Royal Society Award for AUT Professor
AUT’s Professor Dave Towns has been awarded the 2019 Charles Fleming Award for Environmental Achievement by the Royal Society Te Apārangi.
The award honours those who have achieved distinction in protection, maintenance, management, improvement or understanding of the environment; in particularly the sustainable management of the New Zealand environment. The award is made every three years to an inidividual and consists of a medal and a cash grant of $2000.
In a career approaching 40 years of working in New Zealand environmental science, Professor Towns has made major contributions to three fields: ecology and taxonomy of freshwater mayflies; conservation of rare reptiles; and the restoration of island ecosystems. The latter has led to collaborations with iwi and community groups.
At AUT he has led or assisted with the development of an undergraduate major and post-graduate qualifications in applied conservation.