Peter Thorne
Professor Peter Thorne, of Auckland, received the Insignia of a Companion of the New Zealand Order of Merit for services to auditory neuroscience. Professor Thorne is a leading auditory neuroscientist, who has made a significant contribution to auditory neuroscience through scientific research, discoveries, teaching, and developing services for the deaf and hearing impaired. He has also facilitated research in aural rehabilitation and the clinical diagnosis of hearing loss and contributed to the understanding of the neurochemistry of the inner ear. He helped establish the Auditory Neuroscience Research Group at the University of Auckland, which he has led for 30 years. He has voluntarily worked to establish and leads the working group for the introduction of a national universal newborn hearing screening programme. Professor Thorne has developed a model of hearing loss incidence and prevalence in New Zealand and is the lead investigator of a project to develop policy on the prevention of noise-induced deafness.