15 Facts About Paul Callaghan

Sir Paul Terence Callaghan 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 the position of Alan MacDiarmid Professor of Physical Sciences and was President of the International Society of Magnetic Resonance.

Paul Callaghan had an older brother Jim, older sister Jeanine, and younger sister Mary.

Paul Callaghan took his first degree in physics at Victoria University of Wellington and subsequently earned a DPhil degree at the University of Oxford, working in low temperature physics.

Paul Callaghan was made Professor of Physics in 1984, and was appointed Alan MacDiarmid Professor of Physical Sciences in 2001.

Paul Callaghan was President of the Academy Council of the Royal Society of New Zealand, and published over 240 articles in scientific journals, as well as the books Principles of Nuclear Magnetic Resonance Microscopy in 1994 and Translational Dynamics and Magnetic Resonance in 2011.

Paul Callaghan was a founding director and shareholder of Magritek, a technology company based in Wellington that sells nuclear magnetic resonance and MRI instruments.

Paul Callaghan was a regular public speaker on science matters and, in 2007, one of his radio series, of discussions with Kim Hill on Radio New Zealand appeared in book form as As Far as We Know: Conversations about Science, Life and the Universe.

Paul Callaghan was the presenter of a concurrent documentary, Beyond the Farm and the Themepark, which deals with the same issues.

In 2001 Paul Callaghan became the 36th New Zealander to be made a Fellow of the Royal Society of London.

Paul Callaghan was awarded the Ampere Prize in 2004 and the RSNZ's Rutherford Medal in 2005.

Paul Callaghan was appointed a Principal Companion of the New Zealand Order of Merit in the 2006 New Year Honours, and in 2007 was recognised with a World Class New Zealander Award and the Sir Peter Blake Medal.

Paul Callaghan was awarded a two-year James Cook Research Fellowship by the Royal Society of New Zealand in 2008.

Paul Callaghan died on 24 March 2012, aged 64, after a long battle with colon cancer.

Paul Callaghan was survived by his first wife, Sue Roberts, two children, Catherine and Chris, and his second wife Miang Lim.

The New Zealand Crown entity, Paul Callaghan Innovation, formed in February 2013, was named after him.