28 June 2004 Lincoln Students Show Their Research Skills at Postgraduate Conference

Lincoln University postgraduate students showcase their research and practise valuable presentation and communication skills at their annual Postgraduate Conference which runs over Monday and Tuesday this week. (28-29 June)

Based in the University's Commerce Building, in lecture theatre C1, the two-day conference is organised by students for students and is funded by the Lincoln University Postgraduate and Research School with sponsorship by ASB Bank Ltd and BTI New Zealand.

Eighteen students are presenting research papers over the two days and the programme also includes a range of guest speakers.

The conference opens at 8.45 on Monday morning with a welcome by the University's Academic Programme Director (Postgraduates) Dr Ken Hughey, followed by the first keynote speaker, Dr Margaret Mutu, who will speak on The Treaty of Waitangi and Its Relevance to New Zealand Research.

The student presentations cover a wide range of topics reflecting the disciplines studied at Lincoln. Examples range from Xiaomeng Sun's paper on the Values and Meanings of Botanic Gardens to Chinese Visitors and Maurice Marquardt's paper on An Investigation of the Greenhouse Gas Balance of the Marlborough Region to Amanda Phillips' presentation about On-Farm Indicators of Magnesium Status in Dairy Cows and Alice Miller's paper on Creeks as focal points for the invasion of an exotic herb in New Zealand's mountain vegetation.

Other topics include research on international transfer pricing in Australia, New Zealand and China, habitat use of the native wood pigeon on Banks Peninsula and Japanese hikers in New Zealand, their motivations and preferred settings.

One of the aims of this annual event at Lincoln University is to give postgraduate students the opportunity to present and communicate their research in a familiar and supportive environment as part of their preparation for careers that are likely to involve presenting at formal scientific and academic conferences.

Lincoln University places great emphasis on the well-rounded preparation of its postgraduate students for their careers and they are encouraged to attend workshops and seminars on communication and presentation skills in parallel with their studies.

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