Making a difference… Professor John Crump’s research has improved the lives of millions of people.
Countries need to work together to solve the big challenges we all face, says Distinguished Research Medal winner and Otago global health expert Professor John Crump.
This year’s recipient of the University’s top research honour says co-operation and understanding between people irrespective of nationality is key.
“Most of the existential problems of being human can’t be solved by individual countries working alone.
“If we want to solve the really big, complicated issues like pandemics, poverty, and environmental problems we need to be exchanging ideas and working together globally.”
Professor of Medicine, Pathology, and Global Health, John is a global expert on infectious diseases. Colleagues say his work has led to major changes in global health policy and practice, improving the lives of millions of people.
John is a leadership group member of the Otago Global Health Institute, one of the University’s 12 research centres, and served as its inaugural Co-Director. He is also Co-Director of Otago’s Centre for International Health.
John is considered the leading global authority on non-malaria fever in the tropics and is highly respected for his world-class research and mentoring of early career scientists, especially in low and middle-income countries.
He has worked in his field for close to 30 years and says receiving the Distinguished Research Medal means a lot to him.
“I think it reaffirms that global health is important to the University of Otago. I hope that it reflects a recommitment to that way of working, collaboratively across disciplines and cultures with a vision for a world where health problems are solved by those who are most affected by them, regardless of their citizenship.
“Our partners and students are the basis of our global health contributions and should rightly share in any recognition.”
John says a global health mindset is a cosmopolitan one. This means people are the objects of moral concern, irrespective of who they are or where they live.
Aotearoa New Zealand is not always an easy base from which to work in global health as it is particularly focused on domestic health concerns, and global health tends to hit the headlines only when there is a perceived threat to the health of New Zealanders. By contrast, global health work seeks reciprocal benefit rather than self-interest.
“New Zealand has a narrative about health equity, but we’re intensely focused on equity in New Zealand, and much less so about our obligations to non-New Zealanders.”
John says in global health, all humans have equal value.
“This means local obligations often linked to being members of a family, ethnic or religious group, or a nation, should not crowd out our responsibilities to distant others.”
John graduated MB ChB and MD from Otago and trained in both infectious diseases and medical microbiology in Aotearoa New Zealand, the United Kingdom, South Africa, Australia, and the United States. He worked for a decade in Tanzania where he continues a partnership with local researchers.
He was interested in global health from an early age and in the 1990s the most obvious area of global health to get involved in was infectious diseases. He also enjoyed working in the area of infectious diseases because of its scope – from the laboratory to the whole patient to populations – and the diagnostic challenges it presented.
John has won numerous prestigious awards, including the 2012 American Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene’s Bailey K. Ashford Medal for distinguished work in tropical medicine and the 2022 Chalmers Medal from the Royal Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene. He is the only New Zealander to have received either medal.
A frequently cited author, John has published more than 300 scientific manuscripts and has leadership and advisory roles for institutions such as the World Health Organization. His expertise on tropical and infectious diseases is also highly sought after in New Zealand and other countries by agencies such as Ministries of Health.
He has also been active in promoting the development of an Aotearoa New Zealand perspective on responsible global health engagement and identifies Māori values and tikanga as a particular strength for good practice in this area.
- Kōrero by Andrea Jones, Team Leader, Divisional Communications