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Graeme Clark: The Man Who invented the bionic ear by Mark Worthing

by
October 2015, no. 375

Graeme Clark: The Man Who invented the bionic ear by Mark Worthing

Allen & Unwin, $29.95 pb, 238 pp, 9781760113155

Graeme Clark: The Man Who invented the bionic ear by Mark Worthing

by
October 2015, no. 375

The story of Graeme Clark and the cochlear implant is often seen as the exception to the research trope lauding the brilliance of Australians at basic research but lamenting their ineptness commercialising these opportunities. This book is an adulatory story of Clark’s life.

Clark’s exceptional and driven journey is breathlessly related by Worthing. Graduating in medicine from the University of Sydney, Clark combined his honeymoon with a move to the United Kingdom to undertake postgraduate surgical studies. Eschewing lucrative surgical roles, he returned to Sydney to undertake a PhD to pursue his research into finding a solution to profound deafness. Having won the new Chair of Otolaryngology at the University of Melbourne, Clark used telethons to raise funds for cochlear implant development. Progressing from the first successful human implant surgery in 1978 to the commercial success of cochlear today entailed many trials and tribulations for Clark and his teams.

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