Graham Liggins

Sir Graham Collingwood "Mont" Liggins (24 June 192624 August 2010) was a New Zealand medical scientist. A specialist in obstetrical research, he is best known for his pioneering use of hormone injections (antenatal steroids) in 1972 to accelerate the lung growth of premature babies. This made it possible for many preterm babies with lung problems to survive.

Early life and education Liggins was born in 1926 in Thames; his father was a doctor.

Career Liggins worked as an obstetrician at National Women's Hospital in Auckland from the late 1950s where he carried out research into the reduction of death rates of premature babies. He was made a Knight Bachelor, also for services to medical research, in the 1991 Queen's Birthday Honours.

Death and legacy Liggins died on 24 August 2010, aged 84, following a long illness. The Liggins Institute at the University of Auckland Faculty of Medical and Health Sciences was named in his honour and opened by the Queen in 2002. It was founded by Peter Gluckman who described Liggins as New Zealand's greatest ever medical scientist saying he "showed the importance of serendipity in clinical science, and the importance of moving rapidly to application."

Selected publications