Richard John Blaikie (born 25 August 1965) is a physicist who works in the field of nano-scale optics. He is currently Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Research and Enterprise) at the

University of Otago , image_name = University of Otago Registry Building2.jpg , image_size = , caption = University clock tower , motto = la, Sapere aude , mottoeng = Dare to be wise , established = 1869; 152 years ago , type = Public research collegiate ...

Early life

Blaikie was born in 1965 and attended Kaikorai Valley College in

Dunedin Dunedin ( ; mi, Ōtepoti) is the second-largest city in the South Island of New Zealand (after Christchurch), and the principal city of the Otago region. Its name comes from , the Scottish Gaelic name for Edinburgh, the capital of Scotland. Th ...

. He studied at the University of Otago (1984–1987) and graduated with a

BSc A Bachelor of Science (BS, BSc, SB, or ScB; from the Latin ') is a bachelor's degree awarded for programs that generally last three to five years. The first university to admit a student to the degree of Bachelor of Science was the University ...

(Hons) in physics. He won a Rutherford Memorial Scholarship to attend the

University of Cambridge The University of Cambridge is a public collegiate research university in Cambridge, England. Founded in 1209 and granted a royal charter by Henry III in 1231, Cambridge is the world's third oldest surviving university and one of its most pr ...

(1988–1992), where he received a PhD in physics in 1992.

Academic career

After a year at the Hitachi Cambridge Laboratory, he took a position as a lecturer at the University of Canterbury. He was at Canterbury from February 1994 to November 2011, and he was made a professor during that time. In 2001, he was a

Fulbright Fellow The Fulbright Program, including the Fulbright–Hays Program, is one of several United States Cultural Exchange Programs with the goal of improving intercultural relations, cultural diplomacy, and intercultural competence between the people of ...

at the

Massachusetts Institute of Technology The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) is a private land-grant research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Established in 1861, MIT has played a key role in the development of modern technology and science, and is one of the ...

. When the MacDiarmid Institute for Advanced Materials and Nanotechnology was formed in 2002, he was appointed Deputy Director under Professor

Paul Callaghan Sir Paul Terence Callaghan ( ; 19 August 1947 – 24 March 2012) was a New Zealand physicist who, as the founding director of the MacDiarmid Institute for Advanced Materials and Nanotechnology at Victoria University of Wellington, held t ...

. When Callaghan retired in 2008, Blaikie was appointed Director. During his tenure, the institute received a bequest of

NZ$ The New Zealand dollar ( mi, tāra o Aotearoa; sign: $, NZ$; code: NZD) is the official currency and legal tender of New Zealand, the Cook Islands, Niue, the Ross Dependency, Tokelau, and a British territory, the Pitcairn Islands. Within New ...

1 million. Blaikie stepped down from the MacDiarmid Institute half way through 2011 when he received his appointment as Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Research and Enterprise) at the University of Otago. He took up the role in December 2011, succeeding Harlene Hayne. He also holds a chair in physics. Blaikie received the T. K. Sidey Medal in 2001, set up by the

Royal Society of New Zealand Royal may refer to: People * Royal (name), a list of people with either the surname or given name * A member of a royal family Places United States * Royal, Arkansas, an unincorporated community * Royal, Illinois, a village * Royal, Iowa, a c ...

as an award for outstanding scientific research. In 2011, Blaikie was elected fellow of the

. In 2013, Blaikie received the

Hector Memorial Medal The Hector Medal, formerly known as the Hector Memorial Medal, is a science award given by the Royal Society Te Apārangi in memory of Sir James Hector to researchers working in New Zealand. It is awarded annually in rotation for different science ...

from the Royal Society "for his fundamental and wide-ranging contributions to the field of nano-optics, showing that light can be manipulated at scales much smaller than its wavelength and providing a world-first demonstration of a controversial

superlens A superlens, or super lens, is a lens which uses metamaterials to go beyond the diffraction limit. For example, in 1995, Guerra combined a transparent grating having 50nm lines and spaces (the "metamaterial") with a conventional microscope immersio ...

system using subwavelength techniques." The national ceremony for a range of Royal Society awards were held in the Dunedin Town Hall on 27 November 2013. In 2015, Blaikie was awarded the Thomson Medal for science leadership.

References

External links

Blaikie at the University of Otago
{{DEFAULTSORT:Blaikie, Richard 1965 births Living people People educated at Kaikorai Valley College University of Otago alumni University of Otago faculty Alumni of the University of Cambridge University of Canterbury faculty Fellows of the Royal Society of New Zealand New Zealand physicists New Zealand nanotechnologists 20th-century New Zealand scientists 21st-century New Zealand scientists