17 November 1997 Soil message goes 'on the road'

It’s no joke that the "answer’s in the soil", says Lincoln University scientist Professor Kuan Goh, who goes 'on the road' this month with a travelling show entitled Future Directions and Challenges for New Zealand Soil Science and Society.

The health and wealth of society depend on the soil, he says, and that's the message he will be emphasising as guest presenter of the 1997 Norman Taylor Memorial Lecture in Lincoln, Palmerston North and Hamilton.

The Norman Taylor Memorial Lecture is the most prestigious address of the New Zealand Soil Science Society and it is a great honour to be invited to present it.

Norman Taylor is widely regarded as the father of New Zealand soil science, a great pedologist and naturalist, who was largely responsible for establishing the relationships between New Zealand soils and their environment, the understanding of which led to the relationships being incorporated in the New Zealand Genetic Soil Classification published in 1948.

"In this year's Memorial Lecture series I hope to reach out to the general public as much as to scientists," says Professor Goh.

"Soil is something that concerns everyone. We are after all a great nation of gardeners, we all have our flower beds and vegetable plots, and our whole economy is based on gardening on a grand scale – which is really what farming boils down to."

Topics to be covered by Professor Goh in his address include the Government's green paper on tertiary education, the pending demise of soil science departments in universities, the need to protect high class productive soils from urban and industrial sprawl, greenhouse gases, nitrate pollution, food safety, organic farming, sustainable agriculture and biodiversity.

Dates, times and venues for the lectures are: Tuesday 25 November, 12.40pm, Stewart Building, Lincoln University; Thursday 27 November, 7.00pm, AgHort Lecture Block, Massey University, Palmerston North; Monday 1 December, 7.30pm, Room MSB I .05, University of Waikato, Palmerston North.

Admission is free and all interested members of the public are welcome to attend.

Professor Goh holds a Personal Chair in Soil Science at Lincoln University and is a Fellow of the Royal Society of New Zealand, the New Zealand Institute of Chemistry and the New Zealand Society of Soil Science.

He is the author of more than 260 publications, including 176 refereed scientific papers, numerous technical communications, co-author of 14 books and sole author of a popular New Zealand book for home gardeners on soil and fertilisers.

Through his supervision of many masterate and PhD students he has educated a large number of scientists, many of whom have made significant contributions to advancing soil science in New Zealand and overseas.

Professor Goh has always been a strong advocate of the important role that soil science plays in the economic well-being of New Zealand and the title of his address reflects the concerns he has for the future sustainability of New Zealand's most important resource.

In addition to university teaching and research, Professor Goh's career in soil science has included work as a consultant for World Bank projects, consultancies for the Crown Law Office, various regional councils and commercial companies in New Zealand and overseas, reviewer of research programmes for various New Zealand and international institutes, and external examiner for doctoral theses for several international and national universities.

Closely involved in community activities, Professor Goh is a Justice of the Peace (Court Panel). He is national Vice-President of the New Zealand Chinese Association and was the Foundation President of the New Zealand Federation of Ethnic Councils.

Ian Collins, Journalist, Lincoln University, Canterbury, New Zealand