Emeritus Professor Alan B. Kaiser (1946-2021)

9 May, 2022

Founding Investigator pioneered condensed matter research in New Zealand.

Founding MacDiarmid Institute Investigator Emeritus Professor Alan Kaiser, who passed away in 2021, was one of the scientists who established condensed matter research in New Zealand in the 1970s and helped to grow the study of advanced materials.

Associate Investigator Professor Shaun Hendy worked closely with Emeritus Professor Kaiser and said that he was known internationally for his work in condensed matter physics. “Alan worked at the interface between theory and experiment, and made particularly important contributions to our understanding of conducting polymers, helping to take them from a scientific curiosity to a household technology. 

“His teaching in Victoria University of Wellington’s School of Chemical and Physics Sciences was very highly regarded, and he was known as a warm and generous colleague to everyone in the school. He will be greatly missed by New Zealand’s physical sciences community.”

Emeritus Professor Kaiser speaking at AMN2 in 2005

Associate Professor Ben Ruck from Victoria University of Wellington’s School of Chemical and Physical Sciences remembers Emeritus Professor Kaiser as one of his first physics lecturers in 1990. 

“His wonderfully clear explanation of projectile motion still sticks with me today. Ultimately, that course was instrumental in helping me to realise my passion for physics.”

He also remembers Emeritus Professor Kaiser as an important colleague.

“My first physics research project conducted during my Honours year was supervised by Alan. He was extremely supportive and patient, and he had a fantastic way of explaining things. I’m very proud that the first two papers on which I co-authored were published with him. He had an especially important impact on my career as a physicist, and I’ll always remember him fondly.”

Emeritus Professor Kaiser was a founding Investigator with the MacDiarmid Institute in 2002, firstly as a Principal Investigator and then (from 2013) as an Emeritus Investigator.