Paul Callaghan (physicist)

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Paul Callaghan, PCNZM FRS, is Professor of Physical Sciences and Director of the MacDiarmid Institute for Advanced Materials & Nanotechnology at Victoria University of Wellington.

Paul Callaghan was born in Wanganui, New Zealand in 1947 and took his first degree in Physics at Victoria University of Wellington. He then did a DPhil degree at Oxford University, working in low temperature physics. On his return to New Zealand in 1974 he took up a lecturing position at Massey University where he began researching the applications of magnetic resonance to the study of soft matter. He was made Professor of Physics in 1984, and in 2001 was appointed Alan MacDiarmid Professor of Physical Sciences at Victoria University of Wellington. He also heads the multi-university MacDiarmid Institute for Advanced Materials and Nanotechnology.

Callaghan is Past President of the Academy Council of the Royal Society of New Zealand. He has published around 230 articles in scientific journals as well as a book on magnetic resonance (^[1]). He is a founding director of “magritek”, a small spin-off company based in Wellington, which sells NMR instruments. He is a regular public speaker on science matters and one of his radio series has recently appeared in book form, “As Far as We Know: conversations about science, life and the universe”, published by Penguin (^[2]).

In 2001 Paul Callaghan became the 36th New Zealander to be made a Fellow of the Royal Society of London. He was awarded the Ampere Prize in 2004, the Rutherford medal in 2005, in 2006 was appointed a Principal Companion of the New Zealand Order of Merit and in 2007 was recognised by a KEA/NZTE World Class New Zealander award [1] and the Sir Peter Blake Medal [2].

[edit] References

^ Callaghan, P: "Principles of Nuclear Magnetic Resonance Microscopy". Oxford University Press, 1994.
^ Callaghan, P and Hill, K.: "As Far as We Know". Penguin, 2007.