Dr Amanda Black, a Principal Investigator with the Lincoln University based Bio-Protection Research Centre, has won the Te Tupu-ā-Rangi Award for Health and Science at this year’s Matariki Awards which celebrate Māori excellence, and were broadcast live on Māori Television.
Dr Black joined the Centre as a postdoctoral researcher in 2010 and became a lecturer in 2013. Her research expertise is in environmental soil chemistry and biochemistry, focusing on the role of trace elements in major nutrient cycling. However, she has recently turned her attention to Phytophthora agathadicida, the pathogen responsible for kauri dieback.
Amanda says kauri dieback is one of the biggest crises to face New Zealand forests. "It threatens not only individual kauri trees, but the entire ecosystem around them. If kauri disappear, so do all the other plants and animals that depend on them."
Last year Amanda also won the AsureQuality Emerging Leader Award in the New Zealand Biosecurity Awards.