The MacDiarmid Institute for Advanced Materials & Nanotechnology is one of seven government-funded Centres of Research Excellence (CoRE) awarded a significant increase in funding.
The funding consists of $39.1 million in operational funding for 2008-2014 and capital funding of $9.8 million.
Institute Director Professor Paul Callaghan says the overall capital funding will enable the purchase of a number of new instruments at Victoria, Canterbury, Massey and Otago Universities, which will encourage further research within new nano-engineering methods.
Deputy Vice-Chancellor, Professor David Mackay says the funding highlights the Institute’s exceptional achievements in research in the physical sciences, and underlines the MacDiarmid Institute’s contribution to pushing the boundaries of knowledge in new materials and nanotechnology, as well as establishing a fertile training ground for New Zealand’s future physicists.
Dr. Pablo Etchegoin was also appointed first Professor of Nanotechnology. Last year a team led by Dr. Etchegoin, then Associate Professor in the School of Chemical and Physical Sciences, published ground-breaking research on the detection of single molecules using laser spectroscopy.
Dr. Etchegoin was “an outstanding candidate” for the position, said Pro Vice-Chancellor and Dean of Science Professor David Bibby. He said the appointment of Dr. Etchegoin was “a strategic initiative”, as Victoria University aims to build on its reputation in nanotechnology.