PUBLICATIONS
GFCC welcomes Prof. James Metson as new Senior Fellow
Prof. James Metson
The GFCC is delighted to announce that Prof. James Metson, Director of the Newmarket Innovation Campus at the University of Auckland and long-standing partner of the GFCC, has been granted fellowship status. Prof. Metson has led Auckland's engagement with the GFCC since 2016 when the university first joined the network. He participated in numerous GFCC initiatives in his former role as the Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Vice President) of Research.
"Prof. Metson has been a long-standing partner to our community and helped to bridge GFCC's engagement with New Zealand, an innovative economy positioned to play a bigger role in the development of the Pacific region," comments the Hon. Deborah L. Wince-Smit. "We are delighted to welcome him as a Senior Fellow and look forward to continuing exchanging best-practices and innovative models in the higher education sector with the University of Auckland."
Prof. Metson actively contributed to the development of the University and Research Leadership Forum (URLF) and was a panellist several times at the Global Innovation Summit. Additionally, he was responsible for advancing thought-provoking thinking on innovative models for universities through several GFCC publications. In his new role at Auckland University, he will lead the development of the Newmarket Innovation Campus.
"This is a great honour which I am delighted to accept. The GFCC has provided me with exposure to global thinkers, including an outstanding group of fellows, and to ideas that are both stimulating and challenging. It is one of the more unusual networks to which the university belongs, however it has offered us a unique perspective on where we sit in the world and how the shape of this world is changing", says Prof. Metson.
Prof. Metson is currently managing the development of the Newmarket Innovation Campus at the University of Auckland after 7 years as Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Vice President) Research at the University. At the University of Auckland he was co-founder of the Research Centre for Surface and Materials Science and of the Light Metals Research Centre and was a founding member of New Zealand's MacDiarmid Institute for Materials Science and Nanotechnology. He has also led the university's engagement with university networks such as the Worldwide Universities Network (WUN) and the Association of Pacific Rim Universities (APRU).
He has worked extensively with international industry, particularly in aluminium reduction technology, gas dry-scrubbing, and alumina refining and is a recognized authority on industrial aluminas and environmental performance of smelters. This has led to an interest in global materials futures and decarbonization pathways for major industries.
Prof. Metson has served in a range of national and international roles including as the Chief Science Advisor to New Zealand's Ministry of Business Innovation and Employment. Previously he was the chair of the MoRST Research Infrastructure Advisory Group and NZ Government representative on the Australian National Science Advisory Committee that oversaw the development of the Australian Synchrotron and has chaired the International Advisory Committee for the facility.
He is a Director of The New Zealand Synchrotron Group, and the Research and Education Advanced Network of New Zealand (REANNZ) and chairs the Board of Auckland UniServices Ltd, the commercialization company of the university. He is the author of over 250 publications and an inventor on a number of patents.
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