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David Skegg
University of Otago vice-chancellor and medical
researcher Prof David Skegg has been awarded one of the highest
accolades in the New Year honours list.
He has been appointed a Distinguished Companion of the New
Zealand Order of Merit, an honour shared with three others:
Wellington historian Dr Claudia Orange, Auckland businessman
John Wells, who chairs Sport and Recreation New Zealand, and
former Speaker of the House Margaret Wilson.
The highest honour went to Prof Ngatata Love, of Porirua;
appointed a Principal Companion of the New Zealand Order of
Merit for services to Maori.
Prof Skegg, who has led the University of Otago for four
years, is among 19 southern people honoured.
They include broadcaster and Dunedin city councillor Neil
Collins, who was made an officer of the New Zealand Order of
Merit; Invercargill artist John Peninsula (Member of the New
Zealand Order of Merit) and former Police Southern Area
commander Deputy Superintendent Nick Perry (Member of the New
Zealand Order of Merit), who is now working at the New
Zealand High Commission in London.
Among southerners to be awarded Queen's Service Medals were
Monica Burns, of Invercargill, Dr Mike Floate, of Cromwell,
and Lindsay Malcolm, of Oamaru.
University of Otago staff members featured prominently in the
southern list, among them Emeritus Prof Jocelyn Harris
(Companion of the New Zealand Order of Merit), and senior
staff members Prof Harlene Hayne and Prof Geoff White
(Members of the New Zealand Order of Merit).
Prof Skegg's New Year honour has been awarded for services to
medicine, principally his many years of research into breast
and cervical cancers and his interest in improving the safety
of medicines.
Although leading an organisation as large as the University
of Otago was a "seven-day-a-week job" - there are four
campuses, about 20,000 students and more than 3000 staff -
Prof Skegg said he had made time to continue his research.
"At the start I tried to set aside Friday afternoons, but
that didn't really work . . .
"But I am still working on some collaborative projects with
colleagues from the medical school in Dunedin and with
colleagues internationally, and still manage to publish a few
papers each year.
"I was determined to make time for it, really."
Asked how he felt about his latest distinction, Prof Skegg
was modest.
"I feel very honoured, but I can't help feeling there are
many other people who deserve it more than I do."
While he said he was "thrilled at the way the university was
going", he did not see his New Year's honour as being
connected with his university leadership: "It has been
awarded for services to medicine, not for services to the
university."
He said his research achievements and the university's
success were the work of many people, not just himself.
His current projects continued his long interest in cancers
and the safety of medicines, he said.
He has also just been appointed to a World Health
Organisation advisory committee on reproductive health in
developing countries.
Born in Auckland, Prof Skegg graduated from Otago with a
BMedSc, MB, and ChB with distinction, and was awarded a
Travelling Scholarship in Medicine and a Rhodes Scholarship
to Balliol College, Oxford.
After graduating with a DPhil, he remained at Oxford as a
lecturer in epidemiology from 1976-79, returning to Otago in
1980 to take up the chair of preventive and social medicine.
Prof Skegg has been involved with several international
committees including chairing a breast cancer research group
centred at Oxford, and adviser to the World Health
Organisation's human reproduction research and development
programme for more than 15 years.
In 2002 he gained world-wide attention as co-investigator in
a major study which debunked claims that vasectomy is linked
to prostate cancer.
He was awarded an OBE in 1991 and made a Fellow of the Royal
Society of New Zealand the following year.
