Honorary degree ‘perfect tribute’ to retiring DVC

Professor Richard Blaikie will add one more accolade to his impressive list of achievements before he retires this month.

The University of Otago – Ōtākou Whakaihu Waka Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Research and Enterprise) will receive an Honorary Doctor of Science, and give the graduation address, at the ceremony on Saturday 17 May.

An Otago alumnus, Professor Blaikie graduated with a Bachelor of Science with Honours in 1988, returned as a member of staff in 2011, and will retire at the end of May.

He was at a loss for words when told about the “truly unexpected news” of his honorary degree.

“After some brief reflection, I was honoured and delighted to know that my service has been respected and acknowledged with such a prestigious award,” he says.

Professor Blaikie earned his PhD in physics from the University of Cambridge in 1992 and spent a year as a visiting scientist at Hitachi Cambridge Laboratory, where he investigated single-electron transport effects in semiconductor nanostructures.

When he returned to New Zealand the following year, he took on a role in the University of Canterbury’s Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering.

During this time, he was a Fulbright Fellow at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and the inaugural Deputy Director of the MacDiarmid Institute for Advanced Materials and Nanotechnology. He later became the Director, and a Fellow of the Royal Society of New Zealand.

Throughout his career, he has received the T. K. Sidey Medal for outstanding scientific research concerning electromagnetic radiation, the Hector Memorial Medal for his “fundamental and wide-ranging contributions to the field of nano-optics”, and the Thomson Medal for science leadership.

Upon returning to Otago in 2011, he became the Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Research and Enterprise).

Professor Blaikie says he is particularly honoured by the degree because Otago has been part of his life for as long as he can remember.

“Both of my parents worked here, so I was very much brought up in a university family,” he says.

“I studied here, I met my wife here when we were students, and I have been given the privilege of leadership here in my current role. Many of our siblings and cousins and their families have studied at Otago also, so we feel happily woven into the university community through these connections also.”

Vice-Chancellor Grant Robertson says awarding Professor Blaikie an honorary degree is the perfect way to pay tribute to all he has given Otago over the years.

“Richard is the longest serving Deputy Vice-Chancellor in the University’s history. He has given so much to us all, and this honour is so well deserved. We wish him the very best and thank him for his years of service, dedication and leadership.”