Position: former Research scientist, NIWA. Currently Director, Bodeker Scientific.
Field: Ozone and UV.
Dr Gregory Bodeker was a research scientist with the NIWA, based at Lauder in Central Otago. In 2010 Greg left NIWA and set up his own atmospheric research company, Bodeker Scientific, specializing in the science of stratospheric ozone depletion, stratospheric composition and climate change.
His particular interest is the study of ozone in the atmosphere.
Career pathway
Greg grew up in South Africa and always had a strong interest in scientific research. In 1990, he over-wintered in Antarctica, making measurements related to the ionosphere and taking photos of aurora. He worked at NIWA from 1994 until 2009.
“One of the projects I’m working on mainly right now [2008] is a better understanding of the links between ozone depletion and climate change and really being able to quantify that so that we know. It’s also so that we can guide policy makers in the implementation of international policy.”
Greg also led a research project that aimed to determine the variability in ozone over New Zealand and to develop models that can provide predictions of ozone levels.
He finds the research stimulating: “Well it’s very, very diverse. You can get involved in all sorts of different aspects of it and it has economic aspects, it has legal aspects. It’s so connected to many other fields. I found that very interesting. It’s not that you’re only working in a laboratory. It’s not that you’re only working on computers analyzing data, it’s also immediate and so you see that the work is very applied and it is addressing a huge problem. We do just a very small part of that, but we know that the part that we do fits into a huge big international collaborative effort and that’s very, very rewarding.”
In 2016 Greg led the consortium of companies involved in getting New Zealand’s second Regional Research Institute, The Centre for Space Science Technology off the ground. Read this news story from November 2016 for more information.
Greg has many other roles including Adjunct Professor at the Climate Change Research Institute.
This article is based on information current in 2008 and was updated in 2018.
Useful link
For the latest information on Greg, see his profile on the Bodeker Scientific website.
