Congratulations to our newly appointed professors

Wanglin Ma

Department of Global Value Chains and Trade

Wanglin Ma is an Associate Professor of Applied Economics, specialising in agricultural and development economics. His research applies advanced econometric models to explore practical issues, concentrating on boosting the economic performance of farms, enhancing farmers' subjective wellbeing and household welfare, and fostering sustainable development in rural and agricultural sectors. Wanglin has published over 130 articles in peer-reviewed international journals, authored two book chapters and written three media articles, earning over 5,000 citations and achieving an H-index of 41 on Google Scholar. His outstanding work places him in the top 1.2% of economists (last 10 years’ publications) globally on the RePEc platform and among the top 200 agricultural economists worldwide. He is also ranked as one of the top three economists (Authors 10) in New Zealand. Wanglin's research has been recognised for its policy impact, evidenced by citations in 65 policy documents globally. He has been honoured with multiple research-based awards.

Wanglin’s recognised expertise has led to over 50 invitations to present at external universities and research institutes. He has delivered over 60 presentations at international conferences as a keynote speaker, session chair and presenter. He has been a standing committee member, advisory board member and visiting professor of several international organisations and universities. Wanglin holds multiple leadership editorial roles in prestigious international journals in economics fields, including two co-editors, eight associate editors and two editorial board members. He has also actively served as a leading guest editor in several journals for special issues and co-organised multiple international conferences.

Research profile Wanglin Ma

Jim Moir

Department of Soil and Physical Sciences

Jim’s research focuses on soil fertility, investigating nutrient cycling in grazed grasslands, including plant nutrition. His research expertise is in nitrogen (N) and phosphorus (P) cycling and soil pH (acidity) issues in soil/plant/animal systems. He aims to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of Aotearoa’s grassland farming systems, towards the future sustainability of grazed grasslands.

He is currently collaborating with colleagues at Qinghai University in China on a key project which examines nutrient flows and sustainability issues in high-altitude Chinese and New Zealand grasslands. In China, the team works on the largest grassland plateau in the world, the Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau, which is under high grazing pressure from farmers and therefore threatened by severe degradation. This plateau shares many common issues with New Zealand high country grasslands, and the project aims to increase knowledge of these systems to improve the quality and long-term sustainability of grazed grasslands.

Jim is deeply committed to the development and progression of the postgraduate students under his supervision, and to his undergraduate teaching. He considers the future-proofing of the grazed grassland sector of New Zealand to be critically important to the economy, environment and to the country’s core business, and he has led many initiatives to develop Lincoln University’s teaching and research profile in this sector.

Research profile: Jim Moir

James Ross

Department of Pest Management and Conservation

James Ross is currently an Associate Professor of Wildlife Management at Lincoln University. He is the Co-Director of the Centre of Wildlife Management and Conservation and the coordinator for the Masters of Pest Management – Vertebrate Stream. Outside of the University, he was previously a ‘Research Champion’ in the Biological Heritage National Science Challenge and is currently an advisor to the Department of Conservation's Predator Free 2050 Innovation Group. He also sits on the Technical Advisory Groups for Taranaki Mounga and Zero Invasive Predators.

His work (in collaboration with others) has developed and registered several new toxins and humane kill traps in New Zealand. These vertebrate toxin registrations were the first globally in over 30 years and have since been adopted in Aotearoa and by many international agencies. He is recognised in his field for developing and testing new pest control and monitoring tools and is a science advisor for many ongoing pest control programmes.

James's teaching philosophy encourages students to independently seek relevant material and think critically about the key issues while advancing their expertise and developing their own individual approaches. He is the Lincoln University representative for the Global Challenges University Alliance 2030, through which he has mentored international students and previously ran a ‘Wildlife’ summer school for postgraduates from seven countries.

Research profile: James Ross

Emma J Stewart

Department of Tourism, Sport and Society

Emma’s research focuses on the human dimensions of environmental change and implications for the tourism sector, neighbouring communities, underlying resources and governance structures in climate-sensitive nature-based settings, including polar, coastal and high mountain environments. She is a leading international geographer in the field of nature-based tourism, in particular polar tourism, where she is globally recognised as the most prolific researcher of all time in the field.

As a human geographer seeking to understand the implications of bio-physical change for society, Emma collaborates with natural scientists, including sea-ice modellers, glaciologists, climate scientists and biologists. She is a core member of a UN World Meteorological Organization (WMO) Polar Prediction Project which initiates, develops and promotes cooperative international social science research to improve environmental services for the Polar Regions. Her research is cited as evidence in various Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) reports and she has advised the New Zealand government on managing Antarctic tourism.

Emma’s learner-centric teaching practice is underpinned by the concept of ako, where the reciprocal relationship between teacher and tauira is at the core. She has taught at Lincoln University for 15 years, and in 2016 she won the Lincoln University Sustained Excellence in Teaching Award.

Emma is currently Associate Dean (Research) of Lincoln University’s Faculty of Environment, Society and Design.

Research profile: Emma J Stewart