In Conversation

with Emerita Professor Carolyn Burns

In Conversation spans the early influences in Carolyn’s upbringing that led to her career choice in freshwater research through to her recent discovery and naming of a new species of Daphnia (water flea). This reflective piece regards her 1971 commissioned work on Lake Hayes, subsequent research reports, and cycles of bureaucratic inaction in preventing the lake’s degradation. Dame Carolyn Burns shares candid views on an “anti-science faction” worldwide, her thoughts on what defines us as New Zealanders — “our lakes and mountains”, and her overriding concern that we do not value our lakes enough.

Throughout a long and rewarding career in the Department of Zoology, Emerita Professor Carolyn Burns has inspired hundreds of students. Her generous endowments to the University of Otago to establish a Professorial Chair in Freshwater will ensure that lake science receives the attention Dame Carolyn has dedicated her life to.

Co-funded by the New Zealand Freshwater Sciences Society.