Remembering Emeritus Professor Richie Poulton

Emeritus Distinguished Professor Richie Poulton (CNZM,FRSNZ), Director of the Dunedin Multidisciplinary Health and Development Research Unit, known as the Dunedin Study, died on 29 September at the age of 61, three years after being diagnosed with cancer.

Professor Poulton’s landmark studies of the importance of a good childhood for a healthy adult life transformed international health and education policy. A clinical psychologist whose connection with the University of Otago spanned decades, he is widely regarded as one of the most influential mental health researchers of his time and a generative force in New Zealand children’s policy.

The energy, vision and dedication Professor Poulton demonstrated through his career have inspired countless others and has left an invaluable and important legacy. In particular, Professor Poulton devoted a significant portion of his career to the leadership of the Dunedin Multidisciplinary Health and Development Study, protecting the wellbeing and best interests of the 1,037 New Zealanders who generously take part in what has proven to be an endeavour of global scientific importance.

Professor Poulton was born in September 1962, in Christchurch, the son of Jill Hume and Don Poulton. He credited the nurturing qualities of his compassionate mum and his great-grandmother as conditioning his natural empathy towards people’s varying life circumstances. His mother recalls him as an active and sociable child but one who, even in his formative years, was curious and perceptive.

It was in the school grounds during his fourth form at Auckland Grammar that he recalled experiencing an epiphanal moment, saying, “Through absolutely no fault of their own, what I saw was individuals and groups being treated differently. It felt like I had seen the truth of things, which lodged itself in me and has never left. I have never lost sight of that call which drives me, and that’s being able to say that whatever I’m doing has a goal in mind and a pathway to get there, and that’s to make people’s lives slightly better.”

The final four years of his secondary schooling were dominated by a deep absorption in cricket and rugby. He was in the first XI cricket team for three years, eventually captaining the side which contained talents such as Mark Greatbatch and Martin Crowe. He was halfback for the first XV under the hand of Sir Graham (Ted) Henry who recalls a focused and talented all-rounder. It was a great joy for Richie to reconnect with his former coach and teacher over the last 15 years, form a close bond and work closely together for the Plunket Foundation, a cause to which they were both were deeply committed.

Professor Poulton’s long connection with the University of Otago began in 1981 when he moved to Dunedin to study psychology, and that continued with his master’s and a clinical psychology postgraduate diploma. His first interaction with the Dunedin Study came in 1985 as a research assistant helping assess the 13-year-old Study members with Professor Terrie Moffitt, the current Associate Director of the Dunedin Study who is based at Duke University. Professor Moffitt recently commented that “so many will miss Richie’s brilliant intelligence, his absolute devotion to the research, and his capacity to spark fun”.

Professor Poulton moved to the University of New South Wales to complete his Doctorate under Professor Gavin Andrews, a pioneer in the application of cognitive behavioural therapy, in which he developed an influential theory of how children learn to be anxious and fearful and develop crippling anxiety disorders. Professor Andrews maintains that Professor Poulton’s work was some of the most original he had ever witnessed from a graduate student throughout his career.

While working in Sydney at the Long Bay Jail in 1995, Professor Poulton met his future wife, Dr Sandhya Ramrakha, also a clinical psychologist. The couple were later married in a sparkling Indian wedding in which Professor Poulton rode a white horse. That year he also took up the role of Deputy Director to Dr Phil Silva (OBE), then Director of the Dunedin Multidisciplinary Health and Development Research Unit.

In 2000 at the age of 38, Professor Poulton became Director of the Dunedin Study, a high-profile scientific leadership position that set the mark for a rapidly advancing career. In 2006, he was awarded a Personal Chair in the Dunedin School of Medicine. He founded the National Centre for Lifecourse Research in 2007, and in 2011 the Graduate Longitudinal Study of New Zealand. His commitment to research extended to training and mentoring the next generation of New Zealand’s mental health science leaders.

In 2014, Professor Poulton was appointed as the inaugural part-time Chief Science Advisor to the NZ Ministry of Social Development and in 2018, he became the Chief Science Advisor for the Minister for Child Poverty Reduction. He held both roles until July 2021, and reflecting on these experiences, Professor Poulton said he had seen first-hand how the Study’s findings have informed practices and policy over different governments. He’s quoted as saying, “I’m proud to be able to say hand-on-heart to our Study members that they have made a huge difference for others, and across multiple generations.”

Sir Bill English, former Minister of Finance and Prime Minister, spoke at his farewell noting that Professor Poulton “could have comfortably remained within the works of research and advocacy but he showed courage and leadership stepping into the world of politics and government. His energy, credibility and persuasiveness directed the best social policy thinking focused on a life course and an integrated view of children and families. He raised the bar for the integrity and evidence required for new policy. As a friend and advisor he was gritty, sometimes blunt and always wanted better results for children and families.”

