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  • Professor Sir Paul Callaghan, physicist and founding director of the MacDiarmid Institute for Advanced Materials and Nanotechnology1, passed away on 24 March 2012.

    Rights: MacDiarmid Institute

    Sir Paul Callaghan

    Professor Sir Paul Callaghan, physicist and founding director of the MacDiarmid Institute for Advanced Materials and Nanotechnology.

    Nuclear magnetic resonance research

    Sir Paul grew up in Whanganui, gained a degree in physics at Victoria University of Wellington and went on to earn a DPhil degree at the University of Oxford, where he researched low-temperature physics. On his return to New Zealand in 1974, he lectured at Massey University, where he began research using the nuclear magnetic resonance2 (NMR) spectrometer3 bought by the chemistry department. He investigated the applications of magnetic resonance to the study of soft matter4 and published Principles of Nuclear Magnetic Resonance Microscopy in 1994.

    In 2001, he moved to Wellington where he was appointed Alan MacDiarmid Professor of Physical Sciences5 at Victoria University. He helped establish the MacDiarmid Institute for Advanced Materials and Nanotechnology. Present director Professor Kathryn McGrath says Sir Paul “got his energy from other people, he sparked off other people all the time. There’s nothing more exciting than if you think something is really cool and then someone that you respect starts to also say it is really cool. Once he became involved with something and was invigorated by it, he was a bit of a machine really.’’

    Magritek

    Sir Paul set up a company to commercialise his NMR technology in 2004. Magritek began with two staff and enough funding for 6 months. The company makes and sells portable NMR measuring devices using a scaled-down version of the science used in magnetic resonance imaging6 (MRI7) scans. By 2012 this had grown to 23 staff, and its clients include international oil companies and pharmaceutical8 companies. Find out mroe about Magritek's successes here.

    Science is grounded in evidence9 and consistency, but scientific insights are always creative acts. We are always looking for a new direction to explore or a new experimental trick for encouraging nature to reveal herself.

    Rights: The Royal Society, TVNZ 7 in partnership with the Ministry of Science and Innovation

    Innovations – Magritek

    This is a short introduction to Magritek and their innovative magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) devices.

    Students

    When asked what he was most proud of, Sir Paul replied, “Professionally, what I’m most proud of is the young people who have come out of my lab. I’ve had 24 PhD10 students, numerous master’s students and all the people I’ve taught at undergraduate11. The graduate students have all done incredibly well. Everyone who comes out of my lab gets two or three job offers, all over the world.” One of those PhD students, Andrew Coy, who worked with Sir Paul for 25 years and now runs Magritek, says, ‘‘He was just always so energising and passionate about what he did. When I was doing my PhD, we’d be sitting there doing some experiments getting all excited and suddenly it would be 3am. I would drag12 myself back into the lab in the morning and Paul had already been in there and started the next experiment and was excited about the results of the next one.”

    Science communicator

    Sir Paul was also a gifted science communicator. He took part in a series13 on Radio New Zealand, which resulted in the book As Far as We Know: Conversations about Science, Life and the Universe. He wanted to convince New Zealanders that science could be interesting and comprehensible. In 2009, he published Wool to Weta: Transforming New Zealand’s Culture and Economy, which deals with the potential for science and technology entrepreneurialism to diversify New Zealand’s economy.

    Awards

    He was the recipient of numerous awards, including:

    • Fellow of the Royal Society of London – 2001
    • Rutherford Medal – 2005
    • Principal Companion of the New Zealand Order of Merit – 2006
    • James Cook Research Fellowship, Royal Society of New Zealand – 2008
    • Knighthood – 2009
    • Günther Laukien Prize for Magnetic Resonance – 2010
    • New Zealander of the Year – 2011.

    Activity idea

    Sir Paul Callaghan was excited by the possibilities of scientific research and sought to communicate that to other New Zealanders. Your students may like to watch these videos clips, in which other scientists discuss what excites them about their work.

    The article Working as a scientist provides a very brief overview of some of the dozens of scientists featured on the Hub.

    1. nanotechnology: Understanding and working with matter at the scale of atoms and molecules. 1 nanometre is a millionth of a millimetre.
    2. resonance: An amplified wave amplitude produced when the frequency of the source matches the natural frequency of the object vibrating.
    3. spectrometer: An instrument that collects information about the different parts of the electromagnetic spectrum coming from a light source.
    4. matter: The basic structural component of all things that have mass and volume.
    5. physical sciences: The sciences that explore the study of inanimate natural objects, including physics, chemistry, astronomy and related subjects.
    6. MRI: Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) is a non-invasive diagnostic procedure in which the patient is encircled in a strong uniform magnetic field that interacts with radio waves to excite the nuclei of specific atoms (usually hydrogen). This is translated into a visual image on a computer screen showing detailed internal cross sections of the body.
    7. MRI: Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) is a non-invasive diagnostic procedure in which the patient is encircled in a strong uniform magnetic field that interacts with radio waves to excite the nuclei of specific atoms (usually hydrogen). This is translated into a visual image on a computer screen showing detailed internal cross sections of the body.
    8. pharmaceutical: A chemical drug.
    9. evidence: Data, or information, used to prove or disprove something.
    10. PhD: Abbreviation of Doctor of Philosophy – a degree normally obtained after a concentrated period of research. This is the highest level of degree that involves supervision by academic staff at a university.
    11. undergraduate: A student who is studying for their first degree, the most common of which is called a bachelor’s degree.
    12. drag: Sometimes called air resistance or fluid resistance, drag refers to forces that oppose the relative motion of an object through a fluid (a liquid or gas).
    13. series: An electrical circuit layout where components are connected one after the other so that the current passes in a single path through the components.
    Published 3 April 2012 Referencing Hub articles
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        nanotechnology

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      2. Understanding and working with matter at the scale of atoms and molecules. 1 nanometre is a millionth of a millimetre.

        matter

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      4. The basic structural component of all things that have mass and volume.

        pharmaceutical

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      6. A chemical drug.

        undergraduate

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      8. A student who is studying for their first degree, the most common of which is called a bachelor’s degree.

        resonance

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      10. An amplified wave amplitude produced when the frequency of the source matches the natural frequency of the object vibrating.

        physical sciences

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      12. The sciences that explore the study of inanimate natural objects, including physics, chemistry, astronomy and related subjects.

        evidence

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      14. Data, or information, used to prove or disprove something.

        drag

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      16. Sometimes called air resistance or fluid resistance, drag refers to forces that oppose the relative motion of an object through a fluid (a liquid or gas).

        spectrometer

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      18. An instrument that collects information about the different parts of the electromagnetic spectrum coming from a light source.

        MRI

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      20. Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) is a non-invasive diagnostic procedure in which the patient is encircled in a strong uniform magnetic field that interacts with radio waves to excite the nuclei of specific atoms (usually hydrogen). This is translated into a visual image on a computer screen showing detailed internal cross sections of the body.

        PhD

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      22. Abbreviation of Doctor of Philosophy – a degree normally obtained after a concentrated period of research. This is the highest level of degree that involves supervision by academic staff at a university.

        series

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      24. An electrical circuit layout where components are connected one after the other so that the current passes in a single path through the components.