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Nicola Gaston

Nicola Gaston FRSNZ is a Professor and a former President of the New Zealand Association of Scientists. She is a materials scientist who has worked on nanoparticles and low-temperature liquid metals, and who has spoken out on sexism in the scientific research establishment. In 2023 she was awarded the Thomson Medal. In 2024 she was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society Te Apārangi.

Nicola Gaston
Gaston in 2023
NationalityNew Zealand
Alma materUniversity of Auckland, Massey University
Scientific career
FieldsChemistry, Physics
InstitutionsAuckland University, MacDiarmid Institute for Advanced Materials and Nanotechnology, Victoria University of Wellington
Websitehttp://macdiarmid.ac.nz/, http://whyscienceissexist.wordpress.com/

Academic career

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Gaston obtained a PhD from Massey University under the supervision of Professor Peter Schwerdtfeger in 2005.[1] She is today a Professor in the Department of Physics at the University of Auckland.[2] She was previously a Senior Lecturer in the School of Chemical and Physical Sciences at Victoria University of Wellington.[3][4]

After being a Principal Investigator at the MacDiarmid Institute since 2010, she was appointed co-director in 2018.[5]

Her research interests include understanding how and why the properties of clusters of atoms, such as their melting points, depend on size and electronic structure.[6] For example, adding an extra atom of gallium to a cluster can change its melting point by 100 Kelvins.[7][8] The anomalously high melting temperatures of gallium nanoparticles have been shown to be due to a lower entropy of the liquid state.[9]

Her work on structural self-organisation and pattern formation at the surface of[10][11] and within low-temperature liquid metals[12] has led to the discovery of structures such as snowflakes, made of zinc metal. [13]

Awards

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Gaston was awarded the CMMSE prize in 2016 for important contributions in the developments of numerical methods for physics, chemistry, engineering and economics.[14] In 2023, she was awarded the Thomson Medal by the Royal Society Te Apārangi in recognition of her leadership in highlighting and addressing gender equity issues in the science sector, in supporting researchers to speak out for the public good, as well as for her work as co-director of the MacDiarmid Institute and as president of the New Zealand Association of Scientists.[15] In 2023 Gaston was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society Te Apārangi for her work on low-temperature liquid metals.[16]

Public profile and advocacy for science

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Gaston has been a strong advocate for women in science, arguing that science is sexist in national media.[3][17][18] She argues that although women may be well-represented in junior university positions, even forming the majority in some scientific disciplines, through unconscious bias or stereotyping they are lost to academia, which ends up dominated by men in senior positions.[4] One reason is the unforgiving nature of the research establishment to gaps in a CV caused by child-rearing.[4] Gaston explored these impediments to the participation of women scientists in her blog, "Why Science is Sexist", and in 2015 published a book of the same name with Bridget Williams Books.[19]

As President of the New Zealand Association of Scientists Gaston publicly criticised the adoption of the National Science Challenges, due to the possible conflicting roles of the Prime Minister's Science Advisor and the marginalisation of Māori.[20] She however subsequently praised the stability of funding provided for the National Science Challenges as well as the development of the National Statement of Science Investment in mitigating some of the concerns surrounding the adoption of the National Science Challenges.[21]

In her role as Co-Director of the MacDiarmid Institute, Gaston has argued that government investment in cleantech industries should be ambitious, to take advantage of the country's natural advantages in renewable energy. [22][23] She has also argued for the value of investment in science and education as a positive sum game. [24]

In 2023 Gaston was highly critical of the government's failure to deliver on their long-held goal of increasing R&D funding to 2% of GDP.[25] She subsequently argued that a lack of investment would lead to an inevitable downsizing of the university sector, without any strategic direction, and that this would lead to a loss of capability and capacity. [26] In 2024, in advance of the government's review of the university sector, she argued for the role of universities in countering the 'brain drain' of highly educated people from the country. [27]

Selected publications

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  • Gaston, Nicola (2015). Why science is sexist. Wellington, New Zealand. ISBN 978-0-908321-65-0. OCLC 930464967.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)

