Aidan Arnold 1987 – 1991

At King's Aidan was awarded a ‘School Blue’ for Scholastic Competitions. This was an honour that this quiet mannered, modest student so richly deserved.

In 1991 after placing first in every subject he took in form seven (Year 13), he was given the highest academic award the school can offer — that of Dux. Aidan was also a School Prefect.
Aidan involved himself in all aspects of school life, playing Soccer, Tennis and Golf, and being a member of the King's Orienteering Team, which won the Dunedin Schools Championship: he took part in the school musical and was involved in the Duke of Edinburgh Award Scheme.

Aidan’s undergraduate studies BSc (Hons) in Mathematics, and MSc in Physics were carried out at the University of Otago.

He completed his Doctor of Philosophy in Physics at the University of Sussex. This led to the making of the first Bose-Einstein condensates in the UK in 1998. The first Scottish Bose-Einstein condensates were made in his lab in 2003, and the same experiment was extended to create one of the world’s first magnetic storage rings for Bose-Einstein condensates, and high-contrast matter-wave interference.

Aiden works at the University of Strathclyde in Glasgow, Scotland. He is a Reader in Physics. A Reader denotes an appointment for a Senior Academic with a distinguished international reputation in research or scholarship. He works in various areas of atomic physics including ultracold atomic systems, special states of matter in these systems (Bose-Einstein condensates) and four-wave mixing in atomic vapours.

In addition to his experimental work, he has published on theoretical projects both as sole author and collaboratively.

Other School Successes:

Aidan won first place in the 1991 universities bursaries/entrance exams —— Chemistry, Physics, Biology, Mathematics with Calculus and Mathematics with Statistics.

He gained the top mark in the country for Physics in the private Scholarship Examinations run by the New Zealand Education and Scholarship Trust.

Other achievements were:
He was reserve for the New Zealand International Mathematics Olympiad Team. He was rated seventh in the country.
He was second equal out of over 1000 entrants in New Zealand in the National Bank Senior Science Competition.
He was selected for the Fletcher Challenge Science Summer School (120 students were selected).
He was Highly Commended in the 1991 NZ Science Summer School Essay Competition
He was a prize winner in the Westpac Mathematics Competition.