Philippa Black

Philippa Black
CNZM
Born (1941-11-26) 26 November 1941 (age 82)
Alma materUniversity of Auckland
Scientific career
FieldsMineralogy and Metamorphic Petrology
InstitutionsUniversity of Auckland
Theses
Doctoral studentsBruce Hayward

Philippa Margaret Black CNZM (born 26 November 1941) is a New Zealand academic specialising in geology, specifically mineralogy and metamorphic petrology.[1]

Black was born on 26 November 1941 in Hamilton. She is the daughter of Dorothy May (née Maslen) and James Corbett Black. She received her education at Taupiri Primary School, St Paul's Catholic School (primary school in Ngāruawāhia), and New Plymouth Girls' High School.[2] She studied at the University of Auckland and earned a MSc and PhD in geology. The title of her 1964 master's thesis was Igneous and metamorphic rocks from Tokatoka, Northland.[3] Her PhD focused on the Tokatea Reef in the hills behind Coromandel township and the title of her doctoral thesis was Petrology of the Cuvier and Paritu Plutons and their metamorphic Aureoles.[4][5] She later got an MA in History.[6] She was appointed a professor at the University of Auckland in 1986[7] and headed the department for 15 years.[7]

Between 1993 and 1997, Black was president of the Royal Society of New Zealand, the first woman to hold the role.[7] In the 1996 Queen's Birthday Honours, she was appointed a Companion of the New Zealand Order of Merit, for services to science.[8]

In 2013, after her retirement, she was elected Companion to the Institution of Professional Engineers New Zealand (IPENZ).[9] In 2017, she was selected as one of the Royal Society Te Apārangi's 150 women in 150 words, celebrating the contribution of women to knowledge in New Zealand.[10]

  1. ^ "Contact our people – The University of Auckland". www.auckland.ac.nz.
  2. ^ Lambert, Max (1991). Who's Who in New Zealand, 1991 (12th ed.). Auckland: Octopus. p. 57. ISBN 9780790001302.
  3. ^ Black, Philippa (1964). Igneous and metamorphic rocks from Tokatoka, Northland (Masters thesis). ResearchSpace@Auckland, University of Auckland. hdl:2292/5877.
  4. ^ Exhibition notes to company The Art of Science, a joint exhibition of the Royal Society of New Zealand and the New Zealand Portrait Gallery, curated by Rebecca Priestley, touring New Zealand 2011–2013.
  5. ^ Black, Philippa (1967). Petrology of the Cuvier and Paritu Plutons and their metamorphic Aureoles (Doctoral thesis). ResearchSpace@Auckland, University of Auckland. hdl:2292/387.
  6. ^ Black, Philippa (2004). Cornishmen and convicts : mining and European settlement of the Diahot, northern New Caledonia (Thesis, MA History). Auckland: University of Auckland.
  7. ^ a b c Kac, Juliet; Taonga, New Zealand Ministry for Culture and Heritage Te Manatu. "Philippa Black". teara.govt.nz.
  8. ^ "Queen's Birthday honours list 1996". Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet. 3 June 1996. Retrieved 27 September 2019.
  9. ^ "Two of the School's Geologists Receive Recognition – The University of Auckland". www.env.auckland.ac.nz.
  10. ^ "Philippa Black CNZM FRSNZ". Royal Society Te Apārangi. Retrieved 10 May 2021.