Kevin Fong | |
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Born | Kevin Jeremy San Yoong Fong 21 May 1971 [1] Brent, London, UK |
Education | Salvatorian College Greenhill Tertiary College |
Alma mater | University College London (MBBS) Cranfield University (MSc) |
Awards | Royal Institution Christmas Lectures (2015) |
Scientific career | |
Fields | Physiology Anaesthesia Space medicine |
Institutions | University College London Air Ambulance Kent Surrey Sussex |
Website | www |
Kevin Jeremy San Yoong Fong OBE MRCP FRCA (born 21 May 1971) [1] [2] is a British doctor and broadcaster. He is a consultant anaesthetist and anaesthetic lead for Major Incident Planning at UCL Hospitals. He is a professor at University College London [3] where he organises and runs an undergraduate course Extreme Environment Physiology. Fong also serves as