Sir Paul Callaghan was born in Wanganui in August 1947 and died in Wellington in March 2012. He received international recognition for his scientific research in the field of nuclear magnetic resonance. In 2001 he became the thirty-sixth New Zealander to be made a Fellow of the Royal Society. In 2011 he was named New Zealander of the Year for his outstanding leadership for more than thirty years as a scientist, teacher, visionary and communicator.