Section managers

PALEONTOLOGY AND ENVIRONMENTAL CHANGE,
Natural Resources Group.
Dr Chris Hollis, Section Manager.
This section is a team of macropaleontologists, micropaleontologists, palynologists and sedimentologists who specialise in biostratigraphic and paleoenvironmental research. The section includes the largest group of paleontologists in the Southern Hemisphere and its leading researchers have been regular recipients of prestigious Marsden Fund grants. The section houses the National Paleontology Collection. Government funded research focuses on paleoclimate, geohazards and petroleum exploration. The section provides biostratigraphic services to the petroleum exploration industry in New Zealand and overseas and has much sought-after capability in forensic palynology.

Chris is a micropaleontologist by training with 15 years research experience in New Zealand and Japan. Since joining GNS Science in 1998 he has specialised in multi-proxy paleoenvironmental interpretation of mainly early Cenozoic rock sequences in eastern New Zealand. He has led Marsden Fund research on the Cretaceous-Tertiary boundary event and is currently leading research on ancient greenhouse climate systems and marine hydrocarbon source rocks.

HYDROCARBONS,
Natural Resources Group.
Dr Greg Browne, Section Manager.
HYDROCARBONS section combines geophysicists with sedimentary and petroleum geologists to provide integrated studies of how sedimentary basins form and fill. A focus on the geological controls on the origins, migration and entrapment of hydrocarbons is used to support exploration in New Zealand and the Pacific Rim. The section promotes research programmes to the international exploration industry in petroleum systems and sequence stratigraphic studies. The section's research is aimed at increasing our understanding of the structural evolution of New Zealand and its surrounding oceans and sedimentary basins.

Greg is a sedimentologist with over 25 years experience in GNS Science and its predecessor organisation DSIR . He has worked on a wide range of stratigraphic, sedimentological, and petroleum-related projects throughout New Zealand, as well as in Canada. His areas of research include deep-water reservoir sandstones of North Taranaki, and the sequence stratigraphy of shallow marine and non-marine rocks in Canterbury.

GEOTHERMAL ,
Natural Resources Group
Brian Carey, Section Manager.
Brian heads the Geothermal section with a staff of about 20.  The geothermal team comprise geologists, geophysicists, geochemists, geomicrobiologists and includes the IANZ ISO 17025 accredited Gas Water Laboratory facility that services geothermal research and client analytical requirements.  Geothermal expertise and research is in demand in an era where low carbon energy sources are receiving significant attention and the price of oil is increasing.  Multidisciplinary team work is the key to research and increasing utilisation of the geothermal resources that we as a nation are so well endowed.  There will continue to be an increasing contribution to energy generated in NZ from geothermal sources over the next decade.  He expects to see about 14% of the nation’s electricity generated from geothermal by 2017.

Brian joined GNS Science in 2007 after 26 years in the geothermal industry of which over 20 years were involved in management and engineering associated with the geothermal resources and underground operations at the Wairakei and Ohaaki geothermal power generation facilities. 

EARTHQUAKES VOLCANOES TECTONICS,
Natural Hazards Group.
Dr Hannah Brackley, Section Manager.
The Earthquakes, Volcanoes, Tectonics section comprises around 25 staff with expertise in seismology, geophysics, geodesy, crustal geodynamics, earthquake and volcano deformation modelling, hazard and risk assessment, and tsunami modelling. Scientists in the section work closely with the GeoNet Project, and are funded from natural hazards and plate tectonics research programmes, from Earthquake Commission and Marsden research grants, and from extensive consulting work.

Hannah gained her PhD from Victoria University, and has research experience in the areas of sedimentology, biogeochemistry and erosion-related carbon transfers. In 2005 she joined GNS Science in a business development role for the Natural Hazards Group, and she became Section Manager of Earthquakes, Volcanoes, Tectonics in 2009.

MAPPING,
Natural Hazards Group.
Phil Glassey, Section Manager.
Phil Glassey is an engineering geologist with a MSc in Engineering Geology from Canterbury University. He worked for five years for an engineering consultant firm in Tauranga before joining Geological & Nuclear Sciences in 1991. He has been involved in wide range of engineering geological investigations mostly involving slope stability, foundation conditions and groundwater studies.
Phil was the reporting geologist for investigations into the proposed Lower Clutha Power Development. He assisted with studies on landslide stabilisation, monitoring and groundwater studies associated with Clyde Power project. More recently, Phil's specialist research interest has become landslide hazard mapping and zonation methodologies, GIS applications and database management.
Between 1993 and 1996, he was part of a team that developed a GIS-based Hazard Information System for part of Southwest Dunedin. During this time he also gained a postgraduate Diploma in Spatial Information Systems from the University of Otago. Since then he has led a project on the integration of scientific databases within Geological & Nuclear Sciences.

GEOHAZARDS MONITORING,
Natural Hazards Group.
Dr Ken Gledhill. Manager, Geohazards Monitoring.
Ken is the Manager of the GeoHazards Monitoring Section which consists of more than 30 staff. The main focus of the section is the operation of the GeoNet project, but staff are also involved in other GNS Science projects. The GeoNet project is funded by the Earthquake Commission.

Dr Gledhill, who has been with GNS Science for more than 20 years, has had a long involvement in the monitoring of geological hazards and the design and operating geophysical instruments, as well as the science of seismology. He is the co-designer of the EARSS digital seismograph which was used in the New Zealand National Seismograph Network until replaced by the new GeoNet instruments. He has worked in a consultancy role in the design of geophysical monitoring systems internationally.

He is also a major contributor to investigations of the nature and state of stress of the crust and mantle beneath New Zealand . With Dr Martha Savage of Victoria University of Wellington (VUW) and VUW students, he has published widely in this area of research.

GeoHazards Monitoring Section has a mainly operational focus, with expertise in the acquisition, digital transportation, processing and storage of large quantities of geophysical and geochemical data, as well as the sciences required to develop and maintain this capability.

GeoNet is a modern geological hazard monitoring and data collection system for New Zealand , and the project is being undertaken by GNS Science on a not-for-profit basis for all New Zealanders. GeoNet is a connected network of data recording instruments, automated software applications and skilled staff to detect, analyse and respond to earthquakes, volcanic activity, large landslides, tsunami, and the slow deformation of the New Zealand landscape.

GEOHAZARDS SOLUTIONS,
Natural Hazards Group.
Andrew King. Section Manager Active Landscapes.
Andrew manages the Geohazards Solutions section of 24 scientists whose specialty interests are in the fields of paleoseismology, engineering geology and geodesy. Andrew is a civil engineer with specialist knowledge in structural engineering, particularly the response of the built environment under earthquake attack. Andrew is chairman of the joint NZ/Australia earthquake loadings standard review committee and is active on several international standards development bodies. He was president of the NZ Society for Earthquake Engineering between 1998 and 2000 and remains active within their management committee.

ISOSCAN,
National Isotope Centre.
Dr Gavin Wallace QSM, Section Manager.
ISOSCAN Section combines scientific teams engaged in developing instrumentation for industrial applications, building novel nanostructures, ion implantation and surface analysis. The surface analysis is based on ion beams from a 3 MV Van der Graaff particle accelerator. The applications use both ionising and non-ionising radiation, and are in a wide range of industries, including meat, timber, power and horticulture. The nanotechnology team is part of the MacDiarmid Institute, and works in close collaboration with other Institute partners. All teams have extensive international liaison, both commercial and academic as well as through the International Atomic Energy Agency. A strong 'design and build' philosophy pervades the work, underpinned by teams of mechanical, electronics and software engineers.

Gavin has had over 35 years experience as a scientist, beginning first with a foundation of nuclear physics, and then developing applications for a range of industries. These have been based on x-ray fluorescence, charged particle activation, accelerator mass spectrometry and transmission of radiation. Devices and techniques for elemental analysis, density measurement and imaging, corrosion studies, and non destructive testing have been successfully produced.

OCEAN EXPLORATION ,
Natural Resources Group.
The geologists, geophysicists and geochemists of the Ocean Exploration section have led voyages to study the structure, evolution, and resources of the Southwest Pacific, Ross Sea and other oceans for over 20 years (http://www.gns.cri.nz/research/marine/). Large parts of New Zealand’s ocean territory are relatively unknown, and exploration of these areas is an important component of the section's science, which also provides unique constraints for understanding the tectonic processes that control the distribution of onshore hazards and resources. Studies of active hydrothermal systems offshore give insights into the thermal and fluid flow history of the plate boundary as well as the processes of mineral deposit formation.

GNS Oceans Exploration section staff help lead New Zealand’s UNCLOS Continental Shelf Project, and their research increases the knowledge of this marine territory so that government policy can guide the use of the ocean rather than react to it.

Dr Vaughan Stagpoole is the Ocean Exploration Section manager at GNS Science in Lower Hutt. He is a geophysicist specialling in basin modelling and research on the formation and development of sedimentary basins. Recently he has been involved in the assessment of the petroleum prospectivity of New Zealand's frontier sedimentary basins and has been part of the technical team providing advice to New Zealand’s Continental Shelf Project. Vaughan has been at GNS Science since 1992. He received his PhD from Victoria University of Wellington in 1998 and since then has worked in the Natural Resources Group at GNS.

GROUNDWATER ,
National Isotope Centre.

Chris is an aqueous environmental geochemist with research interests in experimental and modelling approaches for characterising chemical equilibria in water-rock systems. His special areas of interest include 1) chemical evolution of groundwater at the catchment scale and the use of tracer methods for evaluating in-situ rates of water-rock interaction, and 2) surface complexation modelling of adsorption of metals and organics by mineral surfaces and bacterial cells.