2026 Foundation Awards Announcement – September 2026

The NZIF Foundation is pleased to announce the following recipients of our awards for 2026

• Chavasse Travel Award – Hazel Daniels, Forest Pathologist, New Zealand Institute for Bioeconomy Science
  The award will support Hazel to attend the 2026 International Union of Forest Research Organisation (IUFRO) Working Party in South Africa.

• Frank Hutchison Postgraduate Scholarship - Mahsa Hashemi, Forestry/Forest Engineering PhD student, University of Canterbury
  The award will support Mahsa in her PhD which is focusing on developing hybrid physics-guided and interpretable AI methods for assessing rainfall triggered shallow landslide susceptibility in steep NZ plantation forestry terrain. Mahsa will be presenting her research at ForestTech in Brisbane.

• Mary Sutherland Scholarship – Jun Ladra, NZ Diploma in Forest Management Student, Turanga Ararau
  The award will support Jun in completing his diploma in Forest Management at Turanga Ararau

• University Undergraduate Scholarship – Lucy Cartledge, 2nd year Bachelor of Forestry Science Student, University of Canterbury
  The award will support Lucy in completing her Forestry Science Degree at The University of Canterbury.

• Pocknall NZIF Conference Attendance Award – Blake Singleton, Technical Forester, Ernslaw One
  The award will support Blake in completing two AWS skills builder certifications gaining skills to enhance the running of Lidar point cloud models.

• The Otago-Southland Scholarship was unawarded in 2026