Pat Langhorne, one of 17 Otago academics who have been promoted to Professor, walking across sea ice at McMurdo Sound, Antarctica. Photo: Pat Wongpan.
Dr Langhorne is one of 17 Otago academics who will take up a full professorship on 1 February 2016 while a further 28 University of Otago academics will become Associate Professors.
Otago's new Professors cover a spectrum of research fields, and have been selected following a rigorous process that thoroughly evaluates academic quality and involves input from international experts.
Announcing the new professorships, Vice-Chancellor Professor Harlene Hayne warmly congratulated the 17 Otago staff on their success.
“These well-earned promotions are going to leading academics from across our Dunedin, Christchurch, and Wellington campuses and clearly reflect the range and depth of world-class scholarship at this university.”"These well-earned promotions are going to leading academics from across our Dunedin, Christchurch, and Wellington campuses and clearly reflect the range and depth of world-class scholarship at this university."
Currently in Antarctica working on a project to find an algorithm to predict the algal biomass in the sea ice cover from a measurement of the light transmitted beneath the ice, Dr Langhorne says the promotion is a very personal honour.
“I see being an HoD as a service to your Department (assuming one does a job that is good enough). It is an accolade if your colleagues believe that you can do it. Being promoted to professor is a much more personal accolade.”
Dr Langhorne has been fascinated by the polar regions since her teenage years. After undergraduate physics at the University of Aberdeen, she completed a PhD on sea ice at the Scott Polar Research Institute in Cambridge, England.
In 1985 she was invited to take part in an Antarctic experiment which brought her to New Zealand for the first time, and since 1988 she has been teaching physics and researching sea ice physical processes at Otago.
Dr Langhorne has been Associate Professor since 2007.
“I feel humbled to have had the opportunity to work around great people, many of them young, full of enthusiasm, optimism and great ideas. I also feel extremely grateful to those colleagues who have mentored and supported me, including colleagues from the Department of Physics and from the CRIs.”
Otago's new Professors (from 1 Feb 2016) are:
Colin Brown (Physiology)
Peter Dearden (Biochemistry)
Claire Freeman (Geography)
Jonathan Hall (Classics)
Patricia Langhorne (Physics)
Derelie Mangin (General Practice, Christchurch campus)
Sally McCormick (Biochemistry)
Tony Merriman (Biochemistry)
David O'Hare (Psychology)
Holger Regenbrecht (Information Science)
Poia Rewi (Te Tumu)
Jacinta Ruru (Law)
Diana Sarfati (Public Health, Wellington campus)
Abigail Smith (Marine Science)
Darryl Tong (Oral Diagnostic and Surgical Sciences)
James White (Geology)
Nicholas Wilson (Public Health, Wellington campus)
Otago's new Associate Professors (from 1 Feb 2016) are:
Lynley Anderson (Bioethics Centre)
Boris Baeumer (Mathematics and Statistics)
Vincent Bennani (Oral Rehabilitation)
Lyndie Foster Page (Oral Sciences)
Clinton Golding (Higher Education Development Centre)
Kimberly Hageman (Chemistry)
Mike Hilton (Geography)
Lisa Houghton (Human Nutrition)
Jackie Hunter (Psychology)
Guy Jameson (Chemistry)
Niels Kjaergaard (Physics)
Mihaly Kovacs (Mathematics and Statistics)
Beulah Leitch (Anatomy)
Craig Marshall (Biochemistry)
Jacques van der Meer (University of Otago College of Education)
Janice Murray (Psychology)
Lachlan Paterson (Te Tumu: School of Māori, Pacific and Indigenous Studies)
Chris Prentice (English and Linguistics)
Mark Seymour (History and Art History)
Vicki Spencer (Politics)
Bruce Robertson (Zoology)
Will Sweetman (Theology and Religion)
Geoff Tompkins (Oral Sciences)
June Tordoff (School of Pharmacy)
Shieak Tzeng (Surgery and Anaesthesia, Wellington campus)
Angela Wanhalla (History and Art History)
Ceri Warnock (Faculty of Law)
Kate Wynn-Williams (Accountancy and Finance)