Major new award goes to author of The Torchlight List

Jim Flynn, author of the best-selling book The Torchlight List and a recognised international expert on intelligence and IQ, has won a top new award.

The Royal Society of New Zealand presented Professor Flynn with its inaugural Humanities Aronui Medal at the society's Research Honours dinner tonight (Wednesday, November 16).

The University of Otago professor was cited for his work in political philosophy, particularly his world-renowned research on IQ that led to his discovery of what has become known as the 'Flynn Effect', the phenomenon of IQ scores increasing over time in many countries.

 'Professor Flynn's finding has had far-reaching implications and continues to be one of the most highly cited discoveries to originate from New Zealand in the twentieth century,' the Royal Society said.

While Flynn (right) has written many academic books The Torchlight List was his first for the general reader. Published by Awa Press, it has been widely praised for regenerating interest in the educative power of reading great works of literature.

A runaway success when it was released last year, it has since been reprinted several times. A number of secondary schools have adopted it as a way of inspiring its students to read more widely.

The book's sequel, Fate and Philosophy, a beginner's guide to understanding moral issues and why individuals make the choices they do, is to be published by Awa Press early in 2012.