Prime Ministers Science Prize 2022

At a big shindig on the Wellington waterfront I photographed a few weeks ago the winners of this prestigious prize were announced. Prior to that evening I photographed three of these winners for the Royal Society ( it was supposed to be 5 but because of Covid I couldn’t shoot the other two-dang!)

2022 TE PUIAKI WHAKAPĀ PŪTAIAO SCIENCE COMMUNICATION PRIZE

The first was Dr Diane-Sika Paotonu who took out the Prime Ministers Science Communication Prize.

She was a leading voice during the Covid-19 pandemic explaining the technical aspects of immunology, vaccines, the SARS-CoV-2 virus and infectious diseases, Dianne contributed to more than 220 broadcast media stories and 1500 online and print media stories.

A Pacific immunology and biomedical scientist, Dianne is an Associate Professor of Biomedical & Health Sciences-Immunology, and Associate Dean, Pacific, at the University of Otago, Wellington.

2022 TE PUIAKI KAIWHAKAAKO PŪTAIAO SCIENCE TEACHER PRIZE

Any photography assignment where you visit the zoo and see Sunny the one eyed giraffe is a good one in my book!

And it’s obviously a place that has helped inspire students of Doug Walker who won the Prime Ministers Science Teachers Prize. Doug teaches at St Pats college here in Wellington and has collaborated with local partners like the zoo as well as Carter Observatory, NIWA and Te Papa to enhance learning experiences for his students and getting them interested in science.

2022 TE PUIAKI KAIPŪTAIAO ĀNAMATA FUTURE SCIENTIST PRIZE

And finally Benjy Smith won the Future Scientist Prize for research into mathematically modelling the behaviour of twisted elastic bands. This knowledge can be applied to many types of structural engineering.

Benjy was a Year 13 student at Onslow College when he finished his project and is now studying physics and computer science at Te Herenga Waka – Victoria University of Wellington this year and will no doubt go on to great things!