Why do scientists do what they do?

Professor Simon Kingham, of the University of Canterbury, is excited to think that his research can influence government policy on environmental issues. He likes to do research that addresses real problems.

Transcript

PROFESSOR SIMON KINGHAM
The thing that excites me about my work I think is actually… I would say I am an applied geographer. I'm not really into theoretical questions, I'm more into how can we use research to address real problems. So to me, doing research that actually tells… the government can use to formulate environmental policy is fantastic. So if my research can help make New Zealand cleaner, and it can clean up the air in Christchurch, and people can walk around without getting asthma, then that's fantastic. You know - that is what I want to do.