University of Auckland - Chair of Marine Biology

In 2003, GFF donated NZ$500,000.00 towards the establishment of a Chair in Marine Science at The University of Auckland’s Leigh Marine Laboratory –“I made my living from the ocean so it was nice to be able to support this particular initiative” Mr. Glenn said.

Professor John Montgomery holds a Personal Chair in Biological Sciences, and is Director of the Leigh Marine Laboratory. On his recent trip to New Zealand in February 2008 Owen and John caught up for lunch with friends and other associates of the University to review changes that have occurred in Leigh Marine Laboratory since the GFF donation 5 years ago.

More recently, Doctor Andrew Jeffs of the Department of Marine Science provided Owen with an update on the 2010 achievements of the Department, which have been partly funded by Owen’s “generous endowment to the Leigh Marine Laboratory”. This year Dr Jeffs has supervises two more post-graduate research students who recently completed their studies and secured employment in the workforce. Dr Jeffs himself has completed an extensive review project for the World Food and Agriculture Organsiation, which focused on the increase productivity of aquaculture production in the world’s tropical regions.

Dr Jeffs was invited to present at the World Lobster Conference in India on the prospects for developing lobster farming. Consequently, Dr Jeffs has received requests for help with lobster farming projects from Brazil to Australia and has a research project with Japanese scientists investigating the biology of larval lobsters in both New Zealand and Japan to improve the ability to raise baby lobsters from eggs. Dr Jeffs expressed his gratitude for the assistance and support provided by GFF, which he notes “has made a great deal of this activity possible”.