Rate My Professor Blair Blakie

Professor Blair Blakie is a Professor of Physics and current Head of the Department of Physics at the University of Otago. He earned his BSc with Honours and PhD from the University of Otago, completing his doctorate in 2001. After his PhD, Blakie served as a postdoctoral fellow at the National Institute of Standards and Technology in Maryland, USA, from 2001 to 2004. He then returned to the University of Otago as a lecturer, advancing through the academic ranks to his present leadership role.

Blakie's research specializes in the physics of ultra-cold atomic gases, particularly Bose-Einstein condensates with spinor or dipolar interactions. He leads the Quantum Gases research group and the Blakie Bradley Theory Group, exploring equilibrium and dynamical properties of quantum dipolar gases, rotonic excitations in single and multi-layered systems, density fluctuations, spectroscopic techniques, and spinor quantum gases including spin oscillations and quench dynamics. As a Principal Investigator at the Te Whai Ao Dodd-Walls Centre for Photonic and Quantum Technologies, he contributes to initiatives such as Quantum Weaving: Connecting Quantum Fluids with Mātauranga Māori, Quantum Fluids with Finite Range Interactions, and Precursors of New Quantum Phases of Matter in Systems of Few Dysprosium Atoms. This high-profile field has seen eight key researchers awarded Nobel Prizes since 1997.

With over 6,273 citations on Google Scholar, Blakie's publications include recent works such as "Dirac points and shear instability induced crystal transitions in honeycomb supersolids" (Physical Review Letters, 2025), "Stochastic Gross-Pitaevskii theory for a spin-1 Bose gas: Application to superfluidity in two dimensions" (Physical Review A, 2025), "Excitations and phase ordering of the spin-stripe phase of a binary dipolar condensate" (Physical Review A, 2024), and influential earlier papers like "Dynamics and statistical mechanics of ultra-cold Bose gases using c-field techniques" (Advances in Physics, 2008) and "The Projected Gross-Pitaevskii Equation for harmonically confined Bose gases" (Physical Review A, 2005). He received the Outstanding Researcher award from the University of Otago Division of Sciences in 2024, a biennial honor, and the New Journal of Physics 2018 Reviewer Award.