MacDiarmid Institute for Advanced Materials and Nanotechnology explained

The MacDiarmid Institute for Advanced Materials and Nanotechnology (often simply called the MacDiarmid Institute) is a New Zealand Centre of Research Excellence (CoRE) specialising in materials science and nanotechnology. It is hosted by Victoria University of Wellington, and is a collaboration between five universities and two Crown Research Institutes.

Background

The Institute is named after Alan MacDiarmid, a New Zealander who won the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 2000. It is funded by the New Zealand government through the Tertiary Education Commission.

The Institute divides its work into four research areas:^[1]

• Towards Zero Waste - Reconfigurable Systems
• Towards Zero Carbon - Catalytic Architectures
• Towards Low Energy Tech - Hardware for Future Computing
• Sustainable resource use - Mātauranga Māori Research Programme

Awards

From 2004 to 2007, the MacDiarmid Institute sponsored the annual Young Scientist of the Year awards for up-and-coming scientists and researchers in New Zealand, organised by the Foundation for Research, Science and Technology.^{[2] [3]} These awards replaced the FiRST Scholarship Awards, and have subsequently been replaced by the Prime Minister's MacDiarmid Emerging Scientist Prize.^{[4] [5] [6]}

Young Scientist of the Year

Year	Winner	Research area	Notes
2004	unknown
2005	Jessica North	environmental contamination from leaky landfills
2006	Claire French	cell identification technology	^[7]
2007	Jessie Jacobsen	Huntington's disease
2008	unknown

Directors

	Name	Term	Notes
1	Paul Callaghan	2002–2008	^[8]
2	Richard Blaikie	2008–2011	^[9]
3	Kathryn McGrath	2011–2015	^[10]
4	Thomas Nann	2015–2018	^[11]
5	Nicola Gaston / Justin Hodgkiss	2018–	^[12]

See also

• Cather Simpson
• Alison Downard
• Catherine Bishop

External links

• MacDiarmid Institute website
• MacDiarmid Institute's BioNanotechnology network

-41.2911°N 174.7676°W

Notes and References

1. Web site: 29 October 2021. The MacDiarmid Institute for Advanced Materials and Nanotechnology.
2. Web site: 12 March 2004. Exciting New Awards Announced. 2021-09-27. Scoop News.
3. Web site: 22 June 2005. Top Young Scientists Named at Awards Ceremony. 2021-09-27. Scoop News.
4. Web site: The Prime Minister's MacDiarmid Emerging Scientist Prize 2010 The Prime Minister's Science Prizes. 2021-09-27. en-GB.
5. Web site: Ngā toa i mua Previous winners The Prime Minister's Science Prizes. 2021-09-27. en-GB.
6. Book: MacDiarmid Young Scientists of the Year Awards Newsletter. October 2009. New Zealand.
7. Web site: 19 November 2007. Entries Open for Prestigious Science Awards. 2021-09-27. Scoop News.
8. Web site: University deeply saddened by death of Paul Callaghan . 24 March 2012 . Scoop . 10 May 2014.
9. Web site: UC professor new head of MacDiarmid Institute . 17 September 2008 . Scoop . 10 May 2014.
10. Web site: Young professor appointed as new Director for VUW's MacDiarmid Institute . 16 May 2011 . Scoop . 10 May 2014.
11. Web site: New Director for the MacDiarmid Institute . 25 June 2015 . MacDiarmid Institute . 12 August 2015.
12. Web site: Nicola Gaston on taking the wheel at the MacDiarmid Institute . 20 June 2018 . The Spinoff . 7 July 2018.