Duxes

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1980’s School Dux

Dittmer I. D.

Ian was School Dux and Special Prize Winner in Mathematics and Science in 1980. He gave a lot of his time to the school being Chairman of the School Council (no Prefects in 1980), joint Head Librarian, member of the interschool debating team, and member of the School Magazine Committee.

Dr Ian Dittmer is an active clinical transplant physician and is head of the Department of Renal Medicine at Auckland City Hospital where he is a Transplant Nephrologist who has worked in the unit since 1998. His main interests are Transplant immunology and Ethical Issues in transplantation. Ian went to Medical School in Otago graduating MB ChB 1986, he then moved to Auckland training in Renal Medicine and later trained further in Bristol, UK with a special interest in clinical immunology. He has overseen the NZ kidney allocation scheme since 1998. He became a Fellow of the Royal Australasian College of Physicians in 1995.

He is Chair, Clinical Ethics Advisory Group, a member of the Declaration of Istanbul Custodial Group and the TTS Ethics Committee. He completed a sabbatical in 2015 focusing on the ethics of live donor transplantation especially the issue of the balance between patient autonomy and professional protectionism (paternalism).

Stephen Alan Godfrey ( Attended King’s High School from 1977 to 1981)

Steven was the 1981 School Dux. He was also awarded the Form 7 Mathematics’ Prize and the Band Senior Championship Gold medal. Steven was a member of the National Youth Band. He played his trombone with the St Kilda Band since about 1979. Steven finished 4^th in the Otago Region for the B.N.Z. Senior Mathematics Competition.

On leaving school and attended the University of Otago from 1983 to 1987 where he studied music, computer science and information science. He graduated with BMus (Hons), BA (Comp Sci)

In 1987 he took up a position with the University of Otago he in time became an Information Systems Manager. He was responsible for the development and administration of computer systems related to Property Services division. These systems included Property Management, Work Control Management, Mail Charging, Energy Charging and Parking.

Steven continued his interest with music. He played trombone with the St Kilda Band and the Dunedin City Jazz Orchestra.

Steven died on the 24 June 2016 aged 52 years.

Raymond Scurr  M.Sc (Hons) Mathematics, Otago University 1988

In January 2000 Raymond was appointed as a Teaching Fellow in the University of Otago Computer Science Department

Raymond has had a long association with the Department, and first started tutoring in 1984. He then had a spell in the Maths Department, but then returned to Computer Science in 1996.

In 2014 longstanding 300-level Teaching Fellow Raymond Scurr left his position in the Computer Science Department. Raymond is continuing as a demonstrator.

Our 1982 Dux, Tim is a Professor Emeritus of Finance at the University of Otago. He joined the department as a chaired full professor in 2004, and retired in 2021. He maintains an office at the University of Otago and continues to mentor junior faculty and to meet with students.

At Kings Tim had a very successful academic career. He gained General Excellence Prizes each year and won distinction awards with the Australian Mathematics Competition. He was one of the top Students in the New Zealand Senior Mathematics Competition. He was a member of the Student Executive (No Prefects in 1982) in his final year.

On leaving Kings Tim attended the University of Otago in 1983. After four years study he graduated with a Batcheler Degree with Honours in Mathematics. He completed a Post Graduate Diploma of Commerce in Accounting from 1987 to 1990 then a Masters Degree in finance from 1990 to 1993.

He continued his studies in the United States where he did Doctorate coursework at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Harvard University, and graduated with a PhD in Financial Economics at MIT. He also holds the Investment Management Certificate from the UK Society of Investment Professionals. He has published in the top academic journal in Finance (The Journal of Finance), the top practitioner-oriented journals in Finance (The Financial Analysts Journal and The Journal of Futures Markets), and the top pedagogical journal in Finance (The Journal of Financial Education). He also published in what was the top interdisciplinary Business journal (The Journal of Business). He has written seven sole-authored finance books:

Tim has worked as an independent consultant to the New York Stock Exchange and to a foreign government body investigating wrongdoing in the financial markets. His most recent practitioner job was as the head of quantitative active equity research for the UK and Continental Europe in the London office of Barclays Global Investors which was the world’s largest institutional asset manager. He also taught undergraduate, MBA and PhD courses at Indiana University’s Kelley School of Business. He has won six university teaching awards and been nominated for at least five others.

