Newsmaker: Katherine Challis

NEWSMAKER: Katherine Challis.PHOTO/STEPHEN PARKER

This week's Newsmaker is Dr Katharine Challis, a Rotorua scientist who has just been awarded a $300,000 Marsden Fund grant to study how cells generate energy.

Tell us about yourself?

I'm a busy mum to a 3-year-old and a nearly 3-month-old. I work at Scion part time and enjoy the outdoors when I can.

What is your role at Scion?

I'm a theoretical physicist in the Clean Technologies team. Part of what we do is to grow New Zealand's ability to produce bioenergy and biofuels from forests.

My job is to find out how biological nano-motors in cells process energy so that we can use their principles to help us design new, highly efficient ways of using the chemical energy in wood.

What do you love about your job?

For me it's the challenge of solving problems and the satisfaction of being able to really understand how something works.

What motivated you to get into the industry?

I guess I was encouraged by people who shared with me their own passion for science and who believed that I could make a contribution.

What do you love about Rotorua?

I love the accessibility of the outdoors and that I hardly need to use the car.

Tell us three things about yourself most people wouldn't know?

I grew up in Northland, I worked nights at a bank when I was a student, and if I'm doing physics I find I often think better if I don't have shoes on.