Eighteen years later, the change Sir Paul sought remains a work in progress, but nowhere has done more to ensure that progress than the MacDiarmid Institute, hosted by the University.
The Institute is now at the forefront of reshaping New Zealand into a sustainable, zero-carbon, high-wage economy and society fit for the environmental and other challenges of the twenty-first century and beyond.
Government, through the Tertiary Education Commission (TEC), has consistently recognised it as a Centre of Research Excellence, this year for an unprecedented fourth time, which means it will receive $48 million over seven and a half years from July 2021 to December 2028.
Inspired by Sir Paul’s original vision that a hundred inspired entrepreneurs could turn New Zealand around, the Institute provides strategic support for start-ups, having spun out 19 since 2002, with more each year than the year previous.
The funding will enable the Institute to continue such world-leading and world-changing research as:
- building on its international leadership in both porous and photo- or electro-active materials to create new classes of materials that soak up carbon dioxide and convert it to valuable products—closing the carbon cycle
- building on its intellectual property in nanomaterial electronics and spintronics to develop materials that think like a brain, thereby shifting computation—whose carbon footprint surpasses air travel—towards a low-energy future while increasing the power to solve hard problems
- building on its highly interdisciplinary track record in soft materials to reimagine the use and reuse of materials themselves, from taonga 3D-printed from traditional Māori materials to creating a form of artificial cells that self-regulate and reconfigure for different functions.
“Whether we are catalysing the growth of new spinouts or working to fuel existing industry, the magic ingredient we supply the innovation sector is physical science graduates full of motivation and expertise.”
Materials science involves arranging atoms and molecules to create something with new properties, whether a printed solar cell, a superconducting magnet for electric planes, or a biosensor.
Sir Paul’s formula was simple, says the University’s Professor Justin Hodgkiss, co-director of the Institute. “Bring together the best teams in advanced materials and nanotechnology, then expand their horizons beyond the lab bench, into the community, and into the tech industry.”
The Institute is a partnership of seven institutions across the country: five universities (Wellington, Auckland, Massey, Canterbury, and Otago), government agency Callaghan Innovation (whose name celebrates Sir Paul), and Earth, geoscience, and isotope research and consultancy service GNS Science.
It has also nurtured more than 650 PhD candidates.
“Whether we are catalysing the growth of new spinouts or working to fuel existing industry, the magic ingredient we supply the innovation sector is physical science graduates full of motivation and expertise,” says Justin.
He is particularly pleased the referees who assessed the Institute for the TEC “didn’t only attest to the ambition, quality, and relevance of our research programme, or that it is a ‘recipe for collaboration’, they also recognised the Institute is now making the wider impact Sir Paul always imagined. And the best is yet to come.”