"Open heart(ed) surgeon" ~ TIME magazine, 2008
"... One of the most inspiring, intelligent and compassionate men you are likely to meet"
~ New Zealand Medical Association 2012
Skin MD.
"One cannot have poor health and good skin: Skin wears its health like a badge for all to see, everything is unashamedly laid bare. Here it is, an organ that once developed disparate competing colours to help rebuild a species, and in doing so, displays this simple fact: evolution and skin colour are not words we visit in a book or museum; they
are windows to the soul of our natural origins".
Scientist.
"I draw inspiration from small things, even nature – it was while thinking about how grass doesn't grow under a pine tree did I come up with a new method of skin grafting (LINK). More recently, while understanding skin lines (LINK), I became curious about nature’s golden spiral pattern (LINK) and came up with a new plastic surgical technique". (LINK)
Story Teller.
"I think I am fundamentally a storyteller and stories are important both in literature as well as science,” Paul said. “My medical/scientific lectures are popular because people say my writing is lyrical. I might be a poet or philosopher at heart".
Social Entrepreneur.
"Inspiring young minds.
I like working with kids from disadvantaged backgrounds and schools – I teach them creative writing and build school libraries. I give up a day a week for work in literacy. In Auckland alone there are 99 low-decile schools. That is frightening. For many of these ‘brown and poor’ kids it isn’t real to be a doctor or lawyer. I am hoping just to change the life of one kid by inspiring him or her".
Dr. Sharad Paul - Books
Sharad is considered the only author ever to have written, fiction, non-fiction, poetry and a medical textbook in a career. His non-fiction may read like literary prose and his fiction may seem spiritual or political. Who else would write a poetry book on melanoma, the deadly skin cancer with a surreptitious mission to improve patient-doctor communication?
His first novel, Cool Cut seemed both raw and real to readers, that it was re-released in an extended version by Harper Collins as The Kite Flyers in 2014.
He has featured at many literary festivals internationally and considered a thought-leader. In April 2015, a dinner was held at Keble College, Oxford, 'in honour of Dr. Sharad P. Paul.'
"Medicine is a complex narrative of human industry and scientific zeal, in a world full of disease, real and imagined. When genes were mapped, everyone assumed humanity would be reduced to binary code, we'd become digital humans living our imaginary lives.
But somethings small and selfish, our genes are a form of history. We have to embrace humanity's backstory and heredity, even if we cannot change it. Evolution may be complicated and messy, but we cannot turn our backs on it.
Good health needs some creative work – a sense of aerobicized urgency combined with knowledge of our genetic history".
"In each book, an author has a favorite line. In my latest novel, The Kite Flyers (Harper Collins, 2014), there is this passage: “Old friendships are a tunnel into our past.
No one should ask questions in a tunnel. Tunnels echo too much.” In the course of these wanderings, I came across many tunnels and realized I had to ask many questions, even if the answers surprised my scientific mind.
After all, biology has no bigotry—it welcomes both doubters and believers into its fold. As a physician and scientist, I had to listen carefully and make sure I was transcribing these evolutionary echoes... about food and fitness, hunger and health, mind and matter—things essential for the enjoyment of life’s goodness, a desire that gnaws at all of us".
Media and interviews with Dr. Sharad Paul
Academia, awards, speaking credits
Podcasts - with Dr. Sharad Paul
Magazine articles - Dr. Sharad Paul
6 Ways to Reduce Your Chances of Dementia
Dr. Sharad P. Paul - Current Academic Positions
Adjunct Professor, Auckland University of Technology
Senior Lecturer (Skin Cancer), University of Queensland
Senior Lecturer (Department of Surgery), University of Auckland
Awards:
Ko Awatea International Excellence Award for Leading (Health) Improvement on a Global Scale
Finalist - New Zealander of the Year Award 2012
Chair's Award 2012 -New Zealand Medical Association's highest award
Sharad is also an author, evolutionary biologist and holds a Masters in Medical Law and Ethics and an
M Phil research degree from the University of Glasgow. His Skin Surgery Clinic has one of the largest series of skin cancer patients worldwide, with over 100,000 consultations and 45,000 operations since 1996. He is considered the only person to have had works of literary fiction, narrative non-fiction, poetry and medical textbooks published by major publishers.
Sharad has served on the National Commission of UNESCO, and teaches creative writing to disadvantaged children (by visiting schools personally once a week, and funds school libraries) via his own Baci Foundation. His past businesses, such as Baci Lounge, an award-winning bookstore served as a model of social entrepreneurship by funding literacy programmes in schools.
In 2008, his bookstore/café Baci Lounge won Auckland's Top Shop retail award, beating every other café. No wonder, he was called 'Renaissance Man' by Canvas magazine, and 'Polymath' by Good magazine, Sharad was named 'Open Heart Surgeon' by TIME magazine in 2008. Sharad initially trained in general and plastic surgery and is currently a Fellow of the Skin Cancer College of Australasia, and is also a Distinguished Fellow of the Royal NZ College of General Practitioners. He has authored several academic publications and original articles that can be found here: orcid.org/0000-0001-9601-9109
Sharad is a sought-after speaker at both medical, literary, arts and ideas conferences:
2013 THiNK (alongside Robert De Niro, Garry Kasparov, Louise Leakey, VS Naipaul, Amitabh Bachchan, Priyanka Chopra et al)
2014 Auckland Writer's Festival (alongside Booker-prize winner Eleanor Catton, Alexander McCall Smith et al)
2016 TEDx Auckland; Jaipur Literary Festival (the world's largest literary festival alongside Stephen Fry, Margaret Atwood, William Dalrymple, Marlon James, Colm Toibin, Atul Gawande et al); Dalkey Book Festival, Dublin (alongside Malcolm Gladwell et al)
2017/18 JLF London; Norway Literature Festival 2017; Dalkey Book Festival 2017 that also featured Bernie Sanders and Colm Toibin)
2019 Jaipur Literary Festival session with Germaine Greer et al; Algebra Club Delhi event that also featured Jeffrey Archer
