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German PhD Student Seeks to Save NZ’s Coastline
Friday, 6 January 2012
A German Victoria University of Wellington Doctoral student hopes to find ways to overcome one of this country’s significant environmental challenges - the continuing erosion of coastal sand dunes.
Susanne Krejcek has won the 2012 Quinovic-sponsored Dune Restoration Trust Study Award to help her research new options for increasing native biodiversity on our sand dunes to reduce erosion. Susanne's doctoral research is also supported by a New Zealand International Doctoral Research Scholarship.
Thirty year-old Ms Krejcek was originally studying law at the University of Frankfurt when she decided to visit New Zealand for a surfing holiday in 2002.
Keenly interested in biology, she was so impressed by the tourism, conservation and environmental projects she experienced while travelling in Department of Conservation managed regions – she decided to change career!
Returning to Germany she studied for the equivalent of a Masters Degree in Landscape Ecology at the University of Oldenberg, and visited here again twice for research.
Ms Krejcek is now studying for a Doctorate in Ecology at the Victoria University of Wellington School of Biological Sciences and is conducting large-scale experiments with DOC and local Iwi near Wanganui.
Supported by the Quinovic Dune Restoration Trust Award, her studies will contribute best-practice guidelines for dune restoration and management in New Zealand.
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