Neil James Cherry (29 September 1946 – 24 May 2003) was a New Zealand environmental scientist.

Biography

Early life and family

Cherry was born in

Christchurch Christchurch (; ) is the largest city in the South Island and the List of cities in New Zealand, second-largest city by urban area population in New Zealand. Christchurch has an urban population of , and a metropolitan population of over hal ...

on 29 September 1946. His parents were James Conrad Cherry and Mona Hartley, who had married in 1940. Cherry could trace his ancestry back to the '' Cressy'', one of the

First Four Ships The First Four Ships refers to the four sailing vessels chartered by the Canterbury Association which left Plymouth, England, in September 1850 to transport the first English settlers to new homes in Canterbury, New Zealand, Canterbury, New Zea ...

that started the settlement of

Canterbury Canterbury (, ) is a City status in the United Kingdom, city and UNESCO World Heritage Site, in the county of Kent, England; it was a county borough until 1974. It lies on the River Stour, Kent, River Stour. The city has a mild oceanic climat ...

. Cherry was educated at Christchurch Technical College, and went on to study physics at the

University of Canterbury The University of Canterbury (UC; ; postnominal abbreviation ''Cantuar.'' or ''Cant.'' for ''Cantuariensis'', the Latin name for Canterbury) is a public research university based in Christchurch, New Zealand. It was founded in 1873 as Canterbur ...

, graduating BSc(Hons) in 1969 and

PhD A Doctor of Philosophy (PhD, DPhil; or ) is a terminal degree that usually denotes the highest level of academic achievement in a given discipline and is awarded following a course of graduate study and original research. The name of the deg ...

in 1971. His doctoral thesis, supervised by R.G.T. Bennett and G.J. Fraser, was titled ''A study of wind and waves''. In 1968, Cherry married Gae Denise Miller, and the couple went on to have two children.

Career

Cherry specialised most recently in the effects of

electromagnetic radiation In physics, electromagnetic radiation (EMR) is a self-propagating wave of the electromagnetic field that carries momentum and radiant energy through space. It encompasses a broad spectrum, classified by frequency or its inverse, wavelength ...

on human health, following his earlier work in

meteorology Meteorology is the scientific study of the Earth's atmosphere and short-term atmospheric phenomena (i.e. weather), with a focus on weather forecasting. It has applications in the military, aviation, energy production, transport, agricultur ...

and

wind energy Wind power is the use of wind energy to generate useful work. Historically, wind power was used by sails, windmills and windpumps, but today it is mostly used to generate electricity. This article deals only with wind power for electricity ...

Politics

At the he stood for the Labour Party in the Christchurch electorate of . He boosted Labour's vote by 6.73%, but fell 311 votes short of defeating the incumbent MP

Philip Burdon Philip Ralph Burdon (born 25 March 1939) is a former New Zealand politician and lawyer by profession. He was the co-founder of Meadow Mushrooms. Early life and family Burdon was born in Geraldine on 25 March 1939, the son of Cotsford Carlton B ...

. Ahead of the he put himself forward to replace former Prime Minister

Geoffrey Palmer Geoffrey Palmer may refer to: Politicians *Sir Geoffrey Palmer, 1st Baronet (1598–1670), English lawyer and politician *Sir Geoffrey Palmer, 3rd Baronet (1655–1732), English politician, member of parliament (MP) for Leicestershire *Geoffrey Pal ...

as the Labour candidate for . He lost out on the Labour nomination to

Lianne Dalziel Lianne Audrey Dalziel (; born 7 June 1960) is a New Zealand politician and former Mayor of Christchurch. Prior to this position, she was a member of the New Zealand Parliament for 23 years, serving as Minister of Immigration, Commerce, Minister ...

but was, by his own estimation, the second preference and pledged to campaign for Dalziel. Cherry served as a Councillor on the Canterbury Regional Council (Environment Canterbury) from 1992.

Later life and death

Cherry was diagnosed with

motor neurone disease Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), also known as motor neuron disease (MND) or—in the United States—Lou Gehrig's disease (LGD), is a rare, terminal neurodegenerative disorder that results in the progressive loss of both upper and low ...

in 2001, and became increasingly immobile until his death in 2003.

Honours and awards

In 1990, Cherry was awarded the

New Zealand 1990 Commemoration Medal The New Zealand 1990 Commemoration Medal was a commemorative medal awarded in New Zealand in 1990 to celebrate the 150th anniversary of the signing of the Treaty of Waitangi, and was awarded to 3,632 people. Background The New Zealand 1990 Com ...

. In the

2002 New Year Honours New Years' Honours are announced on or around the date of the New Year in Australia, Canada, New Zealand and the United Kingdom. The dates vary, both from year to year and from country to country. All are published in supplements to the London G ...

, Cherry was appointed an

Officer of the New Zealand Order of Merit The New Zealand Order of Merit () is an order of merit in the New Zealand royal honours system. It was established by royal warrant on 30 May 1996 by Elizabeth II, Queen of New Zealand, "for those persons who in any field of endeavour, have r ...

, for services to science, education and the community.

Selected works

* * * *

References

External links

Profile
(archived on 10 August 2003) *Life story (15 parts

{{DEFAULTSORT:Cherry, Neil 1946 births 2003 deaths University of Canterbury alumni Academic staff of Lincoln University (New Zealand) Scientists from Christchurch Environmental scientists New Zealand scientists Unsuccessful candidates in the 1987 New Zealand general election Canterbury regional councillors Officers of the New Zealand Order of Merit Deaths from motor neuron disease in New Zealand