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Associate Professor Franck Natali awarded NZIP 2025 Te Tohu mō te Whaihua i te Mātai Ahupūngao – Physics Impact Award for research and commercial success.
25 August, 2025
The New Zealand Institute of Physics has conferred its 2025 Te Tohu mō te Whaihua i te Mātai Ahupūngao – Physics Impact Award on Associate Professor Franck Natali. This biennial award honours an individual or team whose physics research delivers demonstrable benefit to Aotearoa New Zealand through commercial success, industrial uptake, or societal impact.
In conferring the award, NZIP President Professor Richard Easther said that Associate Professor Natali’s work exemplified physics translated into high-value outcomes.
Associate Professor Franck Natali in his Liquium lab
‘Drawing on patented fundamental research from his laboratory, Franck co-founded Liquium Ltd., a deep-tech start-up developing novel catalysts to decarbonise ammonia production, which is one of the hardest-to-abate industrial processes. Liquium already employs six staff (three physics PhDs) and, in recognition of its potential to cut global emissions, Franck was selected as one of just ten inaugural Breakthrough Energy Fellows supported by Bill Gates, securing nearly NZ$2 million in international investment.
Professor Easther added that beyond Liquium, Franck had licensed thin-film electron-diffraction software to a US instrumentation company, partnered with superconducting-computing ventures SeeQC and Hypres, and, in his term as Wellington UniVentures’ first Innovator-in-Residence, guided multiple physics projects from laboratory proof-of-concept to patent protection.
Franck's work exemplifies physics translated into high-value outcomes
Professor Richard Easther President NZIP
Welcoming the award, Institute Deputy Director for Commercialisation and Industry Engagement Associate Professor Natalie Plank said that Franck’s research showed the tangible value to New Zealand of spinning research into commerce.
‘Building on New Zealand’s leading research in Rare Earth Nitrides—an area advanced by MacDiarmid Institute researchers since 2005—Franck has launched a successful spin-out company aiming to produce next-generation catalysts to decarbonise ammonia production,’ she said.
Professor Easther said NZIP also recognised that Franck drove impact through leadership and equity.
‘As a former Deputy Director of the MacDiarmid Institute, he steered national collaborations on clean-technology materials. His Vision Mātauranga partnership with Whakarewarewa Thermal Village has united Māori knowledge and Western science to study geothermal colouration, producing joint publications and an invited presentation at the 2021 World Geothermal Congress. These achievements, spanning commercialisation, climate change mitigation, and kaupapa Māori engagement, mark Franck Natali as a physicist whose research delivers tangible, wide-ranging value to New Zealand.’
Building on New Zealand’s leading research in Rare Earth Nitrides—an area advanced by MacDiarmid Institute researchers since 2005—Franck has launched a successful spin-out company aiming to produce next-generation catalysts to decarbonise ammonia production
Associate Professor Natalie Plank Deputy Director for Commercialisation and Industry Engagement
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