Mon, 03 Aug 2009 12:00a.m.
A Hamilton scientist has offered $1,000 for the return of a stolen laptop and hard drive containing seven years' worth of botany research.
Professor Bruce Clarkson, who heads Waikato University's Centre for Biodiversity and Ecology Research, was deeply distressed by the loss of the Dell laptop and an external hard drive, holding about 70 gigabytes of his work, which was taken from his home on Saturday, the Waikato Times reported.
The work included pictures, measurements, diagrams and research papers, which he said would be of no value to anyone other than those working in the botanical science field.
"It'd be absolutely useless to anybody else," Professor Clarkson said.
He had reported the burglary to police and also offered a reward of $1,000 for the return of either the laptop or hard drive or information leading to its retrieval particularly if his research work remained intact.
NZPA