Professor Thorne completed a PhD at the University of Auckland, followed by post-doctoral studies at the Kresge Hearing Research Institute, University of Michigan. He is a leading auditory neuroscientist with research interests focussed on mechanisms, diagnosis, and treatment of inner ear diseases and clinical and population health approaches to prevention and alleviation of hearing loss.

Professor Thorne’s work has been cited over 5000 times and he has held senior management positions at the University of Auckland, where he led the establishment of the Section of Audiology and the Master of Audiology degree programme. He is currently the Director of the Eisdell Moore Centre and co-lead of the Aotearoa Brain Project.

Professor Thorne also contributes substantially to the hearing-impaired community, serving as the President of the National Foundation for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing, and was one of the lead advocates for the establishment of Newborn Hearing Screening through Project Hearing Impairment and Early Detection and Intervention (HIEDI).

 In 2009, he was made a Companion of the New Zealand Order of Merit (CNZM) for services to audiology and auditory neuroscience.