Rate My Professor Wayne Stephenson

Professor Wayne Stephenson is a Professor in the School of Geography at the University of Otago. He earned his MSc and PhD from the University of Canterbury. His academic career at Otago progressed from senior lecturer to Associate Professor in 2019 and full Professor, culminating in his Inaugural Professorial Lecture on 21 March 2024 titled “Coastal erosion, sea level rise, and an earthquake: Doing Geomorphology between the rocks and a hard place.” Stephenson's research specializes in coastal geomorphology, coastal management, and responses to climate change. Key areas include processes forming rock coasts, impacts of the 2016 Kaikōura earthquake on rock coast morphology and processes (funded by a Marsden Fund grant, 2019-2021), geological influences on morphology, erosion rates, and processes on rock coasts through collaboration with the University of Glasgow, storm impacts including erosion and boulder transport, coral reef geomorphology and climate change responses in the Maldives and Mexico, rip currents, beach morphodynamics in fetch-limited environments, rock weathering in coastal settings, shoreline responses to typhoons with East China Normal University, and lacustrine shoreline processes where he advised the Murray-Darling Basin Commission and monitored Lake Victoria, NSW, for nine years. He contributes to coastal management by providing hazard assessments, expert witness testimony in planning tribunals, technical reviews, and environmental impact assessments to communities, councils, and government.

Stephenson has obtained major funding such as the Marsden Fund Standard Grant (2019–2021, NZ$958,000) for “Will It Stay or Will It Go? Determining the relationship between marine terraces formed by earthquakes and coastal erosion,” University of Otago Research Grants (2018, NZ$20,000; 2017, NZ$10,350), and a UK NERC Urgency Grant (2017, NZ$110,000). Notable publications encompass “Development of shore platforms on Kaikoura Peninsula, South Island, New Zealand: Part one: the role of waves” (2000), “Rock coast geomorphology: recent advances and future research directions” (2010), “Boulders as a signature of storms on rock coasts” (2011), “Measuring erosion with the micro-erosion meter—contributions to understanding landform evolution” (2009), and recent articles including “Understanding extreme-wave hazards on high-energy coasts requires a standardised approach to field data collection” (2025), “Micro-Erosion Meter derived downwearing rates on inter-tidal shore platforms at Māhia Peninsula, New Zealand” (2025), and “Measuring beach pebbles and cobbles abrasion with RFID technology” (2025). He serves on the editorial board of Geographical Research and is a member of the Coastal People: Southern Skies collaboration linking communities with interdisciplinary coastal ecosystem research.