Short Bio
After completing a MSc at the University of Auckland in 2001 I started PhD study in the group of Crispin Gardiner at the University of Victoria, finishing in 2005.
In 2005 I took up a post-doctoral fellowship at the University of Queensland in the Center of Excellence for Quantum-Atom Optics in the group of Matthew Davis. In 2008 I was awarded a New Zealand Foundation for Research, Science, and Technology Fellowship and moved to Otago University. In 2010 I was awarded a Rutherford Discovery Fellowship and Marsden Fast Start Grant. In 2016 I transitioned to a permanent faculty position at the University of Otago.
Fellowships and Awards
- 2011-2015 Rutherford Discovery Fellowship
- 2008-2010 NZ Foundation for Research, Science, and Technology Research Fellowship.
- 2005-2007 University of Queensland Postdoctoral Fellowship.
- 2003-2005 NZ Tertiary Education Commission Top Achiever Doctoral Scholarship.
- 1998 University of Auckland Senior Prize in Mathematics, Senior Prize in Physics.
Positions
Department of Physics at the University of Otago
I started in the role as Head of Department of Physics in 2025.
Department of Physics at the University of Otago
In 2016 I transitioned to a tenure track faculty position at the University of Otago.
Department of Physics at the University of Otago
I started a five year Rutherford Discovery Fellowship in 2011, also gained a Marsden Fast Start Grant.
Department of Physics at the University of Otago
I started a New Zealand Foundation for Research, Science, and Technology Postdoctoral fellowship at Otago in 2008.
Matthew Davis' group at the University of Queensland.
On completion of my PhD studies I took up a postoctoral position at the University of Queensland in the ARC Center of Excellence for Quantum-Atom Optics, joining the group of Matt Davis. In addition to working with Matt Davis on the Kibble-Zurek mechanism of vortex formation in BEC, I also had fruitful collaborations with Murray Olsen and Margaret Reid on quantum entanglement. During this time I also started a new collaboration with Olivier Pfister’s quantum optics group at the University of Virginia on tripartite entanglement. I also started a collaboration with Brian Anderson at the Wyant College of Optical Sciences in Tucson Arizona on quantum vortex dynamics.
Victoria University of Wellington
PhD thesis
2001 - 2005
Crispin Gardiner's Group at the Victoria University of Wellington
In 2001 I moved to Wellington to start my PhD research with Crispin Gardiner on several topics in the field of ultracold gases, including anomalous segregation, and rotating Bose-Einstein condensation. During this time I developed the first working simulations of the Stochastic Projected Gross-Piteavskii equation, and started collaborations with Murray Olsen and Blair Blakie.
University of Auckland
MSc thesis
2000
Joe Hope and Matthew Collett at the University of Auckland
My interest in laser physics led me to a research project on non-Markovian atom lasers - the kind of laser that typically happens when massive bosons are playing the role of photons.