Sylvia Rumball

Sylvia Rumball CNZM
Rumball, c. 1998
Born	Sylvia Vine Sheat 1939 (age 85–86)
Alma mater	University of Canterbury (MSc) University of Auckland (PhD)
Scientific career
Institutions	Massey University
Thesis	Some structural investigations of copper co-ordination compounds (1966)
Doctoral advisor	Neil Waters

Sylvia Vine Sheat Rumball CNZM (née Sheat; born 1939) is a New Zealand scientist and an international expert in scientific research ethics.

Education

Rumball completed a BSc and MSc (1962) at the University of Canterbury. She moved to the University of Auckland where she undertook a PhD in chemistry (1966),[1] supervised by Professor (later Sir) Neil Waters.[2][3]

Career

During her PhD studies, Rumball worked as a junior lecturer at the University of Auckland from 1963 to 1966. She then moved to the University of Oxford on a postdoctoral fellowship and studied protein crystallography under Dorothy Hodgkin.[2]

Rumball joined Massey University as a lecturer in 1967.[2] She was promoted to associate professor in 2000[3] and to full professor by 2005, when she was also assistant to the Vice Chancellor (Equity and Ethics) at Massey.[4] She served on the University Council from 2005 to 2008. She was appointed Professor Emeritus in July 2009,[5] officially retiring in November of the same year.[2]

To celebrate the centenary of women's suffrage in New Zealand, Rumball was selected as one of eight women to give graduation addresses at Massey University in 1993.[6]

From 2002 to 2011 she was chair of the National Ethics Committee on Assisted Human Reproduction,[7] later known as the Advisory Committee on Assisted Reproductive Technology (ACART).[8] She also served on the Drug Free Sport New Zealand Board from 2007 to 2015.[9][10] Rumball also served on UNESCO's International Bioethics Committee and the International Council for Science's Committee on Freedom and Responsibility in the conduct of Science.[2]

Honours and awards

Rumball (left) being congratulated by the governor-general, Anand Satyanand, on her investiture as a Companion of the New Zealand Order of Merit at Government House, Wellington, on 4 April 2008

Rumball was appointed an Officer of the New Zealand Order of Merit, for services to science, in the 1998 Queen's Birthday Honours.[11] In the 2008 New Year Honours, she was promoted to Companion of the New Zealand Order of Merit, also for service to science.[12]

References

1. Sheat, Sylvia (1966). Some structural investigations of copper co-ordination compounds (Doctoral thesis). ResearchSpace@Auckland, University of Auckland. hdl:2292/56262.
2. "Ethicist and chemist retires after 42 years". Massey University. 18 December 2009. Retrieved 1 August 2021.
3. "Rumball, Sylvia Vine, 1939–". National Library of New Zealand. 1 January 1939. Retrieved 1 August 2021.
4. "Perspectives on bioethics". Massey University. 28 May 2005. Retrieved 1 August 2021.
5. "Commemorative scrolls recognise current and new Professors Emeriti". Massey University. 1 July 2009. Retrieved 1 August 2021.
6. McIlroy, Andrea, ed. (1994), Commemorating Women's Achievements: Graduation addresses by women in the centennial year of women's suffrage, 1993, Massey University, ISBN 978-0-908665-86-0
7. "Appointments/reappointments to the National Ethics Committee on Assisted Human Reproduction". New Zealand Gazette. 11 July 2002. Retrieved 1 August 2021.
8. "Appointment/reappointments to the Advisory Committee on Assisted Reproductive Technology (ACART)". New Zealand Gazette. 11 September 2008. Retrieved 1 August 2021.
9. "Appointments/reappointment to the Drug Free Sport New Zealand Board". New Zealand Gazette. 8 November 2007. Retrieved 1 August 2021.
10. "Appointment to the Drug Free Sport New Zealand Board". New Zealand Gazette. 21 February 2013. Retrieved 1 August 2021.
11. "Queen's Birthday honours list 1998". Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet. 1 June 1998. Retrieved 1 August 2021.
12. "New Year honours list 2008". Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet. 31 December 2007. Retrieved 1 August 2021.