Chemistry Professor Alistair Wilkins awarded title   16 Oct 2014

16 October 2014

Alistair Wilkins awarded title of Emeritus Professor

University of Waikato chemistry Professor Alistair Wilkins has been made an Emeritus Professor, receiving the award at a function on October 15.

After the Rena struck Astrolabe Reef in the Bay of Plenty, Professor Wilkins worked to accommodate the requests of the public, regional and central government stakeholders for information about the oil and other contaminants coming from the ship. His work in fingerprinting the oil was of prime importance to the Ministry for the Environment, Maritime New Zealand and the Bay of Plenty Regional Council, who were tasked with assessing liability and environmental impacts.

“Professor Wilkins’ reputation, energy and skills in analytical chemistry were of great importance in securing significant funding for the University to investigate the environmental effects after the grounding of the Rena,” says University of Waikato Vice-Chancellor Professor Roy Crawford. “He is extremely deserving of the title emeritus professor.”

Professor Wilkins’ academic qualifications include a Bachelor of Science (Hons) First Class in Chemistry from the University of Otago in 1968, and a PhD (Organic Chemistry/Natural Products) in 1972, also from Otago. He came to the University of Waikato in 1975 as a lecturer, and retired a professor in 2013.

In 1972, Professor Wilkins received a Perkin Scholarship for Postdoctoral Research at Oxford University, and in 1977 he received a Nuffield Scholarship for chemical studies (lichens) at the British Museum in London.

Professor Wilkins has also held several positions at a research fellow at a number of overseas
research institutes. In 1992, he was the appointed as the chemical analysis Instrumentation Consultant to an Iranian Essential Oil project administered by the Food and Agriculture Organisation of the United Nations and since 2002 he served as a visiting research fellow in the chemistry section of the Norwegian Veterinary Institute, Oslo.

Professor Wilkins’ abilities with a nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy and mass spectrometry for structural interpretation of organic molecule are legendary in New Zealand and overseas and he has been consulted by research institutes in New Zealand and Oslo to assist with the interpretation of NMR and mass spectra.

He has 203 publications in international referred journals, has supervised 27 doctoral students, and supervised 46 Master of Science students.

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