World-changing New Zealanders
Featuring 40+ definitive short biographies of New Zealanders who have changed or benefitted the world in some way. Working from New Zealand and internationally, these scientists, artists, designers, inventors, warriors, and adventurers are inspiration for achievement. Please enjoy and be motivated.
Ernest Rutherford
The creator of modern atomic physics and forerunner of the nuclear age, Ernest Rutherford was one of the 20th century's greatest scientists. An experimenter, inventor and Nelson farm boy, he "tunnelled into the very..."
Maurice Wilkins
Research undertaken by New Zealander Maurice Wilkins helped lead to the discovery of the DNA molecule structure - the very essence of life itself. The discovery revolutionised biology and medicine…
William Pickering
The USSR's launch of Sputnik in 1957 forced the United States into the space race. Less than three months later Explorer 1 was launched. The man behind it: William Pickering from Wellington, New Zealand…
Alexander Aitken
Alexander Aitken was one of the world’s greatest mathematical minds, able recite Pi to 707 decimal places. His extraordinary abilities were studied by psychologists in Britain during the 1920s…
Alan MacDiarmid
"Information Age pioneer," Alan MacDiarmid and his colleagues discovered that plastics could conduct electricity. Awarded the 2000 Nobel Prize for chemistry, he lives by the motto: “I am a very lucky person and the harder I work the luckier I seem to be”…
Beatrice Tinsley
Beatrice Tinsley was a world leader in modern cosmology and one of the most creative and significant theoreticians in modern astronomy. Her work has been described as "opening doors to evolutions of stars, galaxies and even the Universe itself”…
Allan Wilson
Allan Wilson’s examination into the origins of humanity through biochemistry flew in the face of anthropological thinking. He revolutionised the study of human evolution and is the only New Zealander to win the US MacArthur "Genius" Award...
Harold Gillies
The introduction of ferocious weapons and trench warfare in WWI resulted in devastating injuries that required a new type of surgery. In response, Sir Harold Gillies standardised century old techniques and established the discipline of 'plastic surgery'…
Archibald McIndoe
Motivated by a desire to be more than just an ordinary doctor, Archibald Hector McIndoe pursued greatness. Appointed plastic surgeon to the Royal Air Force in WWII, McIndoe brought plastic surgery to the forefront of burns treatment…
Sydney Smith
A forensics pioneer, Sir Sydney Smith became world recognition through the application of science to justice. He learnt to read the stories of dead men - and in doing so changed the way crime was investigated and solved…
