By Neena Bhandari
Bruce Neal had been working on his doctorate on cardiovascular disease with the George Institute’s co-founder, Stephen MacMahon, in Auckland. It was 1999, Stephen and Robyn Norton were contemplating setting up an Institute focusing on the health consequences of chronic diseases in low and middle-income countries, and invited him to join.
“It was a novel idea to set up an Institute to address cardiovascular diseases and injuries in low-middle income settings. Until that time almost all the big international research institutes working in low- and middle-income countries focused on maternal and child health. So, I seized the opportunity and moved to Sydney”, says Professor Neal, who was born in the port city of Aden in Yemen. He studied medicine at Bristol University in England and worked for four years in the United Kingdom’s National Health Service before moving to New Zealand to begin a research career.