People
Group members
Academic Staff
Prof Shaun Hendy | Dr Nicola Gaston
Professor Shaun Hendy is the Deputy Director of the MacDiarmid Institute for Advanced Materials and Nanotechnology (based at the School of Chemical and Physical Sciences), and a Distinguished Scientist at Industrial Research Ltd.
His PhD in physics from the University of Alberta was followed by a NZ Science and Technology post-doctoral fellowship at Industrial Research Ltd in Wellington. He joined Victoria University in 2003.
Shaun writes a blog, 'A measure of science' as part of Sciblogs, a hub for New Zealand's science bloggers. Shaun also has a regular slot on Radio New Zealand Nights as physics correspondant.
Dr Nicola Gaston is a Principal Investigator in the MacDiarmid Institute for Advanced Materials and Nanotechnology and a Principal Scientist at Industrial Research Ltd.
She obtained her PhD from Massey University in 2006, completing a post-doctoral fellowship at the Max Planck Institute for the Physics of Complex Systems in Dresden before returning to New Zealand as NZ Science and Technology post-doctoral fellow at Industrial Research Ltd in 2007. Nicola has been an Adjunct Research Fellow with the School of Chemical and Physical Sciences since 2010. Read more about Nicola and her work either on the IRL website or on the MacDiarmid Institute website.
Industrial Research Ltd Staff
Dr Aruna Awasthi | Dr Philip Zhang | Dr Dion O`Neale
Gaston Group
Post-doctoral Fellow
Dr Dmitri Schebarchov
PhD Students
Krista Steenbergen | Bryne Tan
Hendy Group
Post-doctoral Fellow
Dr Dmitri Schebarchov
PhD Students
Nat Lund | Catriona Sissons
MSc Students
Keoni Mahelona
Alumnae
Dr Jade Mackay (Dresden) | Dr Peter Zoontjens (RMIT) | Dr Philip Zhang (IRL)
Dr David Stewart (Oak Ridge) | Dr Brent Walker (UCL) | David Williamson (Halifax)
Virginia Nicholson (MIT) | Dr Andreas Hermann (Cornell) | Dr Srikanth Dhondi (IRL)
Dr Sione Paea | Amanda Parker (UBC)
People in the News
1 September 2011- Nicola Gaston on Our Changing World
As a preview to her presentation in the Marie Curie Lecture Series, Nicola explores the complexity and beauty of the periodic table of chemical elements. She explains how elements are arranged by their physical properties, and how theoretical predictions of such characteristics help in the ongoing effort to expand the limits of the periodic table.
14 March 2011 - Krista Steenbergen is profiled by BlueFern
Krista Steenbergen has been profiled by BlueFern. When not delivering prize-winning student talks at conferences, Krista has been studying the melting of small gallium clusters using the BlueFern supercomputer. Her work aims to shed light on why gallium clusters remain solid well above the melting temperature of bulk gallium.
10 March 2011 - Nicola Gaston on Radio New Zealand Nights
Nicola was interviewed by Bryan Crump on Radio New Zealand Nights. Listen to Nicola discussing Marie Curie and the difference between physics and chemistry. Her next radio slot will be on April 14th.
1 March 2011 - IBM Distinguished Visiting Scholar
Amanda Parker has been chosen as an IBM Distinguished Visiting Scholar for 2011. Amanda will visit the IBM Almaden Labs in California for 3 months to work on a research project with Dr Julia Rice.
11 February 2011 - AMN5 Awards
Krista Steenbergen was runner up for the best student talk at AMN5, the fifth international conference in advanced materials and nanotechnology, while Amanda Parker won the prize for the best poster in computational nanotechnology.
8 November 2010 - New Zealand Association of Scientists Awards
Shaun Hendy who won the NZAS Research Medal at the New Zealand Association of Scientists awards last week.
The medal is awarded to a scientist under the age of 40 for publishing outstanding fundamental or applied research in their field.
Shaun’s major research discoveries include identifying how nanoparticles melt and working out how they bounce off surfaces. He has also investigated the flow of fluids at the nanoscale and how these fluid flows depend on the chemistry of the surfaces they flow over.
17 July 2010 - Listener Article
Shaun Hendy was interviewed by Rebecca Macfie for the Listener about his research into the effects of scale and collaboration on innovation.