24 August 2011 Gold medal for NZ planning leader

Helping to expand the New Zealand planning profession beyond its traditional town planning roots to embrace regional and environmental dimensions is one of the distinctive achievements acknowledged with the award of the New Zealand Planning lnstitute's Gold Medal to Lincoln University's Professor of Environmental Management Ali Memon.

It is only the third time in 20 years that the prestigious Gold Medal has been awarded. Professor Memon is already a past winner (1994) of the lnstitute's other top prize - the Distinguished Service Award.

In a career of more than 30 years Professor Memon has given outstanding service to the planning profession in New Zealand through his development of professional planning education at Lincoln and Otago universities.

He was appointed to a personal professorship in environmental management and planning at Lincoln University in 1999, coming from Otago University where he had been Associate Professor and Director of the Planning Programme.

Early in his appointment at Lincoln University Professor Memon was instrumental in obtaining New Zealand Planning Institute accreditation for the University's planning programmes. He placed accreditation high on his agenda as he saw it would give students a "real advantage" when moving from tertiary studies into careers.

Professor Memon has an outstanding research record. His particular research expertise is in three areas - the integration of environmental and developmental planning objectives in Third World countries; planning for sustainable development in Western societies; and resource management issues from the perspective of indigenous minorities in Western societies.

The citation for the Gold Medal says Professor Memon has contributed extensively to the theory and practice of planning through his research and more than 100 publications. The award recognises his "exceptional, sustained and outstanding contribution to the profession, through service, theory and practice".

He was a leader in the important Government-funded research project Planning Under Cooperative Mandates (PUCM), which evaluated the quality of local government planning under the Resource Management Act and the Local Government Act. Arguably this has been the most significant Government-funded planning research project of the past two decades.

He has represented New Zealand and Australian planning education internationally, notably on the Global Planning Education Association Network, and he contributed recently to the UN Habitat Global Report.

Professor Memon describes planning as a link between knowledge and action but says the process must be inclusive and adaptive.

In further credit for planning education at Lincoln University, the NZ Planning Institute has made a Merit Award to the publication Lincoln Planning Review. This publication was founded in 2009 on an idea by Senior Lecturer in Planning Dr Hamish Rennie, who is its Editor-in-Chief. The Review is organised, edited and managed by volunteers - largely students - on an extra-curricular basis and it is the official journal of the Lincoln University Planning Association.

The institute recognises the Review as a "medium for experiential learning that links undergraduates to the wider planning profession".

"It constitutes a very innovative and meritorious contribution to improving the teaching and practice of planning", says the citation.

A former member of the review's editorial committee, Clare Sargeant, a Lincoln University Master of Environmental Policy (Hons) graduate, has received the Lance Leikis Graduate Award from the NZ Planning Institute.

While a student, Clare started the Lincoln University Planning Association.

For two years Clare was the Canterbury/Westland Young Planners representative on the NZPI Committee and she is now the national representative. Last year she organised the successful Young Planners Connect 2010 conference and overall she has made a significant contribution to the Young Planners network through coordinating events and providing support and encouragement to Young Planners throughout New Zealand.