Tom Hunt writes for the Dominion Post about the gift by Gayl Gentile of her husband Alan MacDiarmid’s nobel prize medal to VUW.
The gift was made at the opening yesterday of the new Alan MacDiarmid Building, which will be used by science students.
An excerpt: (read in full here)
“The medal would sit in the foyer as “an inspiration to the staff and students that study here”, Vice Chancellor Pat Walsh said.
“Mr MacDiarmid, a Victoria University alumnus, was one of three recipients of the Nobel Prize for Chemistry in 2000. He discovered a way for plastics to conduct electricity – a technology now common in such applications as cellphone displays. He died after a fall in his home in 2007.
“Having the building named after him was a big honour, Ms Gentile said. “It’s exciting.””