Bill Wheeler scholarship aids vital medical bionics research

The inventor of the cochlear ear implant, Professor Graeme Clark*, yesterday (9 February) was among guests at a scholarship presentation ceremony for an honours student working in the critical new medical bionics research area.

The Bill Wheeler Scholarship was presented to support final year honours student, Leo Stevens. The late Bill Wheeler died from cancer.

He was a very community-minded person who devoted time to the Rotary Club of Kiama, disadvantaged children and supported Indigenous people across a range of activities.

Bill Wheeler took a special interest in the further development of the cochlea implant for deafness and the new research at UOW on spinal cord repair in which Professor Clark is also helping to play a significant role along with researchers from the Intelligent Polymer Research Institute (IPRI) and the ARC Centre of Excellence for Electromaterials Science (ACES).

It was ironic that in Bill Wheeler’s final illness he had a spinal cord collapse.

Bill Wheeler’s wife, Lexie, who is a Kiama councillor, attended yesterday’s ceremony and formally presented the scholarship.

She said it would have pleased Bill very much to see the scholarship bearing his name go to somebody like Leo Stevens.

The Director of IPRI and the Executive Director of ACES, Professor Gordon Wallace, said Bill Wheeler was “incredibly enthusiastic” about the area of research being carried out within IPRI and ACES.

Professor Clark stressed how important it was to assist students like Leo as their efforts will one day bring direct medical benefits to the world.

Leo’s research is focused in the area of helping to restore, in a much simpler way, damaged body tissue.

Last year’s inaugural winner of the Bill Wheeler Scholarship, Tom Higgins, also attended yesterday’s presentation and spoke about how the scholarship had provided him with a “great sense of inspiration”.

Barry and June Dark, whose own son is profoundly deaf, were among guests at the presentation. Their home in Kiama has been used as a base for fund-raising activities to help Professor Clark and Professor Wallace’s research teams.

The Darks hope that one day research findings will one day aid their son who is unable to be assisted by the normal cochlear ear implant.

[* Professor Clark is the Laureate Professor Emeritus of the University of Melbourne; Founder and Director Emeritus of the Bionic Ear Institute; Surgeon Emeritus at the Eye and Ear Hospital Melbourne; and is currently still working as a Distinguished Professor at La Trobe University and as an Adjunct Professor at UOW].