An internationally-renowned cardiac neurobiologist who spent his formative years in Dunedin will be recognised with one of the most esteemed awards from University of Otago – Ōtākou Whakaihu Waka.
Professor David Paterson will be given an Honorary Doctor of Laws at Otago's graduation ceremony on Saturday 10 May. He will also give the graduation address.
"It is a great honour to receive an honorary degree from the university that laid the foundation for my subsequent academic career," he says.
"Although I have lived outside of New Zealand for 45 years, it is a thrill to return and retrace my journey from Dunedin, which started at Otago Boys' High School, then the University of Otago."
Professor Paterson graduated from Otago with a Diploma in Physical Education in 1979, before studying at the University of Western Australia.
He completed his doctoral studies in physiological science at the University of Oxford in 1989, where he is now the head of the Department of Physiology, Anatomy and Genetics and a Fellow of Merton College.
His research as a cardiac neurobiologist focuses on the neural control of the cardiovascular system in normal and diseased states.
He leads a cardiac neurobiology research team and the European component of a Leducq International Network of Excellence award, which studies heart arrhythmia and how both branches of the cardiac autonomic nervous system communicate at the end organ level.
Professor Paterson is an Honorary Fellow of The Physiological Society, Fellow of the American Physiological Society, Royal Society of Biology, Royal Society of Medicine, and a member of Academia Europaea. He is also an Honorary Fellow of The Royal Society of New Zealand, He Ahurei Honore a Te Apārangi.
He was inducted into Otago's School of Physical Education, Sport and Exercise Sciences Wall of Fame in 2012.
Vice-Chancellor Grant Robertson is proud Professor Paterson's career, which has taken him across the world, started at Otago.
"David is a very active member of our alumni community, and takes a keen interest in Otago people and all that we do. We are always pleased to see our alumni making a difference in the world and he has certainly done that."
Professor Paterson reflects on his younger years fondly.
"When I look back, I can see my time at Otago as a schoolboy, athlete and undergraduate were formative years," he says.
"In many ways this is best reflected by a passage that T.S. Eliot wrote in the last of his Four Quartets – Little Gidding:
'We shall not cease from exploration
And the end of all our exploring
Will be to arrive where we started
And know the place for the first time'."
