Source: Te Herenga Waka—Victoria University of Wellington
Highly-regarded freshwater researcher, Dr Mike Joy, will take up the position of The Morgan Foundation Senior Research Fellow in Freshwater Ecology at Te Herenga Waka—Victoria University of Wellington, thanks to a donation from the Foundation.
Seeing an opportunity to support and ensure the continuation of Dr Joy’s valuable research, The Morgan Foundation—a charitable trust established by Joanna and Gareth Morgan which has a focus on public policy, conversation and social development research—has agreed to fund the fellowship for an initial five-year term.
Dr Joy has been a researcher at Te Herenga Waka—Victoria University of Wellington since 2018. His role was disestablished last month following a decision, due to financial constraints, to fold the work of the Institute of Governance and Policy Studies, where he was based, into the School of Government. The University was working on finding another role for Dr Joy when the Morgan Foundation got in touch.
Dr Joy says that as a result of his advocacy for environmental protection, he knows that Ms Morgan in particular has “long followed” his work.
“The Morgan Foundation values the independent critic and conscience role that is at the heart of my research.
“This donation allows me to continue to undertake crucial independent research communicating these findings and raise public awareness of important issues facing the country.”
Vice-Chancellor Professor Nic Smith says that contributing to public understanding and bringing evidence to debates on important issues we face as a society is an critical part of the role academics hold and the Universities they are part of.
“We are delighted to partner with The Morgan Foundation to ensure Dr Joy continues his research and provision of informed analysis and debate on freshwater health in New Zealand. Our thanks go to The Morgan Foundation for its support.”
For two decades, Dr Joy has been working at the interface of science and policy in Aotearoa New Zealand. He has a goal of strengthening connections between science, policy and real outcomes to address environmental issues facing New Zealand.
He is the recipient of many awards including an Ecology in Action award from the New Zealand Ecological Society, an Old Blue award from Forest and Bird, the Royal Society of New Zealand Charles Fleming Award for protection of the New Zealand environment, and The Morgan Foundation inaugural River Voice Award. He was also the inaugural recipient of Universities New Zealand’s Critic and Conscience of Society Award.
