Minister Penny Simmonds visits the photonics laboratory
Hon Penny Simmonds, Minister of Science, Innovation and Technology and Minister for Tertiary Education, visited the Tuwhiri photonics laboratory at the University of Otago on 11 August 2026.
The visit follows one by her predecessor, Dr Shane Reti, in December 2025, which means both ministers holding the science portfolio during the programme’s first year have now seen the instrument development first hand.
The timing was useful. The programme’s kick-off meeting three weeks earlier had brought the atmospheric science, photonics and engineering teams together to settle what the instrument must achieve, so there was a clearer story to tell than there would have been in the first months of the programme.
Harald Schwefel is a Professor in the Physics Department of the University of Otago and Science Lead of Tuwhiri. He is also the Deputy Director Science in Te Whai Ao – Dodd-Walls Centre for Photonic and Quantum Technologies and Principal Investigator in Quantum Technologies Aotearoa (QTA).
His research interests are in the use of optical resonators. Such high-quality resonators are great to generate very high field intensities. With high fields the interaction of light with matter can show significant nonlinearities and light can interact with itself and new colours can be created. A side effect of these high-quality resonators is that they are extremely sensitive to changes in the environment making them an ideal candidate to measure such changes.