Geoffrey Rice

Who is Geoffrey Rice?

Geoffrey Wayne Rice is a retired Professor of History at the University of Canterbury, Christchurch, New Zealand. He served as Head of the School of History from 2006 to 2011, before retiring in 2012.

Professor Rice studied at the University of Canterbury during from 1965 to 1969, and was the first person to be awarded a History PhD by the University of Canterbury in 1974. Rice has served as the foundation Secretary of the New Zealand Historical Association from 1978 to 1981, and as secretary of the Canterbury Historical Association since 1982 to 2007. He currently serves as secretary of the Canterbury History Foundation from 2012. Rice has also been a member of the Royal Society of New Zealand, and is a fellow of the Royal Historical Society, London. He was general editor for the 2nd edition of the Oxford History of New Zealand.

Professor Rice is known for his detailed studies of the 1918 Influenza Pandemic and its effect on New Zealand and Japan, as well as his studies of the local history of Christchurch. His research into the flu pandemic has been used by the New Zealand Ministry of Health to help predict the effects of a hypothetical bird-flu pandemic, and he has written several books on Christchurch's history and that of its neighboring port, Lyttelton. Rice has also written books on the Fourth Earl of Rochford and Heaton Rhodes, as well as some of the Christchurch heritage lost during the 2011 Christchurch earthquake and its aftershocks.