The winner of one of the Royal Society of New Zealand's Research Honours has paid tribute to his mother.

Professor Alistair Gunn has been awarded the MacDiarmid Medal, for his work on cooling treatments to prevent brain injuries in newborns.

His mother, the late Professor Tania Gunn, was part of the research's pioneering study and he says it was one of the great privileges of his life to work with her.

He says ironically she began her career as a doctor learning how to keep babies warm, and avoid the cold.

"And then she finished it, showing that mild hypothermia in the right setting in the right time, could be mildly beneficial."

Mr Gunn says the cooling cap he created through his research is a simple piece of Kiwi ingenuity.

He says receiving the honour feels wonderful, but also says those who made the real leap of faith were the parents of children affected by low oxygen levels, who nearly 20 years ago let them be exposed to low levels of mild hypothermic cooling.

"They did that at a time when everybody believed that if you made babies a little bit too cold they immediately got sick...they had low blood sugars and were at risk of dying."

Mr Gunn says while we now know that's not true, people didn't know that back then.