Distinguished Researcher, Laureate Professor Emeritus, The University of Melbourne, NICTA
MBBS (Hons), MS, PhD (Sydney), FRCS (Edin. & Eng.), Hon. FRCS, FRACS, FAA, FRS

Professor Graeme Milbourne Clark addressed graduates from the Faculty of Health and the Faculty of Science in the Great Hall, University of Technology, Sydney on Friday 4 October 2013, 10.30am.

At the ceremony, Professor Clark received the UTS honorary award, Doctor of Health Science (honoris causa).

Professor Graeme Milbourne Clark received a Bachelor of Medicine and Bachelor of Surgery, with Honours and First Place in the final year examination from the University of Sydney in 1957.

Following his graduation Professor Clark spent two years working as a resident medical officer at Royal Prince Alfred and North Shore Hospitals before becoming a registrar in neurosurgery and otolaryngology in 1961. In 1962 he took up a position as senior house surgeon at the Royal National Throat, Nose and Ear Hospital in London and Senior Registrar in Otolaryngology at the Bristol General Hospital in 1963.

In 1963 Professor Clark returned to Australia and commenced as a surgeon at the Royal Victorian Eye and Ear Hospital and was soon promoted to senior ENT surgeon. He held this position concurrently with positions at the Alfred, Austin and Repatriation General Hospitals until 1966.

Professor Clark’s dissatisfaction with the treatment available to profoundly deaf patients compelled him to embark on further study at the University of Sydney, where he completed a Master of Surgery (1968) and Doctor of Philosophy (1969). In 1969, Professor Clark accepted the William Gibson Chair of Otolaryngology at the University of Melbourne and held this position until 2004. During this period he established the Cochlear Implant Clinic at the Royal Victorian Eye and Ear Hospital and was Surgeon in Charge.

Despite lack of research funding and considerable opposition to his research from the scientific and medical community, in 1978 Professor Clark and his small team made a major breakthrough and their first patient heard speech. From this point onward, he became the driving force seeking government funding for the industrial development of the cochlear ear implant, and worked closely with industry to ensure that its production became viable.

Professor Clark is renowned throughout Australia and the world for his vision, commitment and leadership that resulted in the development of the world’s first multi-channel cochlear implant. The implant has transformed the lives of over 200,000 recipients all around the world, restoring their hearing and in the case of young children given them the gift of hearing and ability to speak for the first time.

In the 1980’s Professor Clark embarked on further research to see if children who were born deaf could develop spoken language and went on to develop an implant that was safe for children. In 1990 the US Food and Drug Administration approved the implant as safe and effective for children from two and above, making it the first in the world to receive regulatory approval for regular clinical use in children.

Professor Clark has continued to push back the boundaries for the multi-channel cochlear implant and aims to achieve high fidelity sound using Nano biotechnology. In addition, he has been helping to establish a whole new field of medical research referred to as Medical Bionics. These new goals are being pursued through the creation of the Graeme Clark Foundation, and his appointment as Distinguished Researcher at the Information and Computer Technologies for Life Sciences Centre of Excellence located in Electrical and Electronic Engineering at the University of Melbourne.

Professor Clark has received honorary doctorates in medicine from Medizinische Hochschule, Hanover, and the University of Sydney, in science from the University of Wollongong, in engineering from CYC University Taiwan and in law from Monash University and Zaragoza University. Other honours include the naming of the Graeme Clark Centre for Innovation in the Sciences at The Scots College in Sydney and the Graeme Clark Research Institute in Tabor College, Adelaide.

In September 2013 Professor Clark was among several scientists and philanthropists, including Bill and Melinda Gates, to receive a prestigious Lasker Award. This award is one of the most respected science prizes in the world, and recognises those who have made major advances in the understanding, diagnosis, treatment and cure of human disease.

Professor Clark’s ability to take ideas from the research laboratory into clinical practice has been an inspiration to many scientists in Australia and around the world. His display of passion, determination, bold vision, and outstanding leadership and research achievements has earned him a rightful place amongst the greats of Australian science.

UTS is proud to be associated with Cochlear Ltd, the company established to manufacture and commercialise the implants pioneered by Dr Clark. This association is through a joint research contract with Faculty of Science and as part of this research Cochlear has funded a postdoctoral fellowship at UTS since 2012.

Professor Clark’s legacy and impact on the wider community have been substantial. In his role as father of medical bionics in Australia, he has trained a generation of hearing scientists and surgeons. Professor Clark is a leader in bionics research and was responsible for the establishment of the first university training in audiology in Australia and established the Bionic Ear Institute. 
It is a great honour for the University of Technology, Sydney to award Professor Graeme Clark an Honorary Degree of Doctor of Health Sciences (honoris causa), in recognition of his outstanding contribution to Medical Bionics and his vision, commitment and leadership in the development of the Cochlear Implant which has had such a major impact both in Australia and internationally.

Speech

Chancellor, Professor Sara; Vice-Chancellor & President Professor Milbourne; Senior Academic Staff; distinguished alumni and guests; and graduands. When I was informed I had been awarded an honorary doctorate from the University of Technology of Sydney I was excited that our work had been recognized by this world class institution. It is also an honour that I should share with: 1] our research team; 2] our Australian bio-medical company Cochlear Limited which has done a magnificent job developing the required state-of –the art technology; 3] patients who have come into the unknown with us and given generously of their time; and 4] surgeons, audiologists and educators, who have guided their patients through the essential steps to enter the world of sound.

May I also congratulate all graduands on the successful completion of your undergraduate studies. You are now poised to be the next generation of scientists that will be in the front line to cure cancer, moderate climate change, make fair distributions of food resources, and alter our primitive urge to fight and be greedy. Never have there been such opportunities to do good. But the choice is yours and future generations. But in terms of human life span your time is short so you need to get on with the job.

In my own case as a country boy from Camden just south of Sydney I would often wonder what my opportunities would be. But my desire to help deaf people like my father, and learn about the greatest mystery of all –our brain, became very strong.

Now after 45years research we have been privileged to share the joy deaf people experience when their hearing is given back with a cochlear implant. It is something I could not have imagined when I started my journey in 1967. Rod Saunders my first patient said in 1978 :”I would like to be able to hear something again. It’s a nightmare being deaf. If it helps with speech I will be very grateful.

But I can now say after a tumultuous journey, a bit like riding an untamed steer at a country show, that Rod and many thousands like him can now have their life back again. And children born deaf can achieve their true potential in a world of sound.

The other very important outcome of the research is a greater understanding of brain function and human consciousness. Understanding of how electrical circuits on the brain can underlie our conscious sensory experiences of hearing and vision and the way we think is probably the greatest challenge of our time. Francis Crick the co-discoverer DNA said the greatest challenge for science in the 21st century is not to be found in quantum mechanics, nor in molecular biology, but what it is in the human embryo that leads to human consciousness. In other words is our very essence nothing but electric currents. When my second patient experienced real speech sounds after 17 years of deafness- was this due to preservation of electric circuits in his brain? More likely our ability to think and sense the world is due to changes in the proteins of brain cells?

With the cochlear implant we have a remarkable tool to explore the important relation between brain excitation and perception. We will learn much using the cochlear implant to find out how it produces the conscious experience of speech. We will also learn how the brain matures and how this affects the development of language.

For me the journey has not been easy, but I have been sustained by a loving wife Margaret and family, and great research and industrial colleagues and other supporters.

We have also been blessed in helping people communicate which is after all what it means to be human, and have been able to help people of all races and creeds and that is also special for me.

Again may I thank the University for this honour and wish all graduands great success in your chosen careers.