Herbert Purves
Herbert Dudley Purves CMG (25 September 1908 – 15 April 1993) was a New Zealand academic, chemist, mathematician, medical researcher and scientist.He began in 1932, as a research assistant to Sir Charles Hercus, then Professor of Bacteriology and Public Health.Purves played a leading role in the abolition of thyroid enlargement (goitre) which once disfigured nearly 20% of the population.[1] He was elected a Fellow of the Royal Australasian College of Physicians in 1970, and in 1972 he was conferred with an honorary DSc by the University of Otago.[3] In 1987, on the occasion of the 50th anniversary celebration of the Medical Research Council the governor-general, Sir Paul Reeves, presented Purves with a special silver medal in recognition of his outstanding contribution to medical research.