'Tales of the Unexpected' - national Rutherford Medal lecture tour announced

Professor Richard Beasley CNZM FRSNZ will highlight unexpected findings from ten influential research programmes. This research has challenged long-held clinical assumptions, advanced medical knowledge, and directly influenced patient care:

He will cover the following topics:   

• Should fever be treated?
• What is the optimal amount of oxygen for critically ill patients?
• Are party pills safe, and do they affect driving performance?
• Does smoking cannabis cause lung cancer?
• Is sitting for long periods at work or during recreation a risk factor for blood clots?
• Should preservatives be included in asthma nebuliser solutions?
• Is ‘watchful waiting’ preferable to surgery for a collapsed lung?
• What are the underlying disease processes of asthma?
• What was the cause of the epidemic of asthma deaths in New Zealand?
• Are adult asthma treatments suitable for children?

This research raises significant regulatory and legal issues. It also exposes the limited evidence of the benefit and safety of many fundamental approaches to the clinical management of common disorders, and the gaps in knowledge, particularly in children.

Join us for this fascinating presentation that will illustrate the unpredictable nature of research and its influence to reshape our understanding.

Tour dates

Book your tickets for the following dates and locations: 

• 12 August - Napier
• 13 August - Wellington
• 19 August - Manawatū
• 26 August - Nelson
• 27 August - Christchurch

Biography

Professor Richard Beasley, renown academic, physician, and researcher, is the founder and director of the Medical Research Institute of New Zealand (MRINZ). Richard is committed to challenging medical dogma and increasing knowledge through undertaking high quality clinical research which has the real potential to change clinical practice and reduce the burden of disease in Aotearoa New Zealand and globally.

Alongside his role at the MRINZ, Richard is a physician at Wellington Regional Hospital, and maintains close academic links through his professorial appointments at the University of Southampton, UK, Te Herenga Waka—Victoria University of Wellington, and the University of Otago. Richard was Deputy Chair of the Health Research Council of New Zealand from 2010 to 2016 and has had a longstanding medical advisory role with the Asthma and Respiratory Foundation of New Zealand, chairing the adolescent and adult asthma guidelines group. He is dedicated to workforce training, having supervised and mentored hundreds of medical research fellows over the last three decades, many of whom obtained postgraduate MD and PhD degrees and now hold prominent academic and clinical positions in Aotearoa New Zealand and around the world.

Richard is one of New Zealand’s most experienced clinician researchers, with over 780 publications, including many high impact publications in the Lancet and the New England Journal of Medicine. Richard was appointed a Companion of the New Zealand Order of Merit for services to medical research in 2008; elected a Fellow of the Royal Society Te Apārangi of New Zealand in 2015; awarded the Sir Charles Hercus Medal in 2016 in recognition of the impact of his research, the Beaven Medal in 2019 in recognition of his translational research, and was awarded the Rutherford Medal by the Royal Society Te Apārangi in 2024 for revolutionising the treatment of asthma worldwide.