About us
Awards
Our investigators are continually recognised for excellence nationally and internationally and this reflected in the number and breadth of awards they receive. The awards number is increasing each year as our research and innovations make greater impacts outside of the lab.
Our investigators are an inspiration.
Awards 2022
| Ebu Avci Massey University |
2022 College Research Award – Early Career (Massey University) |
| David Barker University of Auckland |
Research Excellence Medal (University of Auckland Research Awards) |
| Jack Chen Auckland University of Technology |
Science of Synthesis Early Career Advisory Board (Thieme Chemistry, Stuttgart, Germany) |
| Vladimir Golovko University of Canterbury |
AINSE Service Recognition Award (Australian Institute of Nuclear Science and Engineering) |
| Justin Hodgkiss Victoria University of Wellington |
Researcher Entrepreneur Award (KiwiNet Research Commercialisation Awards) |
| Eric Le Ru Victoria University of Wellington |
MaramaLabs named in top 200 exporters in TIN report |
| Aaron Marshall University of Canterbury |
Established Researcher Award (University of Canterbury Faculty of Engineering) |
| Kim McKelvey Victoria University of Wellington |
Early Career Researcher Excellence Award (Victoria University of Wellington) |
| Franck Natali Victoria University of Wellington |
Early Career Researcher Excellence Award (Victoria University of Wellington) |
| Volker Nock University of Canterbury |
Asian Entrepreneurship Award 2022 – 3rd prize (Liquium) Research Excellence Award (Victoria University of Wellington Staff Awards) |
| Jadranka Travaš-Sejdić University of Auckland |
Runner-up Research Prize (Food, Fibre and Agritech Challenge) |
| Geoff Waterhouse University of Auckland |
Shorland Medal (New Zealand Association of Scientists) Highly Cited Researcher (Clarivate Analytics) |
Awards 2021
The MacDiarmid Institute again performed strongly in the KiwiNet Research Commercialisation Awards. Two alumni were finalists for the Breakthrough Innovator Award – in this category there have now been six nominations with strong MacDiarmid Institute connections in the past three years.
The winner of the Breakthrough Innovator Award was Dr Shalini Divya (top right), co-founder and Chief Technology Officer of TasmanIon. Dr Divya worked on a new cathode material during her PhD, and has since been developing a new aluminium-ion battery technology, working closely with Wellington UniVentures to drive the project to the investor level.
The other finalist was Dr Matheus Vargas (below right), Chief Technology Officer at Orbis Diagnostics, a startup from the Photon Factory in Auckland with long-term support from the MacDiarmid Institute and the Dodd-Walls Centre. Dr Vargas has been the driving force behind a ‘lab on a disk’ testing platform for COVID-19 antibodies.
Serial research entrepreneur Professor Jadranka Travas- Sejdic and her team (including both a MacDiarmid Institute student and a postdoctoral researcher) won the Academic Category award of the annual Velocity Entrepreneurship Challenge at the University of Auckland for a carbon fibre technology for wound dressings and face masks.
Dr Maryam Shojaei and Professor Aaron Marshall won the Value Added Product category and the Research Runner Up Prize in the Food, Fibre & Agritech Supernode Challenge run by KiwiNet, ChristchurchNZ, the University of Canterbury, AgResearch and other supporters. The team aim to commercialise an environmentally friendly material to optimise flow batteries using natural fibres.
