Dunedin Study team wins 2016 Prime Minister’s Science Prize

Media Release EMBARGOED: 4.30PM, Tuesday 21 March 2017

Dunedin Study team wins 2016 Prime Minister’s Science Prize

A research team that attracts millions of dollars of overseas funding annually and has influenced health and social policies internationally has been awarded the 2016 Prime Minister’s Science Prize.

Professor Richie Poulton, of the University of Otago, along with key team members Terrie Moffitt, Murray Thomson, Jonathan Broadbent, Avshalom Caspi, Bob Hancox, Malcolm Sears, Nigel Dickson, Jennie Connor and Joanne Baxter, has taken the top honour and the $500,000 prize for the Dunedin Multidisciplinary Health and Development Study.

Richie describes the research as providing the most detailed data on human development ever amassed and says it is arguably the preeminent study of its type in the world. It is based on researching the lives of about 1,000 children born in Dunedin in 1972 and 1973.

The research enables evidence-based health and social policy-making, changing the way policy makers, clinicians and practitioners think and act, both in New Zealand and overseas. The rich findings help prioritise tax-payer funded services and resources so that we have people in better shape, emotionally resilient, with increased productivity and better able to contribute to society than they would otherwise.

In its 45 years, the Dunedin Study has resulted in a raft of changes, from the introduction of safety matting to prevent playground injuries and shortening the length of electric jug cords to reduce scalds and burns to influencing judicial practices by identifying antisocial behaviour stemming from childhood and understanding the later-life effects of adolescent cannabis use. A story about findings relating to distinguishing between biological versus chronological ageing was ranked the fourth most important scientific story in the world in 2015 by American-based Science News.

“We want to age well in terms of health. There’s no point living an extra 20 years if you’re decrepit,” says the 54 year old professor.

“We need to intervene much earlier if we want to make a big difference to the way peoples’ lives turn out,” says Richie, emphasising that it is not nature versus nurture but nature via nurture, with the interaction between the two being critical.

“There is no magic bullet in life but if one wanted to identify priorities, increasing people’s self control starting in early life would be a good candidate. It seems to be more important than socioeconomic status and IQ for how life turns out.

“Self control is a skill, like sport, art or music, and it must be practiced. We’ve shown quite powerfully how important it is in just about every domain you can think of, from how you relate to others to whether you will become a career criminal,” says Richie.

The team primarily focuses on social benefits but is aware that everything it studies has an economic component. In the past five years, the team has attracted almost $20 million in overseas grants and it expects international funding support to continue.

“Bringing in significant overseas dollars tells us that the science we are doing is the best in the world. The United States can do lots of things. They can put people on the moon, send things to Mars but they haven’t managed to create a study like ours because our treasure trove of data is unique,” says Richie.

The prize money will be used to purchase sophisticated, high tech equipment to help improve the team’s comprehensive, gold-standard research and for new investigations. These include musculoskeletal examinations, a focus on chronic kidney injury and measuring hearing and sight, as these are considered high burden problems of the 21st Century. The next assessment of study members begins in April this year and incorporates brain imaging to help understand how early-life adversity predicts adult behaviour.

“Winning the prize is not just for me. It’s for the team. It’s for the study that I love. This prize is the top team award in New Zealand, the best,” says Richie.

“But those who take part in the study are probably the most important of all. I am so looking forward to having that prize statue sitting in the research unit when they come in for their assessment and I’m going to say ‘take a picture of yourself with that because it’s yours, it’s much more yours than ours’.”

“I think I’m most proud of consistently striving for excellence, unwaveringly, always trying to get better, as well as maintaining the amazing goodwill of the cohort,” he says.

Richie’s first involvement with the study was as a 22 year old, ring-wearing Otago psychology student with peroxide-dyed hair, closer in age to the then 13 year old study members than his “cardy wearing” fellow interviewers. He worked overseas, completed his PhD in Australia and became Director of the study 16 years later, in 2000.

“I guess you could say I’m an example of someone having worked their way from the shop floor to the top job.”

The 2016 Prime Minister’s Science Prizes were presented to winners on March 21 at Parliament Building, Wellington. To find out more about the Prime Minister’s Science Prizes visit: www.pmscienceprizes.org.nz

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