By SIMON COLLINS
A scientist whose work is helping to transform electricity transmission systems around the world has been awarded this year's top medal from the Royal Society of New Zealand.
Dr Jeff Tallon, a Mt Albert Grammar old boy who now works for Industrial Research in Wellington, discovered "superconductor" material now
being used in cables feeding thousands of homes in Detroit and Copenhagen and in electric motors being developed for luxury liners and the US Navy.
State-owned Industrial Research is expected to earn millions of dollars in royalties and from manufacturing superconducting coils.
Dr Tallon is only the third person to be given the Royal Society's top award since it was renamed the Rutherford Medal in 2000. The others are Nobel Prize winner Dr Alan MacDiarmid and Auckland paediatrician Dr Peter Gluckman.
Dr Tallon's breakthrough came in 1988 after a Japanese group found a mixture of elements that showed signs of superconductivity, but was unable to identify the key elements. His group did and filed a patent.
"Dozens of institutes and universities were working on the problem," he said. "It does illustrate that we here in New Zealand can compete with the rest of the world if we are appropriately resourced."
