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Tuesday 26 June 2018 1:07pm

Richard-Barker-image
Professor Richard Barker.

The University of Otago has extended the appointment of Professor Richard Barker as the Pro-Vice-Chancellor of the Division of Sciences. Professor Barker was initially appointed for an 18-month term following the retirement of Professor Keith Hunter in 2016. The extension adjusts Professor Barker’s appointment to the usual full five-year term.

Vice-Chancellor Professor Harlene Hayne says she is extremely pleased to be able to announce the appointment which brings solidarity to such a significant position.

“Professor Barker has done an outstanding job over the last 18 months, providing excellent leadership to the Division of Sciences and contributing to the University as a whole. I am delighted that he has agreed to continue in this role for the full five-year term and I look forward to continuing working with Richard and staff in the Division,” Professor Hayne says.

Professor Barker, whose research interests include statistical theory, methods and analysis for applications in areas such as fisheries and wildlife ecology, sport science and exercise physiology and climate change, is eager to continue strengthening Otago’s world-class Sciences division.

“We have recently commenced a project developing a strategic investment plan for the Division that will take us through the next decade and beyond. We are New Zealand’s most science-intensive university with fantastic natural assets and people. Leading the Division at this time and through this process is a great privilege.”

Professor Barker gained his BSc (Hons) in Zoology and later a PhD in Statistics from Massey University after spending two and a half years at the US Fish and Wildlife Research Center in Maryland.

After working as a programme leader at Landcare Research, Professor Barker joined Otago’s Department of Mathematics and Statistics in 1998. In 2007 he was appointed Professor of Statistics and was Head of Department from 2008 until taking on the role as Pro-Vice-Chancellor of the Division of Sciences in September 2016.

"We are New Zealand’s most science-intensive university with fantastic natural assets and people. Leading the Division at this time and through this process is a great privilege."

In 2013 he received the New Zealand Statistical Association’s Roger Littlejohn Research Award, which recognises excellence in research based on publications during the previous five years and has supervised or co-supervised more than a dozen master’s and PhD students.

He is Director of Dinsdale Ltd, a Manawatu-based agribusiness and a Director of Oritain Ltd, a Dunedin-based company that specialises in the origin of food using trace-element and stable-isotope technologies.

The Division of Sciences is home to the departments of Botany, Chemistry, Computer Science, Food Science, Geology, Human Nutrition, Marine Science, Mathematics and Statistics, Physics, Psychology, and Zoology, and also the Centre for Materials Science and Technologies and the world-leading Centre for Science Communication. It also includes two schools: the School of Physical Education, Sport and Exercise Sciences, and the National School of Surveying.

“I am delighted to have the opportunity to continue in this role as the University completes 150 years and begins the next,” adds Professor Barker.

The appointment means the Pro-Vice-Chancellor of Sciences term is now set through to December 2021.

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