Professor Ocean Mercier

Principal Investigator

Mātauranga Māori Research Programme

Address:
Ngā Mokopuna
42 Kelburn Parade
Kelburn
Wellington 6012

• 
• Ocean.Mercier@vuw.ac.nz

Biography

Ocean Ripeka Mercier (Ngāti Porou) completed her PhD at Victoria University of Wellington in 2002, using optical conductivity to characterise colossal magnetoresistance. During a subsequent postdoctoral fellowship with Professor Sir Paul Callaghan and Dr Mark Hunter, she measured brine diffusion in Antarctic sea ice using Earth's field NMR. Ocean witnessed the birth of the MacDiarmid Institute during this time, and was privileged to give a vote of thanks for Nobel laureate Professor Alan MacDiarmid during his address at Wellington's Town Hall. In Ocean's teaching in Māori studies, she has developed courses in pūtaiao (Māori science), mātauranga taketake (Indigenous knowledge and science) and te taunaha whenua (mapping), contributing to Te Kawa a Māui's Kaitiakitanga major. Her research explores the many social, political and cultural dimensions of science, including intersections of mātauranga Māori and science. 

Research interests

Ocean applies and develops Māori-centred research and kaupapa Māori principles and methods along with inter- and trans-disciplinarity approaches to bring mātauranga and a te ao Māori lens to technical and quantitative domains. In her recent research collaborations on Endeavour programmes, National Science Challenges and in CoREs those domains have included:

• Groundwater
• Genetic technologies in pest control
• Oceanography
• Land visualisation