Dr Geoffrey Rice, of Christchurch, ONZM, for services to historical research and tertiary education
Emeritus Professor Geoffrey Rice is New Zealand’s preeminent authority on the impact of the 1918 Influenza Pandemic on New Zealand.
He has published two books on the subject, the first of which was invaluable to the Ministry of Health’s development of its New Zealand Influenza Pandemic Plan. He has written books on Christchurch and Lyttleton history and was general editor of the ‘Oxford History of New Zealand: Second Edition’.
He is an Emeritus Professor of History at the University of Canterbury and was the University’s Head of the School of History. He was Founding Secretary of the New Zealand Historical Association and Secretary of the Canterbury Historical Association.
Dr Rice is Secretary of the Canterbury History Foundation and organises the J.M. Sherrard Award in New Zealand Local and Regional History.