Three MacDiarmid Institute researchers (plus one affiliated company) are finalists in the 2025 KiwiNet Awards

7 August, 2025

Dr Michel Nieuwouldt

Principal Investigator Professor Aaron Marshall, and Associate Investigators Dr Michel Nieuwoudt and Dr Ben Mallett have been shortlisted for the 2025 KiwiNet Research Commercialisation Awards.

Welcoming the announcement and congratulating the three researchers, MacDiarmid Institute Director Professor Nicola Gaston said the shortlisting reflected the dynamic nature of the research commercialisation ecosystem.

‘There’s a strong commercialisation culture within the Institute and supported by the wider commercialisation sector. Our researchers are turning their deep materials expertise into commercial success. Each year we’re seeing our people successfully launch new start-up ventures while our existing affiliated start-up companies thrive and evolve.’

There’s a strong commercialisation culture within the Institute and supported by the wider commercialisation sector.
Professor Nicola Gaston MacDiarmid Institute Director

Professor Aaron Marshall

Deputy Director for Commercialisation and Industry Engagement Associate Professor Natalie Plank said it was wonderful to see the success of these three researchers.

‘One of our key approaches to help our researchers to commercialise their research and to engage with Industry is to support researchers with seed funding for their early-stage commercial projects, helping them to pursue key commercial milestones. The outcomes often aren’t known until further down the line, but we do see the impact when we look at those funded over the years. Today’s announcement of the shortlisting of these three researchers, plus one of our affiliated companies, is fantastic to see.’

Dr Michel Nieuwoudt who is based at the University of Auckland, and Professor Aaron Marshall who is based at the University of Canterbury, are two of the finalists for the KiwiNet BNZ Researcher Entrepreneur category, which recognises an experienced entrepreneurial researcher who consistently delivers real world impact from their research. Michel is shortlisted for Making light work of hard problems with her start-up company Luminoma Diagnostics Ltd, which is creating an accurate and easy way to diagnose skin cancers in seconds, without the need for biopsy. Aaron is shortlisted as An inspiring visionary in clean-tech innovation and is co-founder of two start-up companies: Zincovery, which is helping to revolutionise global metals recovery – taking waste from steel manufacturing to produce zinc more sustainably, and Ternary, an on-demand, zero-emission hydrogen energy system for the transport sector.

Our researchers are turning their deep materials expertise into commercial success.
Professor Nicola Gaston MacDiarmid Institute Director

Dr Ben Mallett

Dr Ben Mallett, who is based at Paihau-Robinson Institute, is a finalist in the KiwiNet Breakthrough Innovator award, which recognises an upcoming entrepreneurial researcher who is making outstanding contributions to research commercialisation in New Zealand through technology licencing, start-up creation or commercial partnerships leading to the creation of new products and/or services from publicly-funded research. Ben, who is shortlisted for Propelling New Zealand to the frontiers of deep space, co-founded start-up company JxB to commercialise thruster technology that enables routine deep space travel for large spacecraft.

Natalie said the Institute had supported the JxB team with critical advice as well as supporting the team's market validation work through an early seed funding round.

The skills, knowledge and networks the team gained by undertaking the market validation has enabled them to effectively engage with potential international partners and investors.
Associate Professor Natalie Plank Deputy Director for Commercialisation and Industry Engagement

Natalie said the Institute had supported the JxB team with critical advice as well as supporting the team's market validation work through an early seed funding round.

‘The skills, knowledge and networks the team gained by undertaking the market validation has enabled them to effectively engage with potential international partners and investors.’

Aaron’s start-up Zincovery is a finalist in the AJ Park Commercialisation Impact Award – finalist for Leading the future of clean metal refining.

Nicola added that it was great to see the finalists coming from three different research programmes within the Institute.

‘All of our programmes are focused on materials sustainability, with Aaron part of our Catalytic Architectures Research Programme, Michel from Reconfigurable Systems, and Ben from Future Computing. A culture of commercialisation is infectious!'

‘We all wish our three Investigators the very best for the awards. We are just so proud of their achievements.’