One-hundred-and-fifty-four people from a variety of sectors including education, sport, health, and science have been honoured. A physicist who played a major role in the nation’s Covid-19 response has been appointed a Member of the New Zealand Order of Merit in the New Year Honours. Shaun Cameron Hendy used his expertise in the science of complex systems to map out how the virus could spread across the country under various scenarios. His models revealed the severity of the threat and influenced the government’s decision to “go hard and go early” in its response. Abigail Dougherty/Stuff Physicist Shaun Hendy played a pivotal role in New Zealand’s Covid-19 response by mapping out how the virus could spread in the early stages of the pandemic.