Cochlear implant pioneer Professor Graeme Clark AC has been inducted into the Pause Awards Hall of Fame for his groundbreaking contributions to hearing technology and the profound impact of his work.
More than 700,000 people in over 180 countries have received cochlear implants since he invented the device in 1978.
Prof Clark was inducted at the 7th Pause Awards announced on 3 December 2024. The awards celebrate Australia’s most disruptive innovators and entrepreneurial breakthroughs.
Mr George Hedon, Pause Awards founder and CEO, said they were a platform for recognising the ingenious spirit of local entrepreneurs and industry leaders.
“Graeme Clark’s journey is the ultimate embodiment of a breakthrough,” Hedon said. “His story captures the essence of what the Pause Awards stand for — celebrating disruptors who dare to challenge convention and achieve the extraordinary.
“Our Hall of Fame inductees and award winners remind us that bold ideas and unwavering determination are the keys to progress. Professor Clark’s story, in particular, serves as an enduring inspiration for innovators everywhere.”
Ms Sonia Clarke, principal at Clever Manka and Pause Awards chair, inducted Prof Clark the night before the awards. His daughter accepted the award on his behalf.
Attendees at the event watched a recorded video of Professor Clark sharing his life story. In the video he said he felt very honoured to receive the award.
“For me the Pause Awards signify being imaginative and curious on the one hand and taking discoveries through to industrial and commercial development on the other hand,” Prof Clark said in the video.
“As a five-year-old I was imaginative and wanted to fix ears because my father was deaf. For that reason, I decided to be an ear doctor but when I became an ear doctor, I discovered no-one could fix nerve deafness.”
Persisted despite scientists mocking him
Prof Clark said he spent time sitting under a gum tree and came up with a plan to break speech down into different parcels of information and stimulate multiple pathways in the brain.
“Many scientists said I was trying to do the impossible,” he recalled. “I was called ‘Clown Clark’ in America and some clinicians in Australia said it would be as effective as passing a light bulb up the backside and switching on the electricity.
“The University of Melbourne took a big risk in appointing me as the first professor of ENT surgery in Australasia and possibly the Southern Hemisphere.”
Prof Clark said this enabled him to do the research needed to see if a multi-implant channel would be safe and effective. This included investigating how he could pass a bundle of wires around the tiny spiral of the inner ear to stimulate the brain without it getting stuck.
“The answer came while resting on the beach,” he said. “I saw a shell like the inner ear and found that grass blades that were flexible at the tip and stiffer at the base would pass easily.
“That gave me the idea of how we could develop an electrode and it also passed easily around the spiral of the cochlea.”
The video included footage from 1 August 1978 of him performing the first surgery on patient Mr Rod Saunders, and footage of Saunders later hearing speech sounds.
A Eureka moment came when Saunders heard different electrodes as vowels as well as pitch-like sounds which gave the clue of how to develop a speech code.
“We had done what many said was impossible. All the blood sweat and tears of the past 11 years was worth it,” Prof Clark said.
He said he was delighted that The University of Melbourne had created the Graeme Clark Biomedical Institute to promote and coordinate engineering activities including better bionic ears, bionic vision, bionic spinal cords, management of drug-resistant epilepsy, tissue repair, robotics, treatment of heart disease, better vaccines and much more.
“One special hope is that one day people with spinal cord injuries will be able to walk again,” he said.
“I would like to encourage young people who are curious and have an interest in science, technology, engineering or maths to consider a career in research. It is very rewarding to make a difference to people’s lives.”
Watch Professor Clark tell the incredible story in his own words and see surgery of the first implant.
