This is where he was inspired and has had this dream since the age of 10 years due to his experiences with his deaf father. To achieve his goal he left a specialist Ear, Nose and Throat practice in Melbourne in 1966 to study at the University of Sydney how the brain would respond to electrical stimulation for coding sound. He had the opportunity to continue this research when appointed as the Foundation Professor of Otolaryngology (Ear, Nose and Throat surgery) at the University of Melbourne.
This was the first chair in Australia's, and at 34 years of age Graeme was the youngest clinical professor in the country. He raised small amounts of money by speaking at luncheons organized by Rotary, Lions and Apex. Sir Reginald Ansett gave him his first large donation of $2000 to help his research.
Early Life
He studied medicine at the University of Sydney; graduating MBBS with honours in 1957. In 1961 he arrived in Scotland to do further study and in the next year was awarded the Fellowship of the College. He then went to London to the Royal National Throat, Nose and Ear Hospital. Returning to Australia in 1967 he became a partner in an Ear Nose and Throat practice in Melbourne. It was in that year that he started his original research into cochlear implants. He moved to Sydney and began research at the University of Sydney for the development of the bionic ear.
In 1970 Graeme Clark led the committee that established the Deafness Foundation of Victoria. This brought together all the schools and other people involved in the management of deaf children and adult
Major Scientific Works
Graeme Clark pioneered the development of the Bionic ear for deaf children and adults.
Professor Graeme Clark along with his team discovered for the first time that nerve cells in the inner ear can be made to respond back into the inner ear. They also discovered that nearly normal sound could be reproduced by sending fine patterns of nerve fibres through to the inner ear. His early research met much opposition from most scientists who said that it was impossible to reproduce the sound made by the brain with a small number of electrode wires in the inner ear, and that it could be dangerous.
In 1982 Graeme Clark led the surgical team at The Royal Victorian Eye & Ear Hospital that implanted the first Cochlear Pty Limited Bionic Ear in six patients to see whether the industrially developed system would reproduce the results achieved by the University of Melbourne team
In 1985 it became the first multiple-channel cochlear implant to be approved by the FDA (United States Food & Drug Administration) or any world health regulatory body.
In 1985 Graeme was the chief surgeon to implant the first multiple channel electrode device in the world in a child at The Royal Victorian Eye & Ear Hospital, and subsequently other children in 1986. He also pursued speech research so that the deaf could speak better.
Graeme Clark performed the first operation himself in 1978 for the bionic ear implant multiple-electrode implantable Bionic Ear- the first in the world on Mr Rod Saunders.
His research has also discover that placing a stent into an artery will help cure artery disease by increasing the blood flow and that further research could find something to reduce spinal cord injury.
Awards
In 1983, He became an Officer of the Order of Australia (AO) for services to medicine. 1986 he was the Australian Vice-Chancellor's nominee to represent medical research in Australia at the Houston Festival honoring Australia. In 1988 he received the Fletcher Award. In 1992 he was awarded the James Cook medal from the Royal Society of NSW for outstanding contributions to science and human welfare.
In 1994 he was elected an honorary member of the Section of Otology of the Royal Society of Medicine in London, the highest honour the society can bestow, previously awarded to only 19 of the world's most outstanding ear surgeons. In 1997 he received the Sir William Upjohn medal, awarded by the University of Melbourne every four years for distinguished contributions to medical research. In 1998 he was elected to the Australian Academy of Science and the Australian Academy of Technical Science and Engineering.
In 1999 he was appointed as Laureate (honoured for outstanding achievement) Professor in Otolaryngology under the University of Melbourne's Eminent Scholars Program acknowledging scholarship of the highest international calibre by its academic staff.
In 1999 he was awarded the Australia Day Achievers Award, the Victoria Prize for excellence in science and engineering, and a Rio into science hero.
In 1999 he was also named a Paul Harris Fellow by The Rotary Foundation of Rotary International in appreciation of tangible and significant assistance given for the furtherance of better understanding and friendly relations among peoples of the world.
He has been invited to be the Guest of Honor at the 7th International Cochlear Implant Conference in 2002 in Manchester. In 2000 he was inducted into the Cavalcade of 11 Scientists from the founding of Australia.
Reorientation
The Australian company Cochlear Limited has been in operation for 21 years and has 70% of the world market. Over 30,000 children and adults in 70 countries have received the cochlear implant.
Professor Graeme Milbourne Clark is a true visionary in surgical and biomedical research and is responsible for one of the great medical developments of our time, the multi-channel cochlear implant
In 1985 he founded the Bionic Ear Institute and is its research director. Graeme is currently leading a team to study how to use brain-derived proteins to cause the hearing nerve and the inner ear to regenerate, so that one day people with sensory or neural hearing loss may not even need a Bionic Ear, and a hearing loss could be prevented. This could be as major an advance as the development of the Bionic Ear.
Graeme Clark saw what everybody thought was impossible and he was determined to do it. Albert Einstein said imagination is more important than anything.
