The Dodd-Walls Centre is named after the two contrasting personalities responsible for the prominent international standing of New Zealand Physics in Quantum Optics, Photonics and Ultra-Cold atoms. They were both the sort of person you notice immediately upon entering a room, but in characteristically different ways.

The Dodd-Walls Centre is a Centre of Research Excellence building on New Zealand’s strength in the fields of quantum optics, photonics and precision atomic physics.

Alongside this research focus, the Centre educates and mentors highly skilled individuals and provides pathways for commercialisation of research and career development.

Our research centres around photonics, the manipulation of light at the most fundamental, quantum level, and the control and manipulation of matter at the atomic scale, through the use of light.

Our aim is to generate fundamental knowledge about how the physical universe is composed and behaves and to undertake cutting-edge research with the potential to underpin advanced technological development.

Alongside this research focus, the Centre educates and mentors highly skilled individuals and provides pathways for commercialisation of research and career development.

Better careers. Increase the number of high-quality, high-earning career pathways in New Zealand through the enhancement of existing high-tech businesses, and the creation of new ones and ensure these career pathways are opened more equitably for all New Zealanders through enhanced public engagement, outreach and education.