Rate My Professor Jon Cornwall

Dr. Jon Cornwall serves as a Senior Lecturer and Education Adviser in the Centre for Early Learning in Medicine at the Otago Medical School, University of Otago. Holding qualifications including a Diploma in Physiotherapy (DipPhty), Bachelor of Science in Physiology (BSc(Physiology)), Master of Science in Anatomy (MSc(Anatomy)), Diploma in Manipulative Physiotherapy (DMPhty), Postgraduate Certificate in Tertiary Teaching (PGCertTertT), and a PhD, he transitioned from clinical physiotherapy to academia. His career at the University of Otago centers on advancing medical education, with a particular emphasis on anatomy teaching and learning.

Cornwall's research interests include bioethical issues surrounding posthumous human assets such as body donation and organ donation, muscle biology particularly spinal morphology and paravertebral muscles, and ethics in anatomical education. He has authored key publications such as "Who donates their body to science? An international, multicenter, prospective study" (Anatomical Sciences Education, 2012), "The wider importance of cadavers: Educational and research diversity from a body bequest program" (Anatomical Sciences Education, 2009), "Manually defining regions of interest when quantifying paravertebral muscles fatty infiltration from axial magnetic resonance imaging: a proposed method for the lumbar spine" (BMC Musculoskeletal Disorders, 2017), "Ethical issues surrounding the use of images from donated cadavers in the anatomical sciences" (Clinical Anatomy, 2016), and "More Than Body Parts: A New Ethos of Anatomy Education" (Academic Medicine, 2024). As Chair of the Federative International Committee for Ethics and Medical Humanities (FICEM) within the International Federation of Associations of Anatomists (IFAA)—the first New Zealander to hold this position—he has significantly influenced global standards. He led the creation of guidelines for using images from donated bodies and co-authored recommendations for legacy anatomical collections management, endorsed by the American Association for Anatomy. Additionally, he contributes to the Bioethics Unicorns initiative to foster ethics and professionalism in anatomy education.