New prize honours esteemed anatomist

The University of Auckland
The Auckland Bioengineering Institute

November 2010
The Auckland Bioengineering Institute (ABI) is offering a new prize at the 2010 Medical Sciences Conference, which honours the lifetime achievements of Emeritus Professor John Carman.

The ABI John Carman Prize will be awarded to the best oral presentation by a graduate student in the areas of biomedical engineering, computational physiology and/or biophysics at the annual conference in Queenstown.

Professor Peter Hunter, Director of the ABI, says the prize is an opportunity to recognise the work of new graduates in the area of bioengineering and naming it after John Carman is a chance to acknowledge his huge contribution to the field.

“John Carman is a unique and wonderful individual, a passionate anatomist with a penchant for engineering. John very early on recognised the potential of computational anatomy and physiology to improve medical outcomes. His support greatly helped the growth of bioengineering as a discipline in New Zealand,” said Professor Hunter

Emeritus Professor John Carman was the University of Auckland’s founding Professor of Anatomy at the School of Medicine and was one of the first people at the University to believe the use of numbers would enhance medical knowledge.

“If you define geometry precisely you can discover the true nature of form,” said Professor Carman, “I think the work being done at the ABI is just fantastic and I have the highest regard for everyone there.”

Professor Carman is thrilled at having a prize named after him.

It’s a wonderful acknowledgement of the work I spent my life doing,” he said.

John Carman was born in Johnsonville and grew up in Lower Hutt. He studied at Victoria before moving to Otago where he graduated with a MBChB and BMedSci. He was awarded a Commonwealth Scholarship and spent three years studying at Oxford in the UK.

After returning to New Zealand, John spent seven years teaching at Otago University before moving to Auckland to take up the post of founding Professor of Anatomy in 1968. He spent 30 years in the chair, 20 as Head of Department.

Although retired now, Professor Carman is still deeply interested in the fields of anatomy and engineering, and he is looking forward to travelling to the conference to personally award the prize.

“I plan to listen to all the oral submissions from the students who are in the running for the award. I’ve read the abstracts and they’re right up my alley,” he said.

The Medical Sciences Congress is New Zealand’s premier congress for research focused on the basic medical sciences. The Theme for the 2010 meeting is: “A New Decade of Discovery” and presentations will be selected to highlight how basic biomedical science research has contributed to advances in clinical medicine.

The Conference is being held in Queenstown and runs from November 30 to December 3.

ENDS

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