2 April 2007 - New Zealand Society of Soil Science

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