Saving our Skins: Acknowledgements
Thank you readers (or at least one reader) for staying with me for the whole nine yards of “Saving our Skins”. I’ll finish with a few acknowledgements (600 words).
I dedicate this book to our son David whose life was cut short before he had a chance to fully flower. He unknowingly inspired the work.
Memorial at Dunstan High School, Alexandra
I’d like to acknowledge the support of my wife Louise and my youngest son Hamish for encouraging me to write “Saving our Skins”. It’s been a labour of love over many months. Thank you Hamish for your editorial advice to help me (try to) convert my science script to a more everyday, and hopefully more readable style. I know I haven’t been entirely successful there, but that’s not your fault. Thanks too for helping me get started on Substack with my own UV & You domain there. It’s been fun. And thank you Louise for wading through the drafts each week to weed out (most of) the typos.
My eldest son Andrew has been quieter in his feedback, but I can see that you’ve been following the posts, and I’m grateful to you for that (and the same goes for Andrew and Hamish’s clever and beautiful wives, Miriama Ketu-McKenzie and Stephanie Wang). Thanks too to my colleagues who provided feedback and corrections. Finally a big thank you to all the rest of you readers, especially if you managed to get all the way to the finish line.
I expect to continue with occasional blogs. Please enter your email address in the link below to receive notifications when they are posted.
My career, and contribution to Lauder’s story, has been built around working with others. I couldn’t have done much without their help. We’re a team.
Personal Life
Parents, Don and Joan McKenzie, and also my brother Greg, and sister Joanne
Ms R M Saunders, the Darfield Primary School teacher who wrote my standard 3 school-report that set me on a better path. See uv2go.
Laurie Davies, my physics teacher at Ashburton College.
My long-suffering wife Louise, and our children Andrew, David and Hamish.
Professional Life
Kaiapoi
Jim Adams, my friend and head of department who sent me back to academia
Fiji, University of the South Pacific
Roger Nisbet, my friend and past colleague and MSc supervisor at USP
Lauder DSIR/NIWA
John Gabites, who interviewed me (and Louise) in Fiji for the post at Lauder
Paul Johnston, Gordon Keys, Andrew Matthews. Colleagues and bosses
Greg Bodeker, Ben Liley, Brian Connor and colleagues
Mike Kotkamp, Hisako Shiona, Dan Smale, John Robinson for their technical help. All friends as well as colleagues.
Head office
Mike Collins, for suggesting Oxford for my PhD studies, and supporting my application for NRAC funding.
Gary Betteridge, for supporting our move to UV studies
Tony Bittar, for helping me get started with UV spectrometry
Oxford
Fred Taylor, my head of Department
Guy Peskett, my D Phil supervisor
Howard Roscoe, my mentor and friend
Collaborators
International
Gunther Seckmeyer, Sasha Madronich, Yutaka Kondo, Bruce Forgan, Chuck Long, Jim Rosen, Dave Hofmann, Jim Slusser, Susan Solomon, Barry Bodhaine, Alkis Bais, Janet Bornman, Jan van der Leun, Lars Olof Björn, Paul Newman, Robyn Lucas, Jordi Badosa, Josep Calbo, Gabi Pfister, Germar Bernhard, Mario Blumthaler, Tom McElroy, Jim Kerr, Joe Zawodny ….
New Zealand, outside NIWA
Don Grainger, Martin Allen, John Livesay, Robert Scragg, Tony Reeder, ….
… and many others too numerous to name individually.
Tena kotutou katoa.
The Lauder UV Team from the early 2000s in front of a NIWA UV spectrometer system before its deployment overseas. From left: Jill Scott-Weekly, Mike Kotkamp, Paul Johnston, Richard McKenzie and John Robinson. Ben Liley, Dan Smale and Hisako Shiona were absent, and Alex Geddes would join the team a few years later.
Word Frequencies in “Saving our Skins”
So that’s it for the saga of “Saving our Skins”. Perhaps one day I’ll find the energy and motivation to put this all together in a single book. Until then it’s over-and-out from me on this thread.