11th OERC Symposium 2017 & Ag@otago Colloquium

23rd & 24th November
Hutton Theatre, Otago Museum.

In 2017 the OERC partnered with Ag@otago. with keynotes presenting very topical themes of "Decarbonising Agriculture by 2050", New Zealand ETS post-election 2017 and The future of Energy & Energy Research. The Symposium was opened by Deputy Vice Chancellor Professor Richard Blaikie.

Download the Symposium abstract booklet here.

Click here to view the full 2017 OERC Symposium & Ag@otago photo Album

Student Prizes

This year we awarded 3 student prizes of $500. Powerco sponsored the 'OERC best student paper prize' won by Ross Hogue for his presentation ""Producing hydrogen from water and sunlight using molecular cobalt catalysts". Zeecol sponsored 2 prizes 'Ag@otago best student paper prize' won by Oseweuba Okoro for his presentation "Anaerobic co-digestion of defatted hydrolyzed meat processing dissolved air flotation sludge and meat processing stockyard waste" and 'Best student poster prize' won by Sandeep Biswas for his poster on "PsbX is required for recovery from high-light-induced damage to Photosystem II in the cyanobacterium Synechocytis sp. PCC 6803" Congratulations to the winners and thank you to our sponsors.

Keynote Symposium presentations

• Professor Himadri B. Pakrasi, Director, International Center for Energy, Environment and Sustainability (InCEES) Washington University "InCEES: An International Collaboratory for Energy, Environment and Sustainability at Washington University"
• Professor Hugh Campbell, University of Otago "NZ Agriculture and the Environment Diverging Pathways to a Sustainable Future"
• Emeritus Professor Frank Griffin, University of Otago "Ag@OtagoA New Research Theme"
• Assoc Professor Martin Hohmann-Marriott, Norwegian University of Science & Technology "The Bioeconomy - an Utopian Necessity"
• Dr Suzi Kerr, Senior Fellow, Motu "Clear price signals and cooperation through 'climate teams' on the path toward low emissions"
• William Mook, CEO of Zeecol "Can we live without oil and gas?"
• Eric Pellicer, Network Transformation Manager at Powerco & Board Member at Drive Electric Inc. "Resilience and Reliability – Innovation at the grid edge to improve customer outcomes"
• Simon Arnold, Chief Executive, National Energy Research Institute "Implementing an Energy Research Strategy for NZ"

Symposium presentations

• Assoc Prof Ben Woolicroft "Designing Transportation Systems for Quality Life"
• Dr Kiti Soumalainen "How good are people at reporting their energy use?"
• Oluwuyi Babaranti "Isotopic signatures in the tissues of Mytilus galloprovincialis and Ulva latuca as bio-indicators for assessing the impact of discharged sewage effluent on the nearshore coastal marine ecosystem along Otago Peninsula, New Zealand"
• Oseweuba Okoro "Anaerobic co-digestion of defatted hydrolyzed meat processing dissolved air flotation sludge and meat processing stockyard waste"
• Assoc Prof Rosalind Whiting "Financial Management of Drought under Different Production Intensity Systems:Insights from New Zealand Dairy Farmers"
• Madeleine Mark "Green fuel generation using waste heat exhausted from milk powder spray dryers"
• Warren Fitzgerald "Energy in New Zealand's Food System"
• Jefferson Dew "Flexible Energy Consumption on NZ Farms: A Socio-Technical Study"
• Assoc Prof Ivan Diaz-Rainey "Electricity futures and stock market response to electricity sector material disclosures"
• Daniela Aguilar Abaunza "The legal challenges of the emerging active role of electricity consumers"
• Greg Sise "The 2017 Dry Period"
• Will Anglin "Our Blueskin Turbine and the National Policy Statement on Renewable Electricity Generation"
• Jane Wilcox & Dr Michael Jack "OERC Energy Living Lab"
• Charlie Ruffman "Renewable hydrogen fuel production using earth-abundant molybdenum disulfide catalysts Earth-abundant molybdenum disulfide catalysts"
• Cem Akcaoglu "Thermochemical materials for thermochemical heat storage systems"

Symposium poster presentations

• Oseweuba Okoro "Techno-economic assessments of scaled–up biodiesel production using meat processing dissolved air flotation sludge as feedstock”
• Carsten Dortnas "The economic benefits of sharing self-generated electricity in a local community"
• Geoffrey Weal "Investigating Copper Nanoparticles as Catalysts for CO2 Reduction Reactions"
• Dougal McQueen "Quantifying the benefits from the spatial diversification of wind power in New Zealand"
• Sam Lowrey "Modified Surface Wetting using Optical Lithographic Techniques"
• Tim Bishop "Household Water Cycle - Psychrometrics and Electronics in a Dunedin Suburb"
• Sandeep Biswas "PsbX is required for recovery from high-light-induced damage to Photosystem II in the cyanobacterium Synechocytis sp. PCC 6803"

Public lecture

• Professor Himadri B. Pakrasi is available to download here: "Synthetic Biology and Energy from the Sun- the Future is Bright for Food, Feed and Fuels" is available to download here.

All available presentations are also on our slideshare page OERC_Otago_University

For further information contact Jane Wilcox at oercadmin@otago.ac.nz

This event was kindly sponsored by: