ABSTRACT
Chris Code has had a wide and varied research career. While well known for his research publications, Chis’s role as a mentor is possibly less acknowledged. With his innate curiosity, generosity and enthusiasm, Chris has a remarkable capacity to motivate his colleagues into the pursuit of collaborative projects. In my case these have led to significant inroads into communication research, ongoing collaborations and enduring friendships. Furthermore, although Chris may be best known for his aphasia work, his interests have been more wide-ranging than this, delving into other kinds of communication disorders that are characterized less by problems of language, and more by problems of language use. When Chris Code first arrived in Australia to take up the inaugural Chair of Communication Sciences and Disorders at the University of Sydney, he encouraged me to submit a review to Aphasiology, outlining the similarities and differences between communication disorders arising from damage to the frontal lobes of the brain as opposed to the right hemisphere (McDonald, 1993a). Not long after, he embarked on a collaboration with Leanne Togher examining communication patterns after traumatic brain injury, the result of which has been many innovative and influential published studies. In 1995 Chris initiated a meeting in which he proposed that the three of us join forces to produce an edited book entailing a comprehensive overview of the nature of communication disorders after traumatic brain injury from neuropsychological, linguistic, and social orientations. The book (McDonald, Togher, & Code, 1999) had contributions from many of the leading authorities of the time, all good friends of Chris’s. It is now a standard text in Psychology and Speech Pathology departments in over 20 universities across the USA, the UK and Australia. Research has moved on since that time and some fascinating new directions are emerging. It is timely, therefore, that in this tribute to Chris, the following chapter continues on from the themes of that text, to review some of the earlier work and to overview more recent innovations.
