Prof Vicky Cameron told medical graduates that in her career as a female research scientist working in the medical hierarchy she had "experienced a lot of bullying". But she emphasised that graduates could ultimately overcome any bullying they would face themselves.
"I have had experiences that are too ugly to dwell on today," Prof Cameron told about 340 graduates, mainly in physiotherapy and medicine, during a 1pm capping ceremony at the Dunedin Town Hall on Saturday.
Prof Cameron is an award-winning research leader, including in cardiovascular genetics and genomics, at Otago University’s Christchurch campus.
She said that one example had had a "profound influence" on her, early in her career, when she was just establishing her own research laboratory.
A senior academic had given credit for a piece of scientific work by one of Prof Cameron’s female colleagues, ‘‘to another [male] colleague’’.
When she protested, his reply was "Welcome to the real world — life isn’t fair".
Prof Cameron had thought, "How sad. That might be your real world, but I don’t accept that it has to be mine.
"Well, from then on I refused to live in his type of world — I decided to make my own world ruled by the principles I believed in.
"I think, though I may well be deluding myself, that I created a microcosm around me of fairness and fun, in my dealings with my own staff and students."
Prof Cameron also urged graduates to "defend the scientific process" and to "call out the bad science that is being peddled to the unsuspecting public who don’t have the advantage of your level of education".
She urged graduates to "be proud of being a nerd", and urged them to counter "really dangerous bad science", like the anti-vaccination lobby or "alternative medicine zealots" that turned patients off medicine that had beneficial effects established through clinical trials.
In a later address, University of Otago graduate, chartered accountant and Pharmac chairman Stuart McLauchlan urged graduates attending a 4pm ceremony, also at the town hall, to "embrace the changes which will confront you".
"Use them to your advantage; don’t see them as a disruption but as a smooth passage to even more change and greater achievement."
He urged young people leaving university and earning a living for the first time, "to benefit from a mentor, someone older who has the wisdom, the skill and the experience to help you over early hurdles, to guide you through life’s minefields".
Mr McLauchlan reflected that he was "coming to the end of my time" as a member of the university council, and, in recent years, the pro-chancellor.
He was "very proud" to have served on the council for 14 years, and said his alma mater had "always been close to my heart".
