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From the Director

  • 17 February, 2012
    Highlighting MacDiarmid Deputy Directors
    This week I am highlighting our two Deputy Directors: Professor Shaun Hendy (IRL and VUW) and Professor Simon Brown (UC).  Shaun and Simon’s roles were formalised late last year under the titles of Deputy Director Stakeholder Engagement and Deputy Director Commercialisation and Industry Engagement, respectively. 
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  • 10 February, 2012
    Strategic Directions and Public Investment
    The Hon Steven Joyce gave his first speech as Minister of Science and Innovation at the Science Policy Studies Conference held in Wellington this week. http://beehive.govt.nz/speech/address-asia-pacific-science-policy-studies-research-conference-wellington
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  • 03 February, 2012
    What do we want to be known for?
    Yesterday was the first meeting of the Science Executive for the year.  The major item of discussion was strategic planning for the Institute.  Building on our Aspirational Strategic Plan developed last year, our framework was; what are our strategies for achieving evidentiary outcomes across our strategic goals in the short to medium term.  This was a great session, thank you to the members of the Science Executive for their commitment and engagement with this. 
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  • 30 January, 2012
    Open Call for New Principal Investigators
    This week the open call for new Principal Investigators was released.  This call is partnered with a review of existing Principal Investigators.  Both our current and potential future Principal Investigators are assessed using the same criteria.  These criteria underpin our four strategic areas: Excellence, Leadership, Inspiration and Benefit to New Zealand which embrace our Vision: To advance New Zealand through our pre-eminent physical sciences and engineering research and to develop New Zealand’s future leaders using our collaborative strengths.
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  • 20 January, 2012
    Happy New Year
    Happy New Year to everyone, I hope that you had an enjoyable and refreshing holiday.  This year is a very important one for the Institute as we look forward to the announcement from the Government of the continued support for Centres of Research Excellence as a priority investment area and we therefore move into rebidding mode.  
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  • 16 December, 2011
    Last thoughts for 2011
    This is the last update of the year the next issue will be in mid January.  We have had a huge year.  There has been too much to highlight everything but below is a brief selection.
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  • 10 December, 2011
    Joe Trodahl's 70th!
    Today we celebrated Joe Trodahl’s 70th birthday with a symposium highlighting the significant contributions that he has made over his lifetime. H. Joseph Trodahl Jr. grew up in Alaska, where his father, Harry J. Trodahl, was a Moravian missionary.  Joe is one of four children.
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  • 02 October, 2011
    NZIC Conference
    I have spent the week in Hamilton at the New Zealand Institute of Chemistry Conference.  A large number of MacDiarmid Principal and Associate Investigators, Post-doctoral Fellows and students attended and presented at the conference. 
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