Internationally, Professor Poulton was sought by academic institutions, other organisations and governments for consultation. Recently at the request of Her Highness, the Princess of Wales, he provided advice to the Royal Foundation Centre for Early Childhood in the United Kingdom.

He also became deeply involved in the governance of numerous agencies focused on translational social interventions, among them the Wise Group, including Te Pou, the Social Investment Agency, and the Plunket Foundation. Julie Nelson and Jacqui Graham, co-founders of the Wise Group, one of the largest providers of mental health, addiction and wellbeing services in Aotearoa, remember him combining a brilliant focus on using evidence, research, and data with a lifelong dedication to caring for people. Professor Poulton said it best in his trustee profile: “The Wise Group stands for everything I care about: protecting the vulnerable, ensuring their dignity and creating opportunities for success in life.” In recent years, it was his vision and sheer determination to bring evidence-based online therapy to Aotearoa, as part of the solution to increasing access to mental wellbeing support, that drove the development of Just a Thought, a service that now provides free, accessible online Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT) courses to all New Zealanders.

Professor Poulton was committed to opening the hearts and minds of decision-makers to the value of mātauranga Māori. A particular joy was the research collaboration with Taranaki-based Te Kōpae Piripono, which focused on the potential of kaupapa Māori early childhood education to foster whānau transformation. The impact and importance of these relationships was embodied in his request that his farewell in the days following his passing be guided by tikanga, led by his Taranaki whānau.

In addition to authoring hundreds of scientific papers, Professor Poulton was recognised in 2017 as a Companion of the New Zealand Order of Merit in the Queen's Birthday Honours for his services to science and health research. In that same year, he received the coveted Prime Minister’s New Zealand Science Prize. He received the University of Otago's Distinguished Research Medal in 2019, and in 2022 was appointed as Poutoko Taiea, Distinguished Chair. These prestigious appointments acknowledge and celebrate the work of the University’s highest-achieving academics who are not only outstanding teachers and researchers, but also have an established track record of sharing their work with communities outside the University. In that same year, Professor Poulton received the peak award in New Zealand science, the Royal Society Te Apārangi's Rutherford Medal.

Another milestone in 2022 was the well-celebrated achievement of the Dunedin Study’s 50th anniversary, representing five decades of both local and global research impact. In the first year of the Dunedin Multidisciplinary Health and Development Study that began on 1 April 1972, 1,037 Dunedin-born babies enrolled in the Study. When Study members were assessed at aged 45, 94.1 per cent of living members participated, making it the highest follow-up rate for a study of this design and duration, anywhere in the world.

Speaking at the time of the anniversary, Professor Poulton said that reaching the 50-year milestone was testament to the value of the research produced by the Dunedin Study alongside the support and generosity displayed by the Study members over the five decades. He said he’d been extremely privileged to work with the Study members who are incredibly generous and very special people, and collectively they have given so much and for so long, in the hope of helping others. “They are the real heroes of the Study”.

Over the past 50 years, Dunedin Study researchers have published more than 1,400 peer-reviewed journal articles, books, and reports on many aspects of human health and development including, but not limited to, behavioural, oral health, and respiratory domains.

With his natural ability to connect and engage with people at every level, Professor Poulton was not only a regular spokesperson for his field of work in media, but also an ambassador for New Zealand science globally. He featured in the four-part documentary series ‘Why am I?’ in New Zealand (and known overseas as ‘Predict My Future: What makes us who we really are’), which was broadcast in French, German, Hebrew, Spanish, Russian, Arabic and Chinese languages, and also recognised in the 2016 New York Festival’s World's Best TV & Films Awards.

Talking about his involvement and the subject of the series at the time, Professor Poulton referred to the early years of life as critical for determining one’s life trajectory, and that intervening early in life is the best targeted use of money for making a difference to adult life.

Over time, Professor Poulton’s science has expanded beyond mental health into fields such as cardiovascular health and biological aging. As a co-author to the 2020 publication The Origins of You: How Childhood Shapes Later Life, his contributions provide a lens through which to examine various topics, from the reduction of mental health problems to how individuals begin and leave illegal behaviour.

Shortly after Professor Poulton’s death, Professor Sir Peter Gluckman commented, “Richie’s ability to lead, collaborate, and inspire has transformed the field of life-course research and the lives of individuals and communities”.

On behalf of the University of Otago, Acting Vice Chancellor Professor Helen Nicholson says Professor Poulton’s service to his field of research, and to the community he worked so hard for, has been outstanding. “The energy, vision and dedication he showed throughout his career to improve the health and wellbeing of current and future generations have inspired countless others and he has left an incredibly important legacy.”

Professor Poulton’s family, wife Dr Sandhya Ramrakha, daughter Priyanka Poulton, mother Jill Hume, and the Ramrakha family have found solace in the numerous public and private tributes to him.

"Moe mai rā e te rangatira"