Awards 2020
| Name | Award |
| Chris Bumby Victoria University of Wellington |
Heavy Engineering Research Association (HERA) 2020 Innovation Award |
| Jim Johnston Victoria University of Wellington |
Baldwins Researcher Entrepreneur Award - KiwiNet Research Commercialisation Awards 2020 BNZ Supreme Award - KiwiNet Research Commercialisation Awards 2020 |
| Justin Hodgkiss Victoria University of Wellington |
Prize in Industrial and Applied Chemistry – New Zealand Institute of Chemistry (NZIC) |
| Duncan McGillivray University of Auckland |
New Zealand Institute of Chemistry (NZIC) Fellowship Bristol Benjamin Meaker Distinguished Visiting Professor Award – University of Bristol, Bristol, UK |
| Shane Telfer Massey University |
College of Science Research Medal – Massey University |
| Geoff Waterhouse University of Auckland |
2020 Maurice Wilkins Centre Prize for Chemical Science – New Zealand Institute of Chemistry (NZIC) 2020 Clarivate Web of Science Highly Cited Researcher List Fellow of the Royal Society of Chemistry (FRSC) |
Awards 2019
| Name | Award |
|---|---|
| Margaret Brimble |
BNZ Supreme Award at the Kiwinet Research Commercialisation Awards Baldwins Researchers Entrepreneur Award at the Kiwinet Research Commercialisation Awards |
| Sally Brooker | Sesquicentennial Distinguished Chair at the University of Otago |
| Will Charles | MinterEllisonRuddWatts Commercialisation Professional Award |
| Don Cleland | Scott Medal at the Royal Society Te Apārangi 2019 Research Honours Ceremony |
| Anna Garden | Early Career Award for Distinction in Research at the University of Otago |
| Keith Gordon |
MacDiarmid Medal at the Royal Society Te Apārangi 2019 Research Honours Ceremony Royal Society of Chemistry Australasian Lectureship |
| Justin Hodgkiss | Maurice Wilkins Centre Prize for Chemical Science at the New Zealand Institute of Chemistry (NZIC) |
| Franck Natali | Postgraduate Supervisor Award at the Victoria University of Wellington Postgraduate Research Excellence Awards |
| Volker Nock | Rutherford Discovery Fellowship Award |
| Shalen Kumar | Norman Barry Foundation Breakthrough Innovator Award at the Kiwinet Research Commercialisation Awards |
| Cather Simpson | Picking Medal at the Royal Society Te Apārangi 2019 Research Honours Ceremony |
| Jadranka Travas-Sejdic | Hector Medal at the Royal Society Te Apārangi 2019 Research Honours Ceremony |
Awards 2018
| Name | Award |
|---|---|
| Maan Alkaisi |
College of Engineering Established Researcher Award – University of Canterbury Christchurch City Civic Award for Public Advocacy and Community Services |
| Margaret Brimble |
Appointed by Her Majesty the Queen as Dame Companion of NZ Order of Merit (DNZM) for Service to Science Elected Fellow of The Royal Society (FRS) – first female New Zealander Royal Society Royal Society of Chemistry George & Christine Sosnovsky Award in Cancer Therapy Named as one of 125 kiwi women trailblazers to commemorate 125 years Women's Suffrage in New Zealand |
| Penny Brothers | Appointed as Director of the Research School of Chemistry. Australian National University |
| Phillip Brydon | American Physical Society Outstanding Referee |
| Chris Bumby | SUST highlight paper (Top 40 paper published in Supercond. Sci. Technol) |
| Matthew Cowan | 'Silver' on the IUPAC periodic table of young chemists |
| Laura Domigan | University of Auckland School of Biological Sciences Early Career Research Award |
| Vladimir Golovko | Poster presentation award, The 6th Thailand International Nanotechnology Conference |
| Shaun Hendy | Callaghan Innovation Board Member Appointment |
| Jim Metson | TMS light Metals Subject Award – Aluminium Reduction Technology |
| Michel Nieuwoudt | 1st place: Innovative idea pitch, Innovation School, Optical Society of America, Washington DC |
| Emilia Nowak | ACIS Awards, bursary to attend The 9th Biennial Australian Colloid and Interface Symposium |
| Tilo Söhnel |
Australian Synchrotron beamtime award x2 Australian Centre for Neutron Scattering, ANSTO, beamtime award x4 |
| Jadranka Travas-Sejdic | Shorland Medal |
| Charles Unsworth |
IEEE EMBS Technical Committee Member on Neural Engineering (TCNE) Awarded a Visiting Professorship at Tampere University, Finland |
| Geoff Waterhouse |
Fellowship of the New Zealand Institute of Chemistry Chair Professorship at the South China University of Technology Visiting Fellowship under the CAS President’s International Fellowship Initiative |
| Steven Wells |
Litmaps User Testing Prize UoA Postdoc Society Symposium Prize |
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