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Bob Buckley
Dr Robert G Buckley, who manages IRL’s world-renowned High Temperature Superconductivity group, is both a Distinguished Scientist and a Fellow of the Royal Society of New Zealand. Over the past 15 years, he has lead IRL’s research into the synthesis, discovery and application of high-temperature superconductor materials and managed their commercialisation.
Bob Buckley
In recognition of his work enabling the creation of a new, high-value HTS[?] industry for New Zealand, Bob Buckley has now been jointly awarded, with Dr Jeff Tallon, the inaugural Prime Minister’s Science Prize for outstanding achievement in science. This award comes hard on the heels of Dr Buckley's Wellingtonian of the Year Award which was presented to him in late 2009.
Dr Buckley studied Physics and Chemistry at Massey University, before completing his PhD at Victoria University of Wellington in 1979. In 1981, he joined what was then DSIR’s Physics and Engineering Laboratory in Lower Hutt (now IRL), where he is still located.
Among his many achievements, Dr Buckley is a co-inventor of Bi-2223, the material used to make high-temperature superconductor wires.
The discovery of Bi-2223 was published in the leading scientific journal Nature in 1988, and today the material provides the basis for a major part of the high-temperature superconductor industry world-wide.
Dr Buckley has played a key role in developing New Zealand's strategy for capturing the benefits of its high-temperature superconductor discoveries, and was a foundation Director IRL’s spin-off company, HTS-110[?], and is currently a Director of a second spin-off company General Cable Superconductors.
Dr Buckley is also a board member of the MacDiarmid Institute for Advanced Materials and Nanotechnology and is author of 97 refereed publications and nine patents.
In 2004 he was awarded the Royal Society of New Zealand’s prestigious technology honour, the Pickering Medal, to recognise excellence and innovation in the practical applications of technology and in 2008 as part of the HTS Roebel cable team the Royal Society of New Zealand’s Cooper Medal.