Obituary

Kyp's alcohol research interests were many and varied in topic, in scope and in methods. Early work focused on consumption and harm among tertiary students, and interventions to reduce harm from alcohol at individual and population level, including trials of web-based screening and brief interventions. Important bodies of later work focused on measuring the effects of alcohol policy on consumption and harm, on conflict of interest in alcohol science and policy making, and on alcohol industry behaviour. He also contributed methodological work on surveys and on research participation effects. Kyp collaborated with many groups and individuals around the world (e.g., Bhutan), but his research was based largely in Australia, New Zealand and the United Kingdom. Having grown up in Sydney, he migrated to London as an 18-year-old and stayed for 6 years before beginning his academic career. He enjoyed returning to London and other parts of England and held a long-term honorary professorial appointment at the University of York, through which he collaborated on a range of studies reflecting his broad interests in alcohol research. Kyp also developed close connections in New Zealand, particularly Dunedin and its University of Otago. As an undergraduate, he completed an Honours degree in experimental and clinical psychology at Otago, followed by a PhD in Preventive and Social Medicine in 2003, titled ‘Tertiary student hazardous drinking: epidemiology and development of a brief intervention trial’. During his time in Dunedin, Kyp also found his life partner, Johanna, and her Dunedin family. When Kyp moved to the University of Newcastle in 2004, he continued to maintain and develop his research collaborations in Dunedin, raising grants, supervising postgraduate research and making regular visits to work with his collaborators in person. Although schooled in Australia, both of Kyp and Johanna's sons subsequently studied at the University of Otago. In Newcastle, Kyp rapidly grew his research career, and by 2013, he was a Professor, Senior Brawn Research Fellow and NHMRC Senior Research Fellow, reflecting his trajectory to a world-recognised academic career. In 2017, he was awarded the Sax Institute Research Action Award, which ‘Recognises research that has made a significant impact on health policy, programs or service delivery’, for his work on alcohol policy and violence. Kyp's work describing the impacts of reduced nightlife trading hours in Newcastle was a major influence on policies across Australia and his advocacy work in this space saw changes implemented across New South Wales and Queensland. He was often found consulting directly with politicians and their advisors. His work on restricted trading hours and related licensing stands as a major body of scholarship which continues to inform research and policy globally. Kyp was principled, courageous and forthright, qualities that entail a precarious status within contemporary universities penetrated by market-based logics. For this he was made to struggle in his later years after a stellar early-mid career. He was an outstanding scientist, meticulous, analytical and insightful, throughout his career. Like others, he started out with interests in individual-level interventions and surveys, which over time grew to explore the bigger picture issues for population health and society in cohort studies and multi-method approaches. He enjoyed working with colleagues from different disciplines and acquired an array of interdisciplinary skills. Kyp possessed a high level of awareness of the catastrophic consequences of the corruption of science by vested interests. This was principally directed at the alcohol industry, but he cared deeply about climate science too. In alcohol, this attention was not restricted to the major alcohol companies, for example, he regarded public sector research funders inserting suppression clauses in research contracts as worthy of careful diligent study. He was robust in standing up to the alcohol industry both within science, and in legal proceedings and policy-making processes. Kyp has been described as having rock-solid confidence in his own ability and being comfortable in his own skin. He was a very active person, physically, mentally and socially, and possessed sufficient drive, energy and intellect to manage it all with the support of his family. He also recognised that, like the rest of us, he was a work in progress. His ability to describe, question and share his experiences brought him closer to his friends. His curiosity and openness to learning new things made him a great collaborator. He was open to having his mind changed but that sometimes presented a sizable challenge. Again, it made him a great collaborator. Kyp loved to play social football competitively, whether at lunchtime on the beach at Newcastle, or at the Kettil Bruun Society for Social and Epidemiological Research on Alcohol (KBS) international conferences. Typically, among his many achievements, he was particularly proud of being co-founder of the annual KBS football match, which he promoted enthusiastically in an inclusive manner, after having himself played at an accomplished level in London with Enfield Town. He also loved to ride, at home and when away, often checking in his bike when flying. The centre of his world was family; his wife and children and his extended family in Australia and New Zealand. Professor Kypros Kypri was President of the KBS from 2015 to 2017. He had been a Senior Editor and member of the Editorial Board of Drug and Alcohol Review from 2006. Kyp was the first APSAD Early Career Awardee in 2004, and the award and keynote have been renamed in his honour—‘APSAD Kyp Kypri Early Career Award’ and the ‘Kyp Kypri Early Career Keynote’. The generous and warm personal qualities he brought to all his work meant that he was widely admired, a treasure to know well and fondly regarded by those who knew him less well

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