Megan Balks

Megan Balks NZAM
Born	Wairarapa
Nationality	New Zealand
Alma mater	Massey University
Spouse	Errol

Megan Ruby Balks NZAM is a New Zealand Antarctic soil scientist and former lecturer of the University of Waikato.

Early life and education

Balks was raised in Wairarapa, where she wanted to become a geologist. She attended Massey University, where she studied soil science.

Career

Balks started lecturing at the University of Waikato from 1988 until she left in 2018, where helped 10 Antarctic soil research graduate students.

In 1990 Balks, along with other soil scientists, started researching Antarctica's permafrosts and its human environmental impact. When offered this role, she was sceptical about Antarctic as she did not believe that the Antarctic would have much soil to study. In her first project she looked soil from an airstrip that the United States built in the 1950s. In total, she completed 19 Antarctic field expeditions, where she was field leader of 12. She and the other researchers placed soil climate monitoring stations within the Antarctic, reporting to the Circumpolar Active Layer Monitoring (CALM) programme which measure the effects of climate change in the polar regions.

From the mid-1990s to 2001 Balks was a member of the Waikato Conservation Board. From 2000 to 2023 Balks was a member of the Crysol Working Group of the International Union of Soil Sciences, where she was co-chair for two years. From 2008 to 2022 Balks represented New Zealand on the council of International Permafrost Association, where in 2019, she created its first Southern Hemisphere regional permafrost conference. Her other roles include being a founding member and secretary of the ANTPAS (Antarctic Permafrost and Soils), a member of the Royal Society of New Zealand's Committee on Antarctic Research, a member of the New Zealand Geographic Board Committee of Place Naming in the Ross Sea Region of Antarctica, and president of the New Zealand Society of Soil Science from 2018 to 2020. As of 2024 is review editor of the State of the World Soils Report of the Food and Agriculture Organization, which is part of the United Nations.

In 2021 Balks and other two other researchers published the book Soils of Aotearoa New Zealand. It has 18 chapters and describes New Zealand's soils with the New Zealand Soil Classification.

In the 2024 New Year Honours Balks was awarded the New Zealand Antarctic Medal for services to Antarctic soil science.

Personal life

Balks has a husband named Errol. Around the 1980s the two moved to Dunedin due to Balks' work in Central Otago, and so that Errol could study land surveying. They now live in Waikato and have their own nature reserve, where they have a breed of sheep that which produces a type of fibre that Balks uses in a craft hobby.

Further reading

Hewitt, Allan E.; Balks, Megan R.; Lowe, David J. (2021). The Soils of Aotearoa New Zealand. World Soils Book Series. Cham: Springer International Publishing. doi:10.1007/978-3-030-64763-6. ISBN 978-3-030-64761-2.