Stuart Dickson

 On leaving King’s High School Stuart graduated as Bachelor of Engineering (BE)Mechanical Engineering at the University of Canterbury

From 2000 to 2005 he was Technical Asset Manager for the Natural Gas Corporation of NZ and then a

Consultant in Wellington from January 2007 to Dec 2011.

Since then he has been General Manager Gas at Powerco NZ in Lower Hutt from January 2012 to the present. Powerco serves clients in New Zealand and portions of Australia.

Stuart has senior leadership experience in the gas industry. He is a professional engineer with 20 years experience in the gas and energy industry and over 10 years experience in successful team leadership roles.
Proven record of building internal and external relationships

On leaving King’s High School Wayne attended the University of Otago from 1984 to 1987 and graduated with a BA (Hons) in History. In 1990 he gained a Diploma in Tourism.

 For the next 13 years he was employed by the University of Otago as an administrative assistant for International Student Admissions, then as Manager of International Marketing and Liaison, then Deputy Director, International and finally as Acting Director, International.

Wayne is now employed as Director of International Students at Otago Boys’ High School.

1984: Stuart David Ryder  (Attended King’s High School from 1980 to 1984) Stuart D Ryder  Stuart Ryder, son Mrs L. M. (Lorna) Ryder (Board of Governors 1985-89) and Dux in 1984 had developed an interest in astronomy as a young lad visiting the BeverlyBegg observatory. He began his university studies at Otago University, but transferred to Canterbury University where they offered courses in astronomy, graduating BSc (1st class Honours in Physics & Astronomy) in 1988. In 1993 he completed his Ph.D in astronomy and astrophysics at Australian National University in Canberra, and pursued post-doctoral studies at the University of Alabama. Stuart was Head of International Telescopes Support, managing the International Telescopes Support Office  hosted by the Australian Astronomical Observatory in Sydney, Australia. He was responsible for coordinating Australia’s usage of large telescopes offshore, particularly the twin 8 metre Gemini telescopes in Hawaii and Chile, and the twin 6.5 metre Magellan telescopes in Chile. He also conduct research with international collaborators on core-collapse supernovae, and star formation in nuclear rings of galaxies, using optical, infrared, and also radio telescopes. Stuart is now an Adjunct Fellow with the Dept of Physics & Astronomy. He works part-time as a Program Manager with Astronomy Australia Ltd at their Macquarie University Office, and oversees Australia’s Strategic Partnership with the European Southern Observatory. He conducts research using telescopes at the European Southern Observatory in Chile, as well as radio telescopes operated by CSIRO Astronomy and Space Science in Australia, and the Stratospheric Observatory For Infrared Astronomy (SOFIA) operated by NASA & DLR. Stuart’s research interests are primarily in astronomical transients, including core-collapse supernovae and Fast Radio Bursts. In the past decade he has co-led the SUNBIRD (Supernovae UNmasked By InfraRed Detection) collaboration, that has used Laser Guide Star Adaptive Optics facilities on 8-10 metre class telescopes including Gemini, Keck, Subaru, and the Very Large Telescope to reveal a population of “missing” supernovae. He is also leading the optical follow-up using the Very Large Telescope of the host galaxies to Fast Radio Bursts localised with the Australian Square Kilometre Array Pathfinder by the CRAFT collaboration.

1985

Stephen Murray Robertson (Attended King’s High School from 1981 to 1985) At the end of year 1985 prize giving Stephen awarded the honour of being Dux of the School, he won the Mayhew Memorial Prize for History, the D.I.C. Prize for English in Form7, the Old Boys Prize for All-Round Merit, and a Service Award for service to the school. He was a School Prefect, the School Council Secretary, a member of the Editorial Committee for the School Magazine and winner of the secondary school section of the Tom Lloyd Photography Contest. He played for the First Hockey Eleven and acted in the School Musical “Salad Days”. On leaving Kings Stephen received his BA (Hons) degrees in English and History from the University of Otago and a PhD in History from Rutgers University in the USA. He held postdoctoral fellowships at the American Bar Foundation and in the Department of History and Art History at George Mason University. From 2000-2013 he was a member of the Department of History at the University of Sydney, Australia. For six years, from 2013-2019, he served as director of the Roy Rosenzweig Centre for History and New Media. Stephen is now a professor, in the College of Humanities and Social Sciences at the George Mason University. The university is an institute for digital innovation research in Fairfax County, Virginia. The university was originally founded in 1949 as a northern branch of the University of Virginia. At Mason University Stephen is a cultural and social historian of the twentieth-century United States. Since 2003, digital history has occupied a central place in his research, in the form of Digital Harlem, a site that integrates material from a diverse range of sources to produce maps that offer visualizations of the complexity of everyday life in the 1920s. The site formed part of a collaborative project involving three colleagues in the Department of History, and the Arts eResearch unit, at the University of Sydney. Digital Harlem won the American Historical Association’s inaugural Rosenzweig Prize for Innovation in Digital History and the American Library Association’s ABC-CLIO Digital History Prize in 2010. Stephen has published articles and book chapters about digital history methods and tools, digital legal history, digital publication, and the teaching of digital history. He has also authored books: Crimes against Children: Sexual Violence and Legal Culture in New York City, 1880-1960; and of Playing the Numbers: Gambling in Harlem Between the Wars. Stephen has published articles and book chapters on sex crimes, modern childhood, everyday life in 1920s Harlem, and undercover investigation in journals such as Gender and History, the Journal of Social History, the Journal of Urban History, and the Journal of the History of Sexuality.

