The Trustees of the New Zealand Institute of Forestry Foundation are very pleased to announce the 2023 awards.
This year they made four awards. The Chavasse travel award, and three student awards: the University undergraduate, the Mary Sutherland, and the Frank Hutchinson scholarships.
The Chavasse travel award goes to Dr Serajis Salekin a scientist working at Scion. Serajis is a scientist specialising in forest modelling. He will use the award to support his travel to the 5th International Congress on Planted Forests in Nairobi, Kenya, in November this year. He will present a paper "Carbon sequestration potential of plantation forest tree species in New Zealand: A comparative study". This conference will also give him the opportunity to build his international scientific networks.
Liam Walker a fourth year Bachelor of Forestry Science (B.For.Sci) student at the University of Canterbury School of Forestry receives the University undergraduate scholarship. This award recognises excellence at the student level and forestry aspirations.
The Mary Sutherland scholarship is open to students enrolled for a forestry or forestry related course at a New Zealand Polytechnic. It recognises excellence at the student level and forestry aspirations. This year the award goes to Peter Kapene a second-year student in the New Zealand Diploma in Forest Management at Toi Ohomai Institute of Technology – Te Pukenga.
The Frank Hutchinson Postgraduate scholarship goes to Simon Smith, a University of Canterbury School of Forestry postgraduate student. Simon’s project is to ‘Identify a process for identification of unstable terrain as it relates to forest operations’.
The trustees were very pleased with the level of interest and the quality of applications and would like to congratulate all applicants as well as the four winners.
More information on the Foundation and its awards can be found at its website here. The foundation was established in 2011 as a charitable trust by the New Zealand Institute of Forestry to advance education in relation to forestry. The trustees are Tim Payn (chair), Andres Katz, Lou Sanson, and Prue Younger.
For any general enquiries about the Foundation please email foundation@nzif.org.nz
