Internationally renowned Bond University Professor, Dr Walter Wood, was recently awarded a 2015 Australia Day 'Medal of the Order of Australia (OAM) General Division' for service to medical education and the community.
Dr Walter 'Wally' Wood lectured in anatomy at Bond University for over 10 years before retiring in 2013, and is still actively involved with the Bond community, having co-authored a number of conference presentations last year.
Dr Wood began teaching anatomy in the early 1960s, and has since guided and mentored more than 6,000 students.
He began his medical career at the Papuan Medical College in Port Moresby, Papua New Guinea (PNG), and gained extensive experience in human skeletal identification assisting the Australian military services to identify Australian and Japanese skeletal remains from World War II in the jungles of PNG in the 1960s.
In Australia, Dr Wood established the first undergraduate program in forensic osteology - the science of determining cause of death from human bone remains - and was an honorary consultant to the State Health Department's Forensic Science Section and the Queensland Police Service in the identification of unknown human skeletal remains, which included assisting in the Daniel Morcombe case.
Since his retirement in 2013, Dr Wood has guest lectured in Bond's Biomedical Science programs, and has remained a resource to forensic and medicine students, who frequently email him for advice and assistance.
Bond Health Sciences and Medicine Executive Dean, Professor Helen Chenery, said Dr Wood was to be commended for his services to both the education and health sectors over the course of his career.
"Bond University is extremely proud of Dr Wally Wood, who has helped to shape the minds of so many Bond medical students over his 10 year tenure," said Professor Chenery.
"We congratulate him on his fine achievement of being awarded an Order of Australia."
ENDS