The Bionics Institute in Melbourne has awarded its Visionary Award to cochlear implant pioneer Laureate Professor Graeme Clark AC in recognition of his “immense contributions to society.”
Her Excellency, Professor, the Honourable Margaret Gardner AC, Governor of Victoria presented the award at a celebration at Government House on the 46th anniversary of the successful implantation of the first multi-channel cochlear implant, one of Australia’s greatest medical breakthroughs.
Also attending were Prof Clark’s wife Margaret, members of the original research team, representatives from the University of Melbourne, The Royal Victorian Eye and Ear Hospital and Cochlear.
Prof Clark said: “I feel very honoured to receive the award and am pleased the Bionics Institute is expanding our work to other areas. I am also excited the University of Melbourne has created the Graeme Clark Institute of Biomedical Engineering to integrate research across disciplines to help people with disabilities, and it is good the Graeme Clark Foundation is raising funds to help poor and disadvantaged people in Australia and overseas.”
Prof Gardner thanked Prof Clark for transforming the lives of thousands of people with hearing loss.
“The invention of the cochlear implant has enriched the lives of countless people and is an early example of Victoria’s contribution as a global leader in medical research,” she said.
Prof Clark was inspired to help severely deaf people hear at an early age because he had a deaf father and always “wanted to fix ears.” This led to him becoming an ear, nose and throat surgeon.
The cochlear implant was invented and developed by his team at The University of Melbourne and first implanted in Mr Rod Saunders at the Royal Victorian Eye and Ear Hospital in 1978.
The surgeon knew the cochlear implant operation was a success when his team developed a speech code for electrical stimulation of Saunders’ brain that enabled him to recognise some words without any help from lipreading. Prof Clark said he was so overcome with emotion he went quietly into the next-door lab and cried tears of joy.
The invention led to Prof Clark founding the Bionics Institute in 1986 to continue development of the cochlear implant. The improvements his team made in the years following included making a smarter speech code and using implants in each ear to make it easier to localise sound and hear in noise.
The team also worked closely with Cochlear to ensure the device was smaller, safer and more reliable, and to show how it should be used on young deaf children to allow them to achieve normal spoken language.
At Government House for the award presentation are from left, Laureate Professor Graeme Clark AC, Mrs Margaret Clark, Robert Klupacs, Dianna Bertalli and Neville Bertalli. Image: The Bionics Institute.
At the Government House celebration on 2 July 2024, Mr Robert Klupacs, Bionics Institute CEO, said: “The Bionics Institute’s journey began with development of the cochlear implant that positively impacted the lives of so many people. Thank you, Professor Clark, you are an inspiration. We are honoured to recognise your support with the Bionics Institute Visionary Award.”
The institute has remained at the forefront of hearing research since then, while also expanding into the development of medical devices to treat challenging conditions such as Crohn’s disease, rheumatoid arthritis and Alzheimer’s.
Also honoured by the institute at the event were board member Mr Neville Bertalli and his wife Mrs Di Bertalli who have supported the institute since 2005 and received the Bionics Institute Catalyst Award.
Mr Klupacs said their inspiring commitment to medical research had had a major impact on society that would last for years.
“Di and I have seen the world benefit from the many leaps forward in medical treatments over our lifetime, like the cochlear implant,” Mr Bertalli said. “We and our family are passionate about supporting medical research and inspiring the next generation of brilliant minds to transform lives.
“We have been delighted to support Professor James Fallon’s research into neuro-stimulation. His research has led the Bionics Institute to find new treatments for conditions such as rheumatoid arthritis and inflammatory bowel disease.”
