astronomy

Richard Blaikie

Richard Blaikie is a astronomy topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand Richard Blaikie rather than just read about it. In short: Richard John Blaikie (born 25 August 1965) is a physicist who works in the field of nano-scale optics. He was Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Research and Enterprise) at the University of Otago until June 2025, and is now Professor Emeritus at the Department of Physics.

Key takeaways

Richard Blaikie belongs to astronomy; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect Richard Blaikie to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of Richard Blaikie from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

Richard John Blaikie (born 25 August 1965) is a physicist who works in the field of nano-scale optics. He was Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Research and Enterprise) at the University of Otago until June 2025, and is now Professor Emeritus at the Department of Physics.

Early life Blaikie was born in 1965 and attended Kaikorai Valley College in Dunedin. He studied at the University of Otago (1984–1987) and graduated with a BSc (Hons) in physics. He won a Rutherford Memorial Scholarship to attend the University of Cambridge (1988–1992), where he received a PhD in physics in 1992.

Academic career After a year at the Hitachi Cambridge Laboratory, he took a position as a lecturer at the University of Canterbury. He was at Canterbury from February 1994 to November 2011, and he was made a professor during that time. In 2001, he was a Fulbright Fellow at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. When the MacDiarmid Institute for Advanced Materials and Nanotechnology was formed in 2002, he was appointed Deputy Director under Professor Paul Callaghan. When Callaghan retired in 2008, Blaikie was appointed Director. During his tenure, the institute received a bequest of NZ$1 million. Blaikie stepped down from the MacDiarmid Institute half way through 2011 when he received his appointment as Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Research and Enterprise) at the University of Otago. He took up the role in December 2011, succeeding Harlene Hayne. He also holds a chair in physics. Blaikie received the T. K. Sidey Medal in 2001, set up by the Royal Society of New Zealand as an award for outstanding scientific research. In 2011, Blaikie was elected fellow of the Royal Society of New Zealand. In 2013, Blaikie received the Hector Memorial Medal from the Royal Society "for his fundamental and wide-ranging contributions to the field of nano-optics, showing that light can be manipulated at scales much smaller than its wavelength and providing a world-first demonstration of a controversial superlens system using subwavelength techniques." The national ceremony for a range of Royal Society awards were held in the Dunedin Town Hall on 27 November 2013. In 2015, Blaikie was awarded the Thomson Medal for science leadership.

References

External links Blaikie at the University of Otago

Illustrations

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Richard Blaikie

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Richard Blaikie claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In astronomy, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to Richard Blaikie before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about Richard Blaikie ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of Richard Blaikie

In research: Richard Blaikie appears in astronomy research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses Richard Blaikie in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: Richard Blaikie is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics 1965 births, 20th-century New Zealand physicists, 21st-century New Zealand physicists, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Richard Blaikie outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

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How to study Richard Blaikie in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what Richard Blaikie means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain Richard Blaikie out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is Richard Blaikie in simple terms?

Why does Richard Blaikie matter?

Because it connects several astronomy ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study Richard Blaikie?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on Richard Blaikie.