1988: Boon Chuan Low  (Attended King’s High School from 1988 to 1988) Boon Chuan Low 1988 dux The dux of King’s High School in 1988 was Boon Chuan Low, a 19 year old student from Kuala Lumpur. Affectionately known by his schoolmates as ‘BC he came to New Zealand at the beginning of the year hoping to find a school that would lead him to the University of Otago and studies in molecular biology. ‘BC’ had been head boy at Sental Methodist School in a small town outside Kuala Lumpur and came to King’s from his upper sixth form year. Fluent in several languages including Hokkien (a dialect of Chinese) and Mandarin (a main Chinese language), he studied nine subjects until his fifth form year at high school. He made his final decision to come to New Zealand and study after talks at the New Zealand High Commission in Kuala Lumpur, and Dunedin was the choice of cities because his aunt had graduated from the University of Otago. New Zealand’s way of life impressed ‘BC’ who especially enjoys the size of our gardens and “the space to live in’.’ He noticed many differences in New Zealand compared with Malaysia. Schooling is strict in Malaysia and good teacher/student relationships are almost unheard of BC’said he was very honoured to be awarded the dux medal. He returned home after his scholarship exams and returned to Dunedin in February to resume his studies. After leaving King’s High School BC spent wonderful undergraduate and postgraduate years at the Department of Biochemistry, University of Otago, he joined the Institute of Molecular and Cell Biology, Singapore and then National University of Singapore, where he is now an Associate Professor and Principal Investigator running a Cell Signalling and Developmental Biology Laboratory, Department of Biological Sciences. Trained as a biochemist, practising mainly as a cell biologist now, and with exciting arrays of multi-disciplinary tools, his team and collaborators aim to systematically unravel some of the uncharted paths, and are ready to expect the unexpected.

1989: Matthew Gordon Barr (Attended King’s High School from 1985 to 1989)  Matthew Barr Matthew Gordon Barr was the 1989 Dux of King’s High School. This award came at the end of a hard year’s work for Matthew. Gaining the honour of Dux is tough enough but Matthew combined this with representing the Otago Men’s A’ Indoor Hockey team, Otago Colts Outdoor Team and leading an active social life. Matthew won the Bremner Scholarship for academic excellence at form six in 1988 along with various other subject prizes. This year Matthew undertook a course of Calculus, Statistics, Physics, Chemistry and Economics. He has achieved outstanding marks often in the 90s for his school exams. Matthew has had a stellar career since leaving Kings. He holds an Honours Degree in Electrical Engineering from Canterbury University, New Zealand, and, as a Rhodes Scholar at Oxford University, a Bachelor of Arts in Politics, Philosophy and Economics, and an MSC in Economics. Matthew is the group head for Digital Payments for North America. In this role, he is responsible for the delivery and development of the digital payments strategy across the U.S. and Canada, including MasterPass, MasterCard Digital Enablement Service (MDES), Personal Payments, contactless and EMV adoption. Matthew has held this role since 2014. In his previous role as Head of Market Development and Innovation based in Sydney, he was responsible for the development of emerging payment services, including both mobile and e-commerce payments, in the Australasian markets. Matthew was instrumental in establishing the Australian market as a key lead market across contactless, MasterPass and commercial mobile NFC solutions. Prior to joining MasterCard in 2011, Matthew was an Executive at Telstra, where he was responsible for core mobile services product development. He has also worked in Retail Banking, New Media and Management Consulting in a broad career that has provided invaluable experience in the definition and delivery of technology and service-based innovation.

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