Crispin Gardiner

He was awarded a research scholarship by the Royal Commission for the Exhibition of 1851 in 1965, under which received his DPhil in 1968 from the Oxford University for research in elementary particle physics.

Following his DPhil, Gardiner completed postdoctoral research in the group of George Sudarshan at the Syracuse University.

Crispin William Gardiner (born 18 October 1942) is a New Zealand physicist, who has worked in the fields of quantum optics, ultracold atoms and stochastic processes.

He has written about 120 journal articles and several books in the fields of quantum optics, stochastic processes and ultracold atoms.

Born in Hastings New Zealand, Crispin Gardiner completed his undergraduate studies at the University of Auckland (B. Sc. 1964, M. Sc. 1965).

Gardiner was appointed to the faculty of the Physics Department of the University of Waikato in 1970, and was awarded a personal chair in physics in 1992, a position held until 1995.

When Gardiner arrived, the University of Waikato was only 5 years old, while the School of Science, which covered Physics, Mathematics, Chemistry, Biology and Earth Science, had only commenced teaching at the beginning of 1970, and no research facilities had been established.

A very significant part of Gardiner's activity over the years 1971-1991 was as a parent activist, administrator and government consultant in New Zealand early childhood education.

During this period very significant expansion of recognition, provision and government funding for early childhood education occurred.

In particular

Dan Walls took up a position at Waikato in 1972, and, working together, he and Gardiner established a major research centre for theoretical quantum optics at Waikato, building active and productive collaborations with groups throughout the world.

During this period

In 1995 he left the University of Waikato and for the next nine years worked as an independently funded researcher affiliated to Victoria University of Wellington.

This was funded by the New Zealand R&D system, which was willing to fund individuals outside established institutions, and was motivated by the opportunity to leave the increasingly bureaucratic New Zealand University system.

During this period his work concentrated on the physics of Ultracold atoms, developing a collaboration with Rob Ballagh of the University of Otago.

They produced number of influential scientific publications, mainly concentrating on kinetic processes in Bose–Einstein condensates, funded by successive research contracts with the Marsden Fund

and in particular seven papers on quantum kinetic theory

.

Gardiner characterised this period as "In terms of productivity, it has been the best 10 years research of my life."

In 2005 he was appointed as a Research Professor at the University of Otago.

In this period he was active in developing the University of Otago as a major research centre in ultracold atoms, photonics and quantum optics, which was named the Jack Dodd Centre, after former Otago professor Jack Dodd.

During this period there was a major reorganisation of government research funding, commencing in 2006, which he and Rob Ballagh strongly criticised, on the grounds that this would exclude university research from any major funding.

Ultimately this aspect of the funding reform was not implemented, and in 2007 the Jack Dodd Centre was awarded a $6.4 million research contract by the Foundation for Research, Science and Technology.

From that time on, as director of the Jack Dodd Centre, his role developed more into that of a research leader until his retirement in early 2013.

On retirement he became an honorary professor at the University of Otago and in 2016 he accepted a position as visiting fellow at the Institute for Quantum Optics and Quantum Information (IQOQI) in Innsbruck.

During this period he and Peter Zoller wrote the three books of The Quantum World of Ultra-Cold Atoms and Light.