A Massey University professor has been named New Zealand's top scientist at a ceremony to mark 100 years since Ernest Rutherford's Nobel prize achievement.
The function, at Te Papa in Wellington on Tuesday night, saw 380 of the country's best scientists gather together.
Professor David Parry, a structural biophysicist, won the Rutherford Medal for Science and Technology for his achievements in fibrous protein studies in humans and animals.
Aspects of his findings have been used by the New Zealand meat industry and in surgical procedures.
Professor Parry says this includes new meat tenderisation techniques and ways to minimise scar tissue through plastic surgery.
