Margaret Mary Hyland is a Canadian-born chemist based in New Zealand whose research focuses on aluminium technology, and the chemistry and engineering of material surfaces. She moved to New Zealand in 1989 and after holding many senior academic leadership roles supporting and developing research at the faculty, university and national level became recognised as an authority on the generation and capture of fluoride emissions from aluminium smelters and for coordinating the team that produced the 'Fluoride Emissions Management Guide' for the aluminium industry. This achievement was acknowledged when she became the first woman to win the Pickering Medal. In 2017, Hyland was seconded to the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment in the role of Chief Scientist and has held positions in a variety of other groups supporting the physical sciences and engineering. Since 2018 she has been Vice-Provost, (Research) at Victoria University of Wellington, New Zealand. Education Hyland graduated from University of Guelph, Ontario Canada in 1983 with a BSc (Hons) in Chemistry, and completed her PhD at the University of Western Ontario in 1989. The thesis for her PhD, titled 'X-ray Photoelectron Spectroscopic Studies Of The Interaction Of Aqueous Metal Complexes With Sulphide Minerals', looked at how "gold and other metals are laid down on minerals surfaces, with implications for capturing heavy metals in the environment, and involved a technique called the chemical surface analysis". Academic career When Auckland University acquired its first surface analysis equipment in 1989, Hyland moved to New Zealand and took up a position as a professor at the University of Auckland, Chemical and Materials Engineering and continued in this role until 2018. She was Associate Deputy Vice-Chancellor, Research (2010 – 2013), and between 2012 and 2017, Deputy Dean, University of Auckland Faculty of Engineering. In her time at the University of Auckland, Hyland led a range of strategic postgraduate and research projects. From August 2018 Hyland has been Vice-Provost (Research) at Victoria University of Wellington, and as a member of the Senior Leadership Team, is responsible for developing strategic research objectives that build capability and strengthen understanding of matauranga Maori. Fluoride emissions management While at Auckland University, Hyland became the founding principal investigator and associate director of the university's Light Metals Research Centre (LMRC). This allowed consolidation of her research into developing fluoride gas cleaning systems for the aluminium industry, and resulted in findings that were used at the Tiwai Point Aluminium Smelter