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2013 General

  • National Library Exhibition
    Tue, 27/11/2012 (All day) - Tue, 30/04/2013 (All day)

    What is Big Data?

    Big Data is the new National Library's inaugural programme of exhibitions, seminars, and workshops. Humanity has developed powerful tools to sense and depict our planet – the creation and use of data. How do we use these tools to find sustainability? In the era of big data and rapid change, where are the places and sites that hold personal and community meaning?

    The consistency of change

    • Fly through Thorndon's past, present, and future
    • See the world through new eyes - and things that are more than eyes
    • Explore the technologies that are changing how we live, from the electronic to the galactic
    • Blur your digital and physical self and learn how far you stretch out into the world

    8.30am – 5pm, Monday to Saturday

     

    Find out more about Big Data

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  • Nano Art Exhibition
    Fri, 08/02/2013 (All day) - Wed, 20/02/2013 (All day)

    Art of the Invisible - Poster.

     

    Download Poster as PDF

    This collection of incredible of images is already getting media attention:

    virtualanz.net/exhibiting-invisible-nanoscapes/

     

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  • Hoffmann - Public Lecture
    Wed, 13/02/2013 - 6:00pm

    On the 13th February 2013, The MacDiarmid Institute for Advanced Materials and Nanotechnology, in association with the Royal Society of New Zealand and the Auckland Museum Institute provided a special opportunity to hear Nobel Laureate Roald Hoffmann at a Public Lecture as part of the AMN-6 conference.

    Roald Hoffmann is a theoretical chemist and writer at Cornell University in the USA. Born in Poland, he survived the Holocaust thanks to the bravery of his parents and the kindness of a Ukrainian teacher and his family who hid him and his mother in a schoolroom attic.

    Roald Hoffmann has taught generations of chemists how to think with orbitals. He has also published acclaimed poetry, plays and nonfiction, and built his own land twixt poetry, philosophy, and chemistry.

    If you missed this lecture, listen here, thanks to the University of Waikato and the Royal Society of New Zealand.

    Links:
    Interview with Kim Hill
    Public Talk
    Download PDF flyer
    Speak, Memory

     

     

     

     

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  • The MacDiarmid Institute Sponsors NZAMT "Maths Quest" Competition
    Wed, 17/04/2013 - 9:52am

    The Royal Society of New Zealand has named 2013 The Year of Mathematics in New Zealand; it is also the International Year of The Mathematics of Planet Earth and the International Year Of Statistics. In celebration,  The New Zealand Association of Mathematics Teachers is holding a Maths Quest poster design competition for year 7-11 High School students.

    The MacDiarmid Institute is a proud sponsor of the years 9 & 10 theme "Mathematics - The Language of Science." The theme requires students to demonstrate a level of understanding regarding the underlying mathematics related to the following questions:

    • Nanotechnologists use mathematics to invent the technologies of the future. By simulating atoms on computers they can design new devices and other technologies, including solar cells and carbon nanotubes. What types of equations do computational nanotechnologists solve?
       
    • Materials scientists can make new materials by combing the atomic elements in new ways. How do they know what properties the materials will have before they make them? What equations do they use to understand how atoms interact?
       
    • Superconductors are really cool! No, really – superconductors need to be cooled down to 200 degrees below zero to work! What is superconductivity, and how is it used in levitated trains and MRI machines. What mathematics can be used to describe it?

    Prizes include iPad minis for students and teachers and a trip Wellington to attend a prize giving and visit Weta Digital, Te Papa and Parliament. Entries close on June 7. We wish all the contestants the best of luck.

     

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  • Gluckman Addresses Science Challenges
    Tue, 07/05/2013 - 11:50am


    The Government released its decisions regarding the National Science Challenges on 1 May 2013. This is a very important step forward in reshaping New Zealand’s public science system.

    Sir Peter Gluckman, Chief Science Advisor to the Prime Minister, who chaired the panel that made recommendations to Government following the consultation exercise will present the Challenges as agreed to by the Government, review the process and criteria used in reaching these decisions and outline the next steps in operationalizing the Challenges.

    Sir Peter Gluckman and accompanying Ministry of Business, Innovation & Employment staff will answer questions arising following the presentation.

     

    Responses From the Science Community to the National Science Challenges


    MacDiarmid Institute Director, Professor Kate McGrath expressed concern that the Challenges focus solely on areas of research New Zealand has always excelled in, without addressing the need to improve areas of weakness. 

    “If you look at the ten challenges that have been put forward, they come from a very historical basis, so, what is it that we’re already good at? What have we been doing for a really long time? As opposed to, in my opinion, having a vision of what the future can be. I was hoping that this amazing opportunity that had been afforded this panel and the country as a whole would be taken seriously in terms of a future direction, and I don’t see that as having happened.”

    Listen to Prof. McGrath's interview with Radio New Zealand's "Our Changing World."

    MacDiarmid Institute Principle Investigator Professor Shaun Hendy responded to the announcement with some disappointment, stating the challenges fail to "throw up anything that is really new or innovative... Of the 10 science challenges selected, only one really addresses one of the key economic challenges our country faces: namely the over-dependence of our economy on the primary sector." Source

    Listen to Prof. Hendy's interview with Radio New Zealand's "Morning Report" 

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  • Miracle Materials...
    Tue, 11/06/2013 - 6:00pm

    Miracle materials and mystery particles

    High-energy physics uses accelerators such as the Large Hadron Collider to study elementary particles in our universe. In contrast, materials science creates matter where unusual particles can live. Professor Zuelicke will discuss his research into exotic elementary particles that appear in semiconductors. He will show some of the counter-intuitive properties these particles possess, and how newly discovered materials like graphene could revolutionise electronic devices in the future.
     
    Refreshments will be served following the lecture.
    RSVP by Friday 7 June. Phone: 04-472 1000 or email: rsvp@vuw.ac.nz with ‘Zuelicke’ in the subject line.
     
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