Scholarship helps forestry student gain honours

23 December 2021

Winning Waikato Regional Council’s Roger Harris (Waihou Valley) Scholarship allowed forestry student Liam Gilroy to focus on his research investigating the turbidity levels of rivers and tributaries.

Liam, who has just achieved his Bachelor of Forest Engineering with honours from Canterbury University, was awarded the Roger Harris Scholarship at last week’s Waihou Piako Flood Protection Advisory Subcommittee meeting by Deputy Chair Conall Buchanan.

The former Morrinsville College student said he was grateful for the NZ$6000 scholarship, which he received in September, as it enabled him to stop working part-time in the last term so he could focus on his dissertation to “achieve a greater outcome”.

For his dissertation, Liam used satellite imagery to remotely monitor turbidity levels in rivers and tributaries, something that had only been previously done for larger bodies of water.

Waihou Piako Flood Protection Advisory Subcommittee Chair Stu Husband said Liam was chosen as this year’s scholarship recipient because of his studies in river and catchment management. “Last year, Liam was a summer student with the council’s Asset and Land Licencing Team, completing inspections of our leased land and stopbanks.”

The Roger Harris (Waihou Valley) Scholarship was established in 1995 to mark the substantial completion of the Waihou Valley flood protection scheme and particularly to acknowledge the contribution of the late Roger Harris to the successful implementation of that major project.

The scholarship is available to students undertaking post-secondary study in the fields of civil engineering or resource management, with particular focus on river and catchment management.