Chemistry Department

In reply to Professor Leon Phillips (May 13) I would like to reassure your readers that chemistry research and teaching continues to be a strength at Victoria University.

In the late 1990s, the chemistry and physics departments merged to form the School of Chemical and Physical Sciences as a part of a wider process of disciplines combining to create more viable entities.

The combined school has more than 60 academic, technical and support staff. Bringing the two disciplines together has deepened the collaboration that existed between scientists in the two separate departments while students benefit from the greater resources the school has to offer.

The school leads the process by which it established and hosts the MacDiarmid Institute for Advanced Materials and Nanotechnology for which it secured Government funding through its selection as a centre of research excellence. No other chemistry department has achieved this status. Canterbury University is also a major partner in the Institute. As well, 20 per cent of Victoria’s chemistry researchers received A grades in the recent Performance-Based Research Fund exercise.

PROFESSOR JIM JOHNSTON Head, School of Chemical and Physical Sciences Victoria University of Wellington Wellington, June 9