Senior Tutor, School of Environment, Faculty of Science, The University of Auckland

“Effective knowledge communication must not only connect with people’s minds, it must also connect with their hearts.”

For 22 years Marie has introduced students to science and inspired many of them to continue to study in that field. Marie is a teacher who gets the mix of dedication, enthusiasm, subject knowledge and passion right. She inspires large numbers of students to enrol in the Science General courses she is teaching. As one colleague says, her teaching is “engaging, demanding and often transformative.” Other colleagues report students as saying “I run to class, I just love it…” It is no wonder that within the student body the courses Marie teaches are known as ones to take if you can.

Marie does not confine her commitment to teaching science and science communication to within the university. Through outreach work Marie inspires primary, intermediate and secondary students to engage with science and supports teachers to develop their science teaching. Marie would not agree with one student who said: “you cannot improve what is already perfect.” She continually looks to improve engagement with science.