Lighting up New Zealand – Te Koanga

Lighting up New Zealand – Te Koanga

The Spring equinox on the 23rd of this month will be marked with a nation-wide celebration for the 2015 UNESCO International Year of Light, with a gala and week-long series of activities and events.

The Spring equinox on the 23rd of this month will be marked with a nation-wide celebration for the 2015 UNESCO International Year of Light, with a gala and week-long series of activities and events.

Illuminating NZ – Te Koanga kicks off on September 19 and involves museums throughout the country along with scientists and researchers from the Universities of Auckland, Canterbury, Otago and Victoria University Wellington.

“This International Year of Light is a great opportunity to inspire young New Zealanders about the wonders of light and to get them thinking about photonic technologies of light as a potential career,” Associate Professor Cather Simpson of the University of Auckland, and co-chair of the NZ National Committee for the International Year of Light, says.

During the week, “Light Matters” kits, with light-based experiments, brain teasers, puzzles and challenges, will be handed out to school children nationwide.

Included in the kits will be a small beacon with a code that, when activated via the Illuminating NZ website, will light up a map of New Zealand at www.illuminating.nz.

“This kind of hands-on activity is a great way to engage our scientists of the future, the researchers and astronomers who will be key to New Zealand securing its place as an innovator and leader in light technologies,” Dr Simpson says.

All light is made up of photons, particles of light that have no mass. Dr Simpson leads the University of Auckland’s Photon Factory, a multi-user research facility that studies how molecules convert light to useful energy.

“In the last century it was electronics that helped transform our lives but in this century it will be the study of light or photonics,” Dr Simpson says.

Dr Ian Griffin, Director of Otago Museum and Board Member of Museums Aoteroa, says the museum is excited to be part of the Year of Light 2015.

“Here at the Otago Museum we are very excited to be part of this project, and we just can’t wait to showcase some incredibly cool science to people who visit our museum over the period of the Spring equinox.”

Illuminating NZ is part of the Unlocking Curious Minds initiative funded by the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment.

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