Prof Geoff White, of the University of Otago, who is an experimental psychologist, says the ONZM is a "great honour" which also reflects positively on what the discipline of psychology has to offer New Zealand.
Prof White, an Otago graduate who has also been the university's deputy vice-chancellor, research and enterprise, for the past five years, does not consider the award "an individual honour".
The outcome also reflected "the extensive support I've had from colleagues and students" in the psychology department at Otago University, and, earlier, at Victoria University of Wellington, where he taught before joining the Otago staff in 1985, he said.
He later headed the Otago department for 10 years.
Over the years, Prof White has contributed in many ways to psychology, and its growth, in this country.
He has specialised in memory and discrimination processes and much of his experimental work has been published in international journals.
He has also contributed to university teaching, in one of the university's largest departments, and supervised 20 doctoral students.
In 2003, students named him as the inaugural Otago University Students Association supervisor of the year.
He is a former president of the New Zealand Psychological Society, and also served on the New Zealand Psychologists Registration Board.
He is also a former editor of the New Zealand Journal of Psychology and was on the editorial board of Learning and Behaviour.
He has received distinguished research awards from the New Zealand Psychological Society and a prestigious award from the American Psychological Association.