Emeritus Professor Dick Bellamy is a virologist and molecular cell biologist whose research career centred on rotaviruses, the principal agents of diarrhoeal disease in young children.

Over his tenure as a full-time researcher, he worked in the general area of the molecular Biology of virus infection and the application of recombinant methods to the characterisation of viral gene products: much of this work involving a network of collaborators in Australia and the USA and was supported by the NZ Health Research Council and other local and international Agencies.

Dick is a Fellow of the Academy of the Royal Society of New Zealand and recently retired From the University of Auckland after serving 10 years as Dean of Science. Before that he was founding Director of the School of Biological Sciences at the University.

Outside direct University involvements, Dick is a former Director of Auckland UniServices Ltd and its subsidiary DNA Diagnostics Ltd- which he helped found. Dick is a former Director of the Forest Research Institute (now Scion), was an Auckland Regional Councillor and is a former President of the Auckland Museum Council. Dick currently serves on three Auckland Uniservices Return on Science Investment Committees.

Dick maintains a strong interest in Medical Research and recognises the pressing need to support more research which targets NZ’s many mental health problems. Addressing Mental Health issues requires us to attract the resources necessary to support our own talented local researchers who are focusing on what is now one of NZ’s most important health issues.

Professor Robert Kydd was appointed Chair of the Oakley Mental Health Research Foundation in May 2022. Rob is Emeritus Professor of Psychiatry at the University of Auckland where he was head of the Department of Psychological Medicine and also served as head of the School of Biomedical and Health Sciences and Deputy Dean of the Faculty of Medical and Health Sciences.

He has been Clinical Director of Mental Health Services for Counties-Manukau District Health Board, Chair of the New Zealand branch of the Australian and New Zealand College of Psychiatrists, was the first chair of the Suicide Mortality Review Committee for the Health Quality and Safety Commission, currently chairs the board of the Anxiety New Zealand Trust and was one of the first medical advisers to the Schizophrenia Fellowship of New Zealand. He has served on the board of the Oakley Foundation since 2003.

Rob’s research has spanned a number of areas including biomedical research on the EEG, the use of advanced brain imaging (MRI and EEG) to understand and predict treatment response for mental disorders and clinical trials of drug treatment. He has also contributed to health services research in such areas as the use of the Mental Health Act in New Zealand and the role of employment in the rehabilitation of people with mental health disorders.

Rob’s clinical service has included experience on inpatient wards, in community mental health including with crisis and early intervention teams and he has been consultant to an inpatient rehabilitation unit. He currently has a very small private consulting practice. 

Rob would like to see research supported by the foundation increase the understanding of mental disorders, better inform service delivery and policy development in mental health and addictions and support the development of young researchers.