17 May 2012

Easy tiger

7/09/2011 10:40:00 a.m.

0 Comments

Professor Sir Paul Callaghan is passionate about science and innovation.

Professor Sir Paul Callaghan is passionate about science and innovation.

PROFESSOR Sir Paul Callaghan is a world-renowned scientist, but he’s proud to call Wellington home. He’s about to deliver Victoria University’s Inaugural Chancellor’s Lecture and this year it’s based on promoting a prosperous 21st century New Zealand. They call it the tiger economy and it’s all about innovation…

Name:
Paul Terence Callaghan
Age: 64
Occupation: Physicist
Place I call home: Wellington
My passion is: Science and innovation
My hero is: Ernest Rutherford
If reincarnated I’d be: A composer
What do New Zealanders need to know about the new tiger economy? That we have the potential to be much more prosperous than we currently are, if only we chose to work in higher productivity occupations based on innovative exporting.

Is New Zealand’s decline in prosperity really a result of our own choosing? Why?
Because we have failed to see beyond agriculture and tourism as sources of external revenue for the country, and because we have encouraged our young people to see their best opportunities overseas.  We lack belief in our own capacity and we do not sufficiently value and encourage entrepreneurship.

Do we have the capacity to move ahead rapidly? How?

First, ensure that we address the educational failure of many of our young people at school by seriously investing in motivational teaching.  We are obsessed with curricula and assessment instead of with improving teaching quality. Second, by expressing a new vision of New Zealand as a base for smart innovative export-focussed entrepreneurialism, where a quality lifestyle is combined with excellent educational and R&D capability. We need to instil in our young an awareness of our remarkable successes and our capacity to do a whole lot more.

Where do you think Wellington’s prosperity lies?

Wellington is an excellent city to live in. We must expand economic activity beyond the government sector into the creative sector. Film is a great success. High tech companies are starting to make an impact. We need to grow that capacity.

What is the most exciting scientific innovation to come out Wellington in recent times?

The Wellington company Magritek, of which I am a founder. It is based on highly sophisticated physics, electronics and software, and it is selling some of the highest technology products New Zealand has ever produced, and doing so with great success.

What excites you about science in New Zealand?

We are good at it, and in per capita terms, better than most countries on the planet. It’s amazing but most New Zealanders are completely unaware of that fact, and most of our kids still think they need to go overseas to do great science.

What’s going on in the Wellington science community at the moment?

A lot. Where do I start?  We know how valuable the GNS scientists have been in the recent earthquakes. We have very strong Crown Research Institutes with NIWA, IRL and ESR. The Malaghan Institute for Medical research is doing fabulous work in cancer research and in asthma research. And the MacDiarmid Institute is leading the way in physical sciences research. The MacDiarmid Institute has a vibrant group of young researchers who are active not only in their labs, but who are involved in science communication activities and in building science-business awareness.

What are you working on?
I have just finished a book called Translational Dynamics and Magnetic Resonance and Oxford University Press has published it. I am currently at Cambridge University trying to understand how science and innovation can drive GDP growth in advanced economies.

Finally, do you know the words to Tom Lehrer’s song The Elements?

I love Tom Lehrer. I do know many of the words to The Elements, but not as well as Margaret Mahy, who I once heard sing it all the way through from memory.

Inaugural Chancellor’s Lecture, Wellington Town Hall, 6pm, September 14
Email This Print

0 Comments

Don't worry, we wont make this public

No comments.

Cover Story

Best of Wellington 2011

Briefs

  • A question of nutrition

    Controversial Washington-based nutritionist Sally Fallon-Morell is to speak in Wellington on March 29.
    Fallon-Morell is the co-founder of the American food lobby group the Weston A. Price Foundation and the author of Nourishing Traditions. She advocates for the consumption of nutritionally dense foods such as lacto-fermented vegetables, stocks and broths, and whole raw dairy products.
    Fallon-Morell will speak at St Patrick’s College Hall on March 29.

  • Relay for cancer

    Organisers say Sunday’s Relay for Life is full to capacity with hundreds of Wellingtonians registered for the event.
    A total of 88 teams, made up of 10 to 500 members, plan to take part with a further 25 teams on the waiting list.
    The 24 hour relay, the Cancer Society’s biggest fundraising event of the year, takes place at Frank Kitts Park from 4pm on March 31.

  • Osteoarthritis awareness

    Arthritis New Zealand has launched a nationwide campaign raise awareness about osteoarthritis. 
    Arthritis is New Zealand’s leading cause of disability, affecting 305,000 adults, and osteoarthritis is its most common form.
    The campaign features television commercials and an interactive website.


  • Wild walk

    Take part in the Big Walk at Zealandia on March 31.
    Walkers can choose a two, five or 10 kilometre walk catering to all fitness levels.
    Money raised will go to the Foundation for Youth Development.

  • School pool

    The opening of the new Khandallah School pool this week means hundreds of children will be able to continue their swimming lessons.
    The pool was the first to receive a grant from Wellington City Council’s Schools Pools Partnership Fund, a fund set up in 2010 to help schools improve their pool facilities.
    Grants from the fund have also been made for pools at Wellington East Girls’ College, Barhampore School and Tawa School.

  • Easter bikers

    Motorcyclists are invited to get on their bikes and collect Easter eggs for families support from the Wellington City Mission.
    The charity run on April 1 is organised by motorcycle lobby group BONZ.
    Eggs can be donated at Red Baron Motorcylces in Alicetown. The registration fee for bikers is $10, plus the cost of Easter eggs.

  • Crafty

    Made on Marion opens on the site of the former Golding Handicrafts site in Marion St, from April 1.  They will continue to supply craft materials.

  • Ze upgrade

    Taranaki Street fuel users will notice that the Z Energy’s former Shell Service Station is closed.  Z are doing a “total revamp”.
    The job will take four weeks.

  • Newlands Moves

    Developer Ayal Aharoni has agreed to build only 90 instead of 220 houses on his six and a half hectares above Ngauranga Gorge in Newlands.  Only low density occupation will be allowed on the remaining 8.4 hectares.


  • Baring Head

    There's a new  draft plan out for what should happen at Baring Head.  It outlines how the Greater Wellington Regional council would like to manage the newest addition to its regional parks network. Grazing animals will go, motorised vehicles will be prohibited, predators will be controlled, and the lighthouse will be preserved. Submissions are invited.


  • It’s a wonder

    A new childcare centre in Newtown says it is dedicated to helping kids grow up healthy in mind, body and spirit. Little Wonders Childcare on Rintoul Street is an independent early childhood education and learning centre, the sixth centre to be opened by its Auckland-based owner. It caters to 100 children aged between three months and five years old and has been open for a little more than seven weeks.

  • Festival treats

    CHILDREN have not been forgotten by organisers of the New Zealand International Arts Festival.
    For a perfect first theatrical experience White tells the story of friends Cotton and Winkle who live in a world where there is no colour and everything is startlingly white. That is until a brightly coloured egg tumbles out of the sky and changes their world for ever.
    White plays at Capital E from March 7-11.
    The tale of Peter and the World also promises to be a magical night for all ages. Sergei Prokofiev’s classic children’s tale is told through film and live music from the NZ Symphony Orchestra at the Michael Fowler Centre on March 9.
    March 11 is Young Writers and Readers Day and readings from children’s writers and illustrators Lynley Dodd and Gavin Bishop.

Reader's Poll

Should TVNZ7 be saved as non-commercial?