Professor Graeme Clark AC, Australia’s inventor of the multi-channel bionic ear, will receive the CSL Florey Medal in a ceremony in Parliament House, Canberra this evening.

The CSL Florey Medal is awarded biennially to an Australian biomedical researcher for significant achievements in biomedical science and/or human health advancement. In addition to the silver medal, the award currently carries a prize of $50,000 due to the generous support of CSL Limited.

The invention of the multi-channel cochlear implant (bionic ear) by Professor Clark in the late 1970’s, has transformed the lives of over 250,00 people around the world, both adults and children. In winning the CSL Florey Medal, Professor Clark joins an elite list of Australian medical researchers following in the footsteps of Howard Florey, who developed penicillin. They include:

• Nobel Laureates Barry Marshall and Robin Warren, for discovering that bacteria cause stomach ulcers;
• Jacques Miller, who unravelled the role of the thymus in the immune system;
• Colin Masters, for his pivotal work on Alzheimer’s disease;
• Peter Coleman, who unveiled the structure of the flu virus, leading to the anti-flu drug Relenza;
• Ian Frazer, for the development of the vaccine against cervical cancer.

The medal has been presented every two years since 1998 by the Australia Institute of Policy and science (AIPS).

The President of the Australian Academy of Science, Professor Suzanne Cory AC, welcomed the Florey Medal announcement.

“I am delighted to hear that Professor Graeme Clark has been honoured with the Florey Medal. A Fellow of the Australian Academy of Science since 1998, Graeme’s work has brought hearing to hundreds of thousands of people. Through Graeme’s interest and work in neuroscience, auditory perception, speech science and mathematical modelling he has developed a deep understanding of brain function and sensory coding. He has used this knowledge to develop an interface between the acoustic environment and the central auditory brain pathways – otherwise known as a bionic ear. This innovation allows severely and profoundly deaf people to hear speech and other sounds. Graeme’s interest in this area has only grown since the first bionic ear was implanted 30 years ago. His ongoing work to develop a new generation cochlear implant using microelectronics will no doubt similarly benefit people in Australia and around the world. Graeme’s contributions to science, knowledge and humanity are well deserving of this recognition”, she said.

Professor Clark today also announced that he has accepted an appointment with NICTA, Australia’s national research centre of excellence in Information and Communication Technology, to continue his hearing research.