School of Science - University of Waikato

School of Science - University of Waikato This is the official page of the School of Science at the University of Waikato.

Registrations for Te Aka Mฤtuatua | School of Science Postgraduate Conference 2026 are open now! The conference is on Mo...
04/09/2026

Registrations for Te Aka Mฤtuatua | School of Science Postgraduate Conference 2026 are open now! The conference is on Monday 19 October from 9am-4.30pm in S Block, Ground Floor (S.G.02 & S.G.03).

Postgraduate researchers โ€” we want to hear from you! If you are a current PhD student, actively working on your MSc thesis, or just about to start your MSc project (i.e., enrolled in SCIEN501), we would love for you to present at the Postgraduate Conference.

REGISTRATIONS ARE DUE BY 18 SEPTEMBER 2026. It is free to attend!

For all information, including links to register, please go to our webpage - https://www.waikato.ac.nz/about/faculties-schools/science/school-of-science-postgraduate-conference-2026/

Join our geologists-in-the-making on an adventure to Awakino! ๐Ÿž๏ธOn Monday, 24 August, the EARTH312 - Sedimentary Geology...
02/09/2026

Join our geologists-in-the-making on an adventure to Awakino! ๐Ÿž๏ธ
On Monday, 24 August, the EARTH312 - Sedimentary Geology class went on a three-day field trip to Awakino to examine the geological units of the Taranaki Basin.
Though a small group of five, these students made the absolute most of their time. Together, they produced a geological map of the area alongside numerous stratigraphic columns and field sketches. The team also mastered specialised compasses to measure strike and dip, successfully applying these skills to map local faults and synclines
And after a lot of walking, sketching, measuring, climbing, and much more, they concluded this was the best trip they've been on! At the end of the day, they would go down to the Awakino pub for an amazing dinner and a small friendly pool competition, or a card game night ๐ŸŽฑ๐Ÿƒ

Any of our students are sure to recommend the trip for future years, and you should definitely listen to them; we promise you won't regret it ๐Ÿ˜‰

๐Ÿ“ธ: Marlena Prentice and Andre Kosijer

Congratulations to Poppy Romera who won the STEM division Best Student Paper Award for 2026 ๐Ÿ“„๐Ÿ†The award is an annual STE...
31/08/2026

Congratulations to Poppy Romera who won the STEM division Best Student Paper Award for 2026 ๐Ÿ“„๐Ÿ†

The award is an annual STEM Division research award and supervisors nominate their student's papers.

Poppy's paper was published in Nature Communications in December last year.

It investigates the long-standing energy equivalence theory which suggests that ecosystems contain lots of small organisms and very few big organisms. However, using soil invertebrate data from her MSc project and other similar datasets from around the world, her work came to the surprising conclusion that this theory is not supported in soil communities ๐ŸŒ

To give Poppy's paper a read, check out the link below:
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-025-67615-6

The University of Waikato University of Waikato - Tauranga Nature

On the 15th of August, the EARTH331-Hydrology students went on a fieldtrip to gather data on river discharge๐Ÿ’งTheir first...
24/08/2026

On the 15th of August, the EARTH331-Hydrology students went on a fieldtrip to gather data on river discharge๐Ÿ’ง
Their first stop was at the Mangakotukutuku Stream at Peacockes Road, where they did dilution gauging. This included mixing a known amount of salt with the water and measuring the electrical conductivity downstream. While here, they also learned how to read a staff gauge.
Their second stop was the Pukete Footbridge ๐ŸŒ‰ where they used a Bridge-Mounted Crane to measure river discharge. To do this, the students had to lower a weight into the water at various sections of the river, calibrate the crane and measure how many revolutions the attached counter recorded over 40 seconds. While focusing on their work, the students also had the pleasure of explaining what they were doing to at least 10 curious bystanders๐Ÿค”

๐Ÿ“ธ: Vinay Nelli, Bรฉrengรจre Dejeans and Jazmin Mitchell

21/08/2026

It's that time of year when the weather is becoming nicer... the sun is out, the days are getting longer, and all we want to do is be outside ๐ŸŒค๏ธโ˜€๏ธ but we still have that one 3-hour lab to go to ๐Ÿ˜”๐Ÿงช

Thank you Kayin, for creating a perfect description of how we all feel sometimes.
If you would like to feature in one of our School of Science reels, please fill out the link in our bio๐Ÿ”—

๐ŸŽฅ: Andrea Kosijer

The 2026 Three Minute Thesis (3MT) Doctoral Finals were held on the 4th of August at the University of Waikato ๐Ÿ‘ฉ๐Ÿปโ€๐ŸŽ“The c...
17/08/2026

The 2026 Three Minute Thesis (3MT) Doctoral Finals were held on the 4th of August at the University of Waikato ๐Ÿ‘ฉ๐Ÿปโ€๐ŸŽ“

The competition involves PhD students explaining their research to a general audience in a three-minute presentation ๐Ÿ“

A big well done goes to Starsha Bird, Lucy Southwell-Hambly and Pathmini Madushani who competed from the School of Science. It was wonderful to hear all about your amazing research ๐Ÿง‘โ€๐Ÿ”ฌ

A shoutout also goes to Jolene Jones, Muhammad Omer and Fransiska Moko, who won the first, second and peoples choice awards respectively ๐Ÿ†

Congratulations to all who competed. We look forward to seeing the competition continue in the years to come ๐Ÿคฉ

The University of Waikato University of Waikato - Tauranga

Our marine ecologists were lucky enough to deserve another trip to the beach!๐Ÿ–๏ธOn the 1st of August, the BIOEB305 studen...
14/08/2026

Our marine ecologists were lucky enough to deserve another trip to the beach!๐Ÿ–๏ธ

On the 1st of August, the BIOEB305 students went on a trip to Mount Maunganui Beach, this time looking at the rocky shores. Looking at quadrats set at sheltered, moderate and exposed sites, they investigated how functional groups like mobile predators change in proportion at different exposures ๐Ÿฆ€

๐Ÿ“ธ: Jazmin Mitchell

Take a trip to the beach with our marine ecologists!๐Ÿ–๏ธOn the 25th of July, the BIOEB305 students travelled to Tuapiro Po...
14/08/2026

Take a trip to the beach with our marine ecologists!๐Ÿ–๏ธ

On the 25th of July, the BIOEB305 students travelled to Tuapiro Point to investigate the distribution of organisms across the intertidal zone. Their goal was to see how these distributions change with abiotic and biotic factors. Using sediment cores, they were able to identify the different organisms present at various tidal ranges ๐ŸŒŠ๐Ÿš

๐Ÿ“ธ: Jazmin Mitchell

12/08/2026

When the lab instructor walks by unannounced, so you have to make yourself look busy ๐Ÿ˜†

A big thank you to our lab technician Amber, as well as Dani, Andrew and their friends who volunteered to participate in this reel! If you want your chance at the spotlight, fill out the form in our bio๐Ÿ”—

๐ŸŽฅ: Andrea Kosijer

Meet Lucy Southwell-Hambly- one of our three finalists in the 2026 3MT competition ๐ŸŽคLucy is pursuing a PhD in Ecology an...
04/08/2026

Meet Lucy Southwell-Hambly- one of our three finalists in the 2026 3MT competition ๐ŸŽค

Lucy is pursuing a PhD in Ecology and Biodiversity ๐ŸŽ“

Her research investigates the chemical ecology of insects and how they can communicate and protect themselves using compounds found on their cuticles.
She is specifically looking into the New Zealand giraffe weevil (Lasiorhynchus barbicornis), with a particular focus on how increasing temperature caused by climate change may affect their communication and mating behaviour ๐Ÿฆ—

When she's not hard at work on her PhD, Lucy likes to pole dance, lift weights, read, and crochet ๐Ÿ“š๐Ÿงถ

If you can, be sure to support Lucy and all the other students at the finals which are being held tonight (4th of August 2026)! โœจ

The University of Waikato University of Waikato - Tauranga

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