Distinguished Professor Sir Richard Faull, a leading New Zealand neuroscientist of Te Āti Awa and Ngāti Rāhiri descent, is set to receive an Honorary Doctor of Science from the University of Otago this week.
Sir Richard has dedicated his career to brain research and was instrumental in developing a whakanoa process with Māori scientists in the 1990s to encourage Māori students into neuroscience, addressing cultural concerns about the tapu of the human head.
Faull says he has always been a nerd, interested in how things work, and his science journey has felt more like fun than work.
He says that ever since his first interactions with the human brain at the Otago Medical School in the late 1960s, it has always fascinated him.
“To me, it is, and still is, the most wonderful organ of the human body, the most wonderful organ in the universe, really. Because, you know, we are innovative. We think, we store knowledge. We learn knowledge. Every year, we learn more and more and more, and we develop things. Humans are unique, absolutely unique,” says Faull.
The honorary degree will be conferred at the graduation ceremony in Dunedin tomorrow.
