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There over 2,500 alumni of the New Zealand Fulbright
programme, and our alumni are key to the continued success of the
Fulbright programme in New Zealand. There are numerous ways for
Fulbright alumni to stay engaged with and give back to the Fulbright
programme.
The first official Fulbright New Zealand Alumni Association was
launched at Parliament on 24 June 2009, and will be welcoming members
shortly. In the meantime, read about the Association here.
Fulbright New Zealand holds alumni events
annually throughout New Zealand and the US.
Fulbright New Zealand has established alumni initiatives including
a fundraising campaign to support extra
Fulbright awards and a buddy system to
support new grantees.
The US Department of State's State
Alumni website is for alumni of all US government-sponsored
exchange programs and features dedicated Fulbright
and Fulbright
New Zealand Alumni Association communities for past and present
participants in our programmes. We encourage all Fulbright New Zealand
alumni to join and participate.
There are active organisations for Fulbright alumni in over 70
countries. The American
Fulbright Association supports a system of chapters in 39 US
states, and links to similar Fulbright alumni organisations worldwide.
The Fulbright Academy
of Science & Technology is a global organisation for Fulbright
alumni in science-related fields. It is an independent organization
which is not affiliated with the US Department of State or any partner
organisations of the Fulbright programme.
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Alumni news
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| See our Fulbright
Quarterly newsletter archive for past alumni news |
| 2010: |
| Fulbright
alumnus CK (Karl) Stead (1987 Visiting
Writer’s Fellowship) was chosen as the inaugural winner
of UK newspaper the Sunday Times’ new EFG Private Bank
Short Story Award in March, winning the world’s largest
short story prize of £25,000. Judges including several
award-winning British writers unanimously chose Karl’s
Last Season’s Man, a bittersweet tale about the
damaged ego of a Croatian intellectual, as the competition’s
winner from more than 1,150 entries from around the world. Karl
intends to use his prize money on travel to the UK. Last
Season’s Man is available to read on The
Sunday Times website. |
| Harkness
alumnus Richard Faull (1975 Harkness
Fellowship) was named Supreme Winner of the 2010 World Class
New Zealand Award in March. The awards, presented by Kea New
Zealand and New Zealand Trade and Enterprise, celebrate New
Zealand innovators and entrepreneurs who have made significant
contributions to the country’s growth and development.
Richard was recognised for his world-leading research into brain
disease at the University of Auckland’s Centre for Brain
Research, of which he is Director. |
Nigel Roberts |
Fulbright alumnus Nigel
Roberts (2001 American Studies Institute) and co-editor
Stephen Levine (a former Fulbright New Zealand Board member)
published the eighth in their series of books examining New
Zealand elections in February. Key to Victory: The New Zealand
General Election of 2009 (Victoria University Press) compiles
a series of insiders’ views on New Zealand’s most
recent election, in which John Key’s National government
came to power. Contributors include Fulbright alumni Rob
Salmond (2000 NZ Graduate Student) and Shaun
McGirr (2008 NZ Graduate Student) both of whom were students
of Nigel’s. Also in February, Nigel was farewelled from
Victoria University of Wellington at a separate parliamentary
function hosted by local MP Peter Dunne. |
| Fulbright
alumna and recently-appointed Fulbright New Zealand Board member
Helen Anderson (1990 NZ Research
Scholar) was elected as a Companion of the Royal Society of
New Zealand in February, an appointment which recognises outstanding
leadership in science, and contributions to the promotion and
advancement of science and technology in New Zealand. Helen
recently stepped down as CEO of the Ministry of Research, Science
and Technology, in which capacity she was instrumental in establishing
funding for the Fulbright-Ministry of Research, Science and
Technology Graduate Awards for postgraduate study and research
in the US.. |
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Filmmaking Fulbright alumni Corrie
Francis (2004 US Graduate Student) and Dawson
Dunning (2009 US Graduate Student) will have their work
screened at the Fulbright Academy of Science and Technology’s
(FAST) first International Fulbright Film Festival in March.
The film festival will be held in San Francisco from 11-14 March,
coinciding with FAST’s fifth annual conference, which is
on the theme of 'Sustainability: Fulbright Scholars Shaping
Tomorrow's Future Today'. See www.fulbrightacademy.org
for details. |
| Fulbright
alumnus Jack Body (2005 NZ Travel
Award) has been selected as one of the International Association
of Music Information Centres' (IAMIC) two Virtual Composers
in Residence for a month from 16 February, alongside Austrian
composer Katharina Klement. The pair will use email, chat, blogs
and the IAMIC website to discuss their daily work, music, education,
possible projects and to track the progress of their work. The
conversation is public and open for public comments on the IAMIC
website. |
| Congratulations
to Fulbright grantee Briar March
(2009 NZ Graduate Student), whose new feature-length documentary
There Once Was An Island won the Jury's Grand Prize at
the FIFO Pacific International Documentary Film Festival in
Tahiti in February, where the film made its world premiere.
There Once Was An Island follows the lives of people
on the low-lying Pacific Island community of Takuu (Papua New
Guinea) as they face the devastating effects of climate change.
The film's premiere US screening will be at the Big Sky Documentary
Film Festival in Missoula, Montana on February 15th. For more
details about the film and screenings visit its official website
- www.thereoncewasanisland.com
- or blog - www.takuufilm.blogspot.com |
| Fulbright
alumnus and tenor singer Simon O'Neill
(1998 NZ Graduate Student) released a new CD in February featuring
scenes and arias from Wagner’s operas Lohengrin, Die Walküre,
Siegfried, Götterdämmerung and Parsifal. Simon is
accompanied on Father and Son: Wagner Scenes and Arias
(EMI Classics) by the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra, under
Finnish-born conductor Pietari Inkinen. He will partner with
the NZSO again to perform a Wagner Gala as part of the New Zealand
International Arts Festival in Wellington on 5 March. |
| The
60 year career in architecture of Fulbright alumnus Bill
Toomath (1952 NZ Graduate Student) will be celebrated
with an exhibition at the Hirschfeld Gallery in Wellington (part
of the newly-renovated City Gallery) from 29 January-14 March
2010. Bill Toomath: Liberating Everyday Life will focus
on three major projects demonstrating his personal articulation
of the modernist concept of open planning, including a house
designed for his parents and a studio extension to his own home
in Roseneath. |
| Several
alumni were recognised by the Queen in this year's New Year
Honours list. Harkness alumnus Bruce Robertson
(1972 Harkness Fellowship) was appointed to be a Knight Companion
of the New Zealand Order of Merit for services as a judge of
the High Court and Court of Appeal. Fulbright alumni Rod
Bieleski (1960 NZ Research Scholar) and Ngahuia
Te Awekotuku were appointed to be Members of the New
Zealand Order of Merit for their respective services to horticultural
science and Māori culture, and Peter
Barrett (1985 NZ Research Scholar) was awarded a New
Zealand Antarctic Medal for services to Antarctic science. |
Paul Samuelson |
Nobel Prize-winning American economist
and Fulbright New Zealand alumnus Paul
Samuelson (1973 US Distinguished Lecturer) died in December,
aged 94. Professor Samuelson was the first American to win the
Nobel Prize in Economics, in 1970, for his development of dynamic
theory and stability analysis, and his active contribution to
raising the level of methodological analysis in economic science.
Professor Samuelson visited New Zealand in 1973 as a Fulbright
Distinguished Lecturer to give seminars at the Universities
of Auckland (on 'New Winds in Economics') and Canterbury (on
'Karl Marx as a Mathematical Economist').
His interest in research was equalled by that in teaching. The
author of the best-selling economics textbook of all time -
Economics: An introductory analysis - he also advised
American presidents including John F Kennedy, Lyndon B Johnson
and Gerald Ford during his seven decade career at MIT.
Photo: MIT News Office/Donna Coveney |
| Fulbright
alumnus and former Board member Charles
Royal (2001 NZ Research Scholar) has been appointed as
Director of Ngā Pae o te Māramatanga, the National
Institute of Research Excellence for Māori Development
and Advancement. One of eight Centres of Research Excellence
funded by the Tertiary Education Commission, Ngā Pae
o te Māramatanga supports Māori research, capability
building and knowledge exchange. Charles is the Centre's the
first full-time Director, based at the University of Auckland. |
| 2009: |
| Fulbright
alumnus Roger Horrocks (1963 NZ
Graduate Student) has curated an exhibition and written an accompanying
book on the life and art of his friend Len Lye, one of New Zealand's
most original artists. The exhibition, Art That Moves: The
Work of Len Lye, focuses on Lye's exploration of "the
mystery of movement" in his films and kinetic sculptures,
and includes the debut of new a sculpture. The book of the same
name, published by Auckland University Press in November, explores
the same theme and includes a DVD featuring four of Lye's films,
footage of his kinetic sculptures and an 18 minute film directed
by Roger which portrays the artist's early years. The Art
That Moves exhibition is on at the University of Auckland's
Gus Fisher Gallery until 6 February 2010. |
| Fulbright
alumna Rebecca Reider (2005 US
Graduate Student) has published an account of the infamous Biosphere
2 project - one of the largest ecology experiments ever undertaken,
in which eight people lived in a gigantic glass terrarium for
two years from 1991. Rebecca, who visited the facility as a
student researcher in 1999, has undertaken several years of
investigation, archival research, interviews and dialogue with
the project's creators. The resulting book, Dreaming The
Biosphere, is available now from the University of New Mexico
Press. |
| Two
alumni were honoured at the Royal Society of New Zealand's Science
Honours Dinner in November. Ken McNatty
(1977 Harkness Fellowship) was awarded the Pickering Medal for
excellence and innovation in the practical application in technology,
for his outstanding contribution to the field of reproductive
biology. He received a cash prize of $15,000 to further his
research. John Barrington (1982 NZ
Research Scholar) was awarded the New Zealand Association of
Research in Education's McKenzie Award for education research.
Earlier in November, Fulbright alumni Philippa
Gander (1980 NZ Graduate Student) and Hamish
Spencer (1983 NZ Graduate Student) were among ten top
New Zealand scientists elected as Fellows of the Royal Society,
and Wendy Larner (2003 NZ Research
Scholar) was one of four researchers working overseas who were
elected as Honorary Fellows. |
| Fulbright
alumnus Brian Opie (1984 NZ Research
Scholar) was recognised for his distinguished service to the
humanities with Te Whāinga
Aronui The Council for the Humanities' Pou Aronui Award in November.
Brian helped found the Council and several other similar organisations
and was instrumental in gaining access for the humanities to
the government's Marsden Fund for research. In presenting Brian's
award, Council Trustee Jonathan Mane-Wheoki said "He has
been pivotal to the promotion of the humanities/aronui in New
Zealand and the person most responsible for ensuring they have
built a position of strength from which to claim their central
authority." |
| Fulbright
alumnus Sir Don Beaven (1958 NZ
Research Scholar) died tragically in a house fire in November,
aged 85. A renowned diabetes researcher and campaigner, Sir
Don received many awards and honours during his distinguished
career including appointment as a Distinguished Companion of
the New Zealand Order of Merit in 2005. His Fulbright exchange
in 1958 was to conduct research into adrenal factors in diabetic
complications for 15 months at Harvard Medical School as a Research
Fellow in Medicine. |
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Fulbright
New Zealand Alumni Association