Dr Ocean Ripeka Mercier (Ngāti Porou) is a Lecturer in Te Kawa a Māui (School of Māori Studies) at Victoria University of Wellington. In 2002 she became the first Māori woman to gain a PhD in Physics. Dr Mercier’s current teaching and research explores the interface between Māori and indigenous knowledge and science in tertiary and secondary educational contexts.

Professor Michael Walker (Whakatōhea) is a Fellow of the Royal Society of New Zealand and the Royal Institute of Navigation in London. He is best known for his research on the existence, capacities and use of the magnetic sense in navigation over long distances. Recently, he has developed research investigating the mechanisms of the lunar and tidal rhythms in marine organisms.

Professor Ngāhuia Te Awekotuku is Professor of Research at Te Pua Wānanga ki te Ao (School of Māori and Pacific Development) at the University of Waikato. With other degrees in Art History and English, her PhD (1981) was in psychology. This experience contributed to her writing an early (1991) monograph on Māori research ethics.

Born and raised in Te Arawa, the entrepreneur Wetini Mitai-Ngatai started his career teaching at Rotorua Boys and Western Heights High School, before lecturing at Waiariki Institute of Technology.