WTF is molybdenum disulfide? An expert on why this nano-material matters

4 April, 2019

Sam Brooke is a Ph.D student at Massey, who is working with the MacDiarmid Institute. He talked to Alex Braae about his research, why it matters, and how it became possible to do it in New Zealand.

To be on the leading edge of science, young New Zealand students would have once had to go offshore.

That would have been Sam Brooke’s lot. He’s a top materials science student currently doing his Ph.D at Massey University. The expertise, technology and funding for the work he wanted to do would have been possible in Australia, but probably not here.

But then the MacDiarmid Institute stepped in, offering Brooke the chance to stay in New Zealand. Not only that, they made the sorts of introductions he needed to meet experts worth working with. In a burgeoning career in academia, those sorts of connections are crucial for students to learn and grow. And the MacDiarmid Institute’s reach means that it’s not so much that he’s just going to one university – it’s more like he has aspects to collaborate with five, along with two research organisations...

Read the full article on The Spinoff.