Dr Laurie Christian
Position: former Principal Research Scientist, Measurement Standards Laboratory.
Field: Electrical metrology.
As a child, Laurie remembers being curious to know what was inside the appliances in his home, and his efforts to dismantle these weren’t always matched by the ability to put them back together.
Dr Laurie Christian
Dr Laurie Christian was a Principal Research Scientist in MSL’s Electrical team. One of his research projects is in applying Josephson effect technology needed for developing MSL’s Kibble balance. He retired in December 2022 after 44 years of service.
Image: Dr Laurie Christian, Measurement Standards Laboratory of New Zealand
His secondary school years were spent at Otago Boys’ High School in Dunedin, and it was an inspirational maths teacher who set him on the pathway to study physics at Otago University. After acquiring a PhD in experimental physics, designing and building lasers, he took up a position as a measurement scientist with the New Zealand government research organisation DSIR, which then became Industrial Research Limited (IRL) and is now part of Callaghan Innovation.
I remember the day, a long time ago now, in a form 7 maths class taught by an inspirational teacher, when the 'lights went on' in terms of appreciation of maths and its application to physics.
The work involved developing a new New Zealand dc voltage standard based on a quantum electrical property known as the Josephson effect. Unlike his earlier childhood experiences of dismantling appliances, Laurie had now progressed to designing and building equipment.
Laurie’s 40+ year career as a physicist working in an essentially electrical engineering area has been a journey of continuous learning that has taken him around the world. One of his career highlights was working at a US laboratory located in Boulder, Colorado. Here, he worked with some world leaders in Josephson technology, in particular, the scientists and engineers who developed the ac voltage standards needed for developing MSL’s Planck constant apparatus.
One of the things he liked about working as a metrologist is that it is a very collaborative field. Successful trading of products requires both the buyer and seller to agree on what exactly is being bought and sold, and this requires agreement on the measurements that define such things as how much, how pure, whether it fits and so on, so metrologists from different nations need to work together. Laurie served on the Consultative Committee for Electricity and Magnetism that meets in Paris every 2 years to discuss how to improve the electrical side of the SI system.
In his spare time, Laurie dabbles with the uncertainties of golf and enjoys spending time with his family and his local church community.
At the end of 2022 Laurie retired from MSL after 44 years’ of service.
This article is based on information current in 2011 and 2025.
