A meme I saw online last week, truly made me laugh, “there has been a critical failure during Installation of New Zealand Summer, Error 404, Summer was not found.”
On the first day of summer there was skiing at Cardrona Alpine Resort, however I’m sure very soon we’ll be complaining how hot it is! In the meantime, this rain is great for the plants!
Last month, nearly 200 people attended the 10 year Bioscience Enterprise Anniversary Event in Auckland, thank you to Dr Charlotte Johnson for the photo. The program was created in the early 2000s when Biotechnology was identified as a key sector for the New Zealand economy. This program was formed from the vision and hard work of Wendell Dunn, Geoff Whitcher and Joerg Kistler. The goal was to produce graduates with a science and business background. Around 200 students have since graduated from the program and it continues to deliver high quality graduates.
I would like to congratulate the team at Engender Technologies, it has just been bought by multi-national genetics company CRV-Ambreed. Engender sex-sorting solutions for the dairy artificial insemination industry was co-founded in 2011 by the University of Auckland and Pacific Channel. Professor Cather Simpson believed her lab could develop a solution using photonics and microfluidics, today their success continues.
Before the holidays, I would like to thank everyone for supporting NZBIO and its transition to BIOTechNZ. BIOTechNZ has had a great first six months as part of the Tech Alliance, benefiting from the support, experience and connections. We have been busy planning for 2019 and have an exciting year ahead. As always our success depends on our community and your participation is key for the year ahead. There will be industry surveys to contribute to, events and many other opportunities to be involved. Your feedback will enable us to deliver what is important to you and New Zealand’s Biotech industry.
Wishing you a Merry Christmas and a wonderful New Year!
Zahra Champion
Executive Director
