Richie Poulton

Richie Graham Poulton (1962 – 29 September 2023) was a New Zealand psychologist and the director of the University of Otago's Dunedin Multidisciplinary Health & Development Research Unit, which runs the Dunedin Multidisciplinary Health and Development Study (also known as the Dunedin Study). He was also a professor of psychology at the University of Otago, the 2007 founder and co-director of the National Centre for Lifecourse Research, and the chief science adviser of the Ministry of Social Development in the New Zealand government.

Early life Richie Graham Poulton was born in Christchurch in 1962. His father was a financier, his mother was a "stay-at-home mum".

After completing his degrees in 1988, Poulton went to England. He lived in South London—an impoverished area—and worked as a clinical psychologist.

In about February 2021, Poulton was diagnosed with salivary duct cancer. Despite treatment, in about May 2021, it had metastasised and was incurable.

Awards In 2004, Poulton received the New Zealand Association of Scientists' Research Medal and the Health Research Council of New Zealand's Liley Medal for Excellence in Health Research. He was elected a fellow of the Royal Society of New Zealand in 2010, and was named a Companion of the New Zealand Order of Merit, for services to science and health research, in the 2017 Queen's Birthday Honours. He was named an ISI Highly Cited Researcher in 2014, 2015, 2016, and 2017. while in 2022 he was appointed a distinguished professor at that university. In November 2022 Poulton was awarded the Royal Society Te Apārangi's Rutherford Medal, along with the Dunedin Study and team members Murray Thomson, Terrie Moffitt and Avshalom Caspi. He was awarded the Marsden Medal in 2023 shortly before his death.