Richard Bedford

Professor Richard Bedford QSO, FRSNZ is currently Pro Vice-Chancellor Research at AUT University and Professor of Population Geography in the National Institute of Demographic and Economic Analysis (NIDEA) at the University of Waikato. He is a specialist in migration research and since the mid-1960s he has been researching processes of population movement in the Asia-Pacific region. He is currently a mentor to the Ministry of Science and Innovation's social science leadership initiative, He Waka Tangata, and an adviser to the Department of Labour on the Recognised Seasonal Employment (RSE) work policy and the Longitudinal Survey of Immigration: New Zealand (LisNZ). He is also a member of the Ministerial Advisory Committee on Official Statistics (ACOS).

Professor Bedford was awarded the New Zealand 1990 Medal for services to New Zealand, was elected to Fellowship of the Royal Society in 2000, was awarded the Distinguished New Zealand Geographer Medal in 2007 and was made a Companion of the Queen's Service Order (QSO) in 2008 for services to geography.  In 2010 he was awarded the Royal Society's Dame Joan Metge Medal in the Social Sciences for his contributions to research on migration and to building research capability in the social sciences.