MASSEY UNIVERSITY News
Maths man leading research revolution
Encouraging research into “ideas not yet seen” then matching it with business brains in order to help propel New Zealand towards greater economic prosperity is the new mission for Massey University’s Distinguished Professor Gaven Martin.
As leader of the University’s innovation strategy, Professor Martin wants more commercialisation of new ideas and intellectual property from academic staff.
“We want to create something novel at Massey Albany – a mix of world class multidisciplinary research across the board, coupled to an innovation and entrepreneurial framework to get the stuff out there into New Zealand business where it can work.”
Professor Martin, a pure mathematician and director of the New Zealand Institute of Advanced Study, is adamant that teaching students how to think and problem-solve are the kinds of skills and knowledge New Zealand needs to invest in.
“We will go nowhere with an unskilled workforce. We must up-skill. I wonder how our economy would perform if we had the most well educated population in the world? Let’s have the experiment - invest in education across the board and see what happens. Some in Government say we can’t afford to do this. I’d argue that we can’t afford not too – without this, the future seems too grim.”
Professor Martin grew up tinkering and inventing things out of old speedometers, carburettors and other spare parts in his panel beater father’s garage in west Auckland. He has had a meteoric rise in academia, becoming a professor at Auckland University at the age of 32 and a distinguished professor when he joined Massey six years ago.
As founding director of the institute, launched in 2007, he is dedicated to fulfilling its aspiration to be a world-class centre for theoretical research and intellectual inquiry in the sciences through his numerous collaborative research projects with mathematicians around the world.
In the wider community, at schools and in the media he is an outspoken champion of the importance of mathematical skills for effectively developing tools to find answers to puzzling questions that underpin our understanding of how the physical
world works.
“Virtually every piece of modern technology is underpinned by quite sophisticated mathematics – to the blissful unawareness of the public. From the abstract group theory in compression algorithms that make your phone, television, camera and ATM card work – to the geometry and analysis of partial differential equations modeling weather, aerodynamics and medical imaging technology like CAT scans.”
He says that contrary to what many think, mathematicians are highly sought after across a range of careers and disciplines – medicine, technology, business, finance and elsewhere – because of their exceptional problem-solving ability.
“The best people in virtually any discipline will have strong mathematical and analytical skills”.
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Work disease and child mobility studies get $3.9m The projects, over three years, investigate industrial disease and children’s mobility, physical activity
The university is based in Limavady Derry, birthplace of Mr Massey, the New Zealand Prime Minister from 1912-25 after whom Massey University is named. Right: Dr Brad Patterson, the inaugural William Ferguson Massey Fellow Dr Philip Fink of the School of Sport and Exercise will use a pair of new, state-of-the-art, |
Brad Patterson has been confirmed as the inaugural William Ferguson Massey Fellow for the one-year fellowship agreed between the College of Humanities and Social Sciences and the Institute of Ulster Scottish Studies at the University of Ulster.
Education: Carmel College
