Inter-institutional MoU signed with the McDiarmid Institute, New Zealand

On 31st August, a delegation led by Prof. Justin Hodgkiss (University of Victoria) and Prof. Nicola Gaston (University of Auckland) who are co-directors of the McDiarmid Institute for Advanced Materials and Nanotechnology in New Zealand visited NIMS and the signing ceremony of the inter-institutional MoU was held.

The McDiarmid Institute was launched within Victoria University of Wellington in 2002, bringing together researchers from Victoria University of Wellington, the University of Auckland, the University of Otago, the University of Canterbury, Massey University and two government innovation agencies in New Zealand. The institute is also known for being named after Dr. Alan Graham McDiarmid, a renowned chemist from New Zealand (who received the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 2000, along with Dr. Alan Jay Heeger and Dr. Hideki Shirakawa, for the discovery and development of conductive polymers).

The members of the McDiarmid Institute consist of approximately 100 researchers, 52 master's students, 287 doctoral students, 86 post-doctoral researchers, and 58 Research Assistants (based on McDiarmid Institute 2022 annual report data). Although its size is relatively small, the percentage of papers in the field of materials science in the total papers published by the MacDiarmid Institute (2013-2022) is very high at about 48.5%.

After the signing ceremony, research presentations from the delegation in a seminar and a lab tour were held in order to deepen mutual understanding and seek possibilities of research collaborations. It is highly expected that the number of active collaborations with NIMS will be increased with the present signing of MoU.

Fig.1 Photo of NIMS President holding the signed document and two co-directors of McDiarmid Institute.

Fig.2 Snapshot of Dr. Terabe introducing his research during a lab tour.

Fig.3 Snapshot of Dr. Shirai introducing his research during a lab tour.

Fig.4 Snapshot of Dr. Ota introducing his research during a lab tour.

Fig.5 Snapshot of Dr. Sodeyama introducing his research during a lab tour.