Theft haunts academic

Bruce Clarkson still holds the faint hope that one day he'll get back his seven years' worth of scientific information.

Last August, Professor Clarkson – head of Waikato University's Centre for Biodiversity and Ecological Research – made a public appeal through the Times for the return of an ageing Dell laptop and external hard drive stolen from his Hamilton home. It contained about 10 gigabytes of files from his scientific studies and even photographs and memories of family holidays.

The theft, which Prof Clarkson believes was an opportunist crime, came at a miserable time for the noted scientist. He was preparing to travel for a family funeral in Gisborne when the thief struck. He was deeply upset, and admits he was "very difficult to live with for several months". He regularly relives the theft when people seek information, and he has to say "sorry I can't help you".

Prof Clarkson sought return of the computer or hard drive on a "no questions asked" basis, and even offered a $1000 reward.

"I had a text message from someone, asking if the laptop had any Asian characters on it – that was about the extent of it," he says of the reward offer.

"Fundamentally, it's been an enormous problem for me – and the problem hasn't gone away. You've just got to get through it, and find a way of solving the problem," he says.

Since the theft, Prof Clarkson has been regathering the lost information. Colleagues and friends have rallied round, sending him research, lectures and documents he originally sent them.

"But the overall result is an enormous amount of material is gone. And the only way I've been able to do that is to go back to my notebooks and data sets, and do all of my own analysis again," he says.

Prof Clarkson has had a hugely time-consuming task rebuilding his files of botanical information.

He realises he's one of thousands of victims of what is seen as a minor crime, and appreciates police resources are limited. But he wonders how they allocate importance to investigating crime, and notes the information and files on his laptop were, in a large part, funded by taxpayers and students through the university.

Police did offer some insight into what became of Prof Clarkson's laptop: they believe it was stolen as part of a series of laptop thefts in the city at the time, and was probably "taken to Auckland and sold out of the back of the car".

He's certain the scientific information was wiped, and finds some humour in the idea of a thief opening the files and "wondering what the hell is all this stuff, who'd want it" while uttering words like "nerd" and "geek".

Prof Clarkson says there have been a couple of upsides to the theft, particularly from an educator's point of view.

"One of the benefits I would outline is that you can get into a (teaching) rut. You can give a lecture for three or four years in a row, and just recycle. What this has forced me to do, in a number of cases, is revisit the topic and update the material."

But he concedes "in a number of areas, I have not been as efficient as I could've been".

It will take him several years to recover all the information he lost.

He's also realised how important it is to "back up" information in more than one place, and his loss has caused colleagues to take more measures to store and protect their work.

"A number of people realised they weren't covering their bases adequately ..."

There's a lesson in that for everyone.

Has Prof Clarkson given up all hope of ever getting his laptop and hard drive back?

"No," he says.

"Actually I don't need the laptop, just the hard drive would be fine!"

- © Fairfax NZ News