Scholarship awarded

Waikato University postgraduate student Lisa van den Berg is one of three recipients of a Dick and Mary Earle Scholarship in Technology for 2008. Lisa’s thesis investigates the bio-resins derived from waste proteins of the meat industry.

Managed by Public Trust, the scholarship is worth $8500. The other winners are Canterbury University postgraduate student William Kelton and Massey University postgraduate student Alistair Scarfe.

Lisa is currently completing her MSc at the University of Waikato.

“I want to help society by creating an alternative to petro-chemically derived plastic materials. Sustainability and the environment are of great importance to me and I am pleased to be studying towards the production and design of a renewable and biodegradable material,” Lisa said.

Dick and Mary Earle, who are both Emeritus Professors at Massey University, established the scholarship in 1999 to support and encourage postgraduate research into technology. The scholarship funds an individual to undertake research towards a masters or doctorate at a New Zealand university or other research institution in one of two fields: innovation and product development or bioprocess technology.

Applications for the Dick and Mary Earle Scholarship in Technology 2009 close on 1 October 2008. For more information, visit www.nzvcc.ac.nz.