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The thrill of that finding, “something no one had seen before”, sparked his lifelong dedication to brain research. After graduating in medicine and spending some time in neurosurgery, Sir Richard returned to brain research, earning his PhD in neuroanatomy at the newly-founded Auckland Medical School, followed by a Harkness Fellowship to work with leading neuroscientists at MIT and NASA. Money was tight, and a $1,000 grant from the Taranaki Māori Trust Board helped him finish his work. Initially hesitant to accept because he didn’t feel “Māori enough,” he was encouraged by kaumātua who told him, “You are Te Āti Awa, Ngāti Rāhiri – one day you will come home to look after the people.” It was a prophecy he would spend a lifetime fulfilling. Returning to the University of Auckland in 1978, he joined forces with Professor Arthur Veale to examine the brains of people who had died with Huntington’s disease. At the time, diagnosis relied on symptoms alone, leaving families in painful uncertainty about whether the condition would be passed to the next generation. By studying donated tissue, Sir Richard was able to confirm the disease with absolute certainty – offering families long- sought answers and, in some cases, relief. “Families were so grateful to have the final word,” he recalls. “Mostly it was ‘yes’, but occasionally it was ‘no’, and they were ecstatic.” Many urged him to keep their loved one’s brain for future research, a gesture he describes as one of the greatest gifts science could receive. “Previously, I had been studying the rat brain,” he says, “and here the families were giving me the brain of their mum or dad – the most valuable gift anyone could give to science.” Through these donations, he uncovered striking variation in patterns of brain cell loss, challenging accepted textbook descriptions of Huntington’s disease. Working with neuropsychologist Professor Lynette Tippett, he linked these patterns with patients’ life stories to reveal how different regions of the basal ganglia control mood and movement. This discovery transformed understanding of both Huntington’s and the human brain itself. By the early 1990s, Sir Richard had gathered about 50 brains and asked the Neurological Foundation if they might provide another freezer and a technical staff member to help look after and process the human brain tissue. In the mid-90s they approved his request, and the Neurological Foundation Human Brain Bank was established. With around $5M in total funding from the Neurological Foundation over 30 years, it now holds tissue from more than 1,000 brains and is an invaluable resource for scientists researching neurodegenerative diseases ranging from Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s and Huntington’s to motor neurone disease. Around the same time, Sir Richard helped introduce the whakanoa – a spiritual blessing ceremony – so Māori medical students could feel more comfortable working with human body tissues from cadavers. The ceremony was the first to consider tikanga Māori in a human anatomy laboratory in Aotearoa. Over the years, Sir Richard developed a multidisciplinary research team at the University of Auckland using tissue from the human brain bank, including Professor Tippett, neuropharmacologist Professor Mike Dragunow, geneticist Professor Russell Snell, and neuroscientist Professor Maurice Curtis. In 2007, his team made a world-first discovery: that new brain cells form in people with Huntington’s disease, suggesting the brain’s own attempt at repair. “No one had realised that the human brain could make new brain cells,” says Sir Richard. 12 Headlines Dr Makarena Dudley and Sir Richard. Sir Richard (with his wife Diana) recently celebrated his 80th birthday.