31 Dec 2010

Praise for some of NZ's brightest minds

12:49 pm on 31 December 2010

] Some of New Zealand's brightest minds have been recognised in the New Year's Honours List.

Tamati Reedy has been made Knight Companion of the New Zealand Order of Merit for services to education.

Sir Tamati established Waikato University's School of Maori and Pacific Development in 1996 and is the university's first Emeritus Professor.

He hopes the knighthood reflects his and his wife Tilly's work developing kohanga reo and the early childhood education curriculum framework, Te Whaariki.

Sir Tamati Reedy sits on the Waitangi Tribunal and heads the Government's ministerial review of the Maori Language sector.

Emeritus Professor Roy Kerr has been made a Companion of the New Zealand Order of Merit for services to astrophysics.

In 1963, he discovered the full solution for astrophysical black holes and is seen by many as the unsung hero of mathematical physics both in New Zealand and internationally.

Professor Ian Warrington has also been made a Companion of the New Zealand Order of Merit for services to science, in recognition of his research into kiwifruit and apples.