References

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  1. ^ Gaston, Nicola (2003). Mercury clusters from van der Waals to the metallic solid (Doctoral thesis). Massey Research Online, Massey University. hdl:10179/1840.
  2. ^ "Professor Nicola Gaston – The University of Auckland". unidirectory.auckland.ac.nz. Retrieved 22 July 2017.
  3. ^ a b Morton, Jamie (10 March 2014). "Women in science". The New Zealand Herald. Retrieved 23 August 2019.
  4. ^ a b c Tuckett, Graeme (26 February 2015). "The Interview: Nicola Gaston". Fishhead: Wellington's Magazine. Retrieved 23 August 2019.
  5. ^ Webb-Liddall, Alice (20 June 2018). "Nicola Gaston on taking the wheel at the MacDiarmid Institute". The Spinoff. Retrieved 12 October 2021.
  6. ^ "The science of stuff used to make things | Nine To Noon, 11:31 am on 10 August 2016 | RNZ". Radio New Zealand. 10 August 2016. Retrieved 22 July 2017.
  7. ^ "Nothing but 100 percent positive experiences from start to finish | New Zealand eScience Infrastructure". nesi.org.nz. Retrieved 1 June 2014.
  8. ^ "Gallium nanoparticles and better chips | Science Interviews | Naked Scientists". www.thenakedscientists.com. June 2015. Retrieved 22 July 2017.
  9. ^ Steenbergen, Krista G.; Gaston, Nicola (13 January 2016). "A Two-Dimensional Liquid Structure Explains the Elevated Melting Temperatures of Gallium Nanoclusters". Nano Letters. 16 (1): 21–26. doi:10.1021/acs.nanolett.5b02158. ISSN 1530-6984. PMID 26624938.
  10. ^ Tang, Jianbo; Lambie, Stephanie; Meftahi, Nastaran; Christofferson, Andrew J.; Yang, Jiong; Han, Jialuo; Rahim, Md. Arifur; Mayyas, Mohannad; Ghasemian, Mohammad B.; Allioux, Francois-Marie; Cao, Zhenbang; Daeneke, Torben; McConville, Chris F.; Steenbergen, Krista G.; Kaner, Richard B. (3 February 2022). "Oscillatory bifurcation patterns initiated by seeded surface solidification of liquid metals". Nature Synthesis. 1 (2): 158–169. doi:10.1038/s44160-021-00020-1. ISSN 2731-0582.
  11. ^ Tang, Jianbo; Lambie, Stephanie; Meftahi, Nastaran; Christofferson, Andrew J.; Yang, Jiong; Ghasemian, Mohammad B.; Han, Jialuo; Allioux, Francois-Marie; Rahim, Md. Arifur; Mayyas, Mohannad; Daeneke, Torben; McConville, Chris F.; Steenbergen, Krista G.; Kaner, Richard B.; Russo, Salvy P. (2021). "Unique surface patterns emerging during solidification of liquid metal alloys". Nature Nanotechnology. 16 (4): 431–439. doi:10.1038/s41565-020-00835-7. ISSN 1748-3387. PMID 33462429.
  12. ^ Idrus-Saidi, Shuhada A.; Tang, Jianbo; Lambie, Stephanie; Han, Jialuo; Mayyas, Mohannad; Ghasemian, Mohammad B.; Allioux, Francois-Marie; Cai, Shengxiang; Koshy, Pramod; Mostaghimi, Peyman; Steenbergen, Krista G.; Barnard, Amanda S.; Daeneke, Torben; Gaston, Nicola; Kalantar-Zadeh, Kourosh (9 December 2022). "Liquid metal synthesis solvents for metallic crystals". Science. 378 (6624): 1118–1124. doi:10.1126/science.abm2731. ISSN 0036-8075. PMID 36480610.
  13. ^ "How to make tiny metal snowflakes". 8 December 2022. Retrieved 29 May 2024.
  14. ^ "Schedule & CMMSE Prize | CMMSE'17". cmmse.usal.es. Retrieved 22 July 2017.
  15. ^ Morton, Jamie (9 November 2023). "'Tenacious boldness': Top honour for change-making NZ scientist". The New Zealand Herald. Retrieved 8 November 2023.
  16. ^ "University of Auckland researchers elected to the Royal Society Te Apārangi - The University of Auckland". www.auckland.ac.nz. Retrieved 4 April 2024.
  17. ^ "On The Spot | Nights, 8:12 pm on 26 July 2013 | Radio New Zealand". radionz.co.nz. 26 July 2013. Retrieved 1 June 2014.
  18. ^ "Sunday Morning: Nicola Gaston". Radio New Zealand. 14 June 2015. Retrieved 23 August 2019.
  19. ^ Gaston, Nicola (2015). Why Science is Sexist (1 ed.). Bridget Williams Books. doi:10.7810/9780908321650. ISBN 978-0-908321-65-0.
  20. ^ Gaston, Nicola (2014). "New Zealand: Free up systems for funding and advice". Nature. 508 (7494): 44. Bibcode:2014Natur.508R..44G. doi:10.1038/508044b. PMID 24695303.
  21. ^ Flahive, Brad (17 November 2018). "More transparency wanted around Government's national science challenges". Stuff. Retrieved 23 August 2019.
  22. ^ Gaston, Nicola (9 December 2019). "Not-so-modest proposals for Tiwai". The Spinoff. Retrieved 29 May 2024.
  23. ^ Gaston, Professor Nicola (4 August 2020). "Five alternatives to aluminium at Tiwai". Newsroom. Retrieved 29 May 2024.
  24. ^ Gaston, Professor Nicola (5 October 2023). "Party pledges won't fix science funding sinkhole". Newsroom. Retrieved 29 May 2024.
  25. ^ Gaston, Nicola (15 May 2023). "The research sector needs investment now – for the good of our planet and people". The Spinoff. Retrieved 29 May 2024.
  26. ^ Gaston, Nicola (31 May 2023). "When downsizing means destroying our universities". The Spinoff. Retrieved 29 May 2024.
  27. ^ Gaston, Professor Nicola (21 May 2024). "The real value of universities". Newsroom. Retrieved 29 May 2024.
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