Prof Richard Blaikie Named MacDiarmid Institute Director (Aug 2008) On Friday 29 August Prof Richard Blaikie was appointed Director of the MacDiarmid Institute for Advanced Materials and Nanotechnology, the largest of the seven New Zealand national centres of research excellence. Previously Richard was Deputy Director, and is a founding principal investigator of the institute More >>

(Aug 08) Financial Windfall for Student Researching Atmospheric Waves Amanda Zhang, a PhD student working with Prof Rick Millane, was recently awarded a prestigious national Top Achiever Doctoral Scholarship. This scholarship will support her research into atmospheric mountain waves using data acquired by sailplanes, in tandem with modelling aircraft and atmospheric dynamics. (more)

Nanotechnology Meets Rugby (July 08)
Well known for its applications in high-efficiency laser diodes, integrated circuits, and novel types of sensors, nanotechnology has much broader applications - sometimes just for fun! Professor Richard Blaikie and Research Engineer Gary Turner recently adapted a state-of-the-art nanolithography process to write the names of all 1073 past and present All Blacks onto a single thread. All Blacks captain Richie McCaw visited the lab to see how it was done. (more)

At the Canterbury-Westland Science Fair, held at the Christchurch Convention Centre, 7th and 8th September, Logan Glasson of Westburn School was awarded a $100 book token by the Department for his exhibit "Pet Trap Monitor". Logan also won 2nd overall in the Year 8 Technology category at the Science Fair. His exhibit was of a microprocessor based circuit to send the status of traps via short-range daisy-chained wireless links to a monitoring station. A picture of Logan appeared in The Press on Monday 8th September More (pdf) >>

African Odyssey - Christchurch Premiere (August 2008) Armed with a freshly-minted PhD and expertise in cutting-edge semiconductor technology, (Dr) Phill Anderson and three of his mates from Whakatane decided to embark on an epic adventure - crossing the mighty African continent (21,000 km) on motorbikes. Some of their more memorable experiences have been made into a documentary - African Odyssey - now showing in theatres. The trailer can be seen at http://www.flicks.co.nz/trailer.php?movieid=1174 and more information about the journey (and the four travellers) can be found at www.africanodyssey.co.nz .

Department Staff Win FRST Funding (July 08)
A project led by Assoc Prof Neville Watson is one of three at UC awarded funding in the Foundation for Research, Science and Technology's main 2008 investment round. Professor Phil Bones is a key investigator in another funded project led by Professor Phil Butler in the Department of Physics and Astronomy. (more)