[1] Haskell started his career at the Physics and Engineering Laboratory of DSIR (New Zealand) and remained with them through its evolution to Industrial Research Limited (IRL).

He worked with Bill Robinson on the development and installation of earthquake base isolation foundations for Te Papa.

However, he is best known for his development of "Camp Haskell" - a containerised facility for working on the Sea ice of McMurdo Sound.

[4] He worked with Paul Callaghan for a time, developing portable Nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) technology.

Initial application to the determination of sea ice heterogeneity[5] evolved to become a range of bench-top NMR devices developed by the spin-off company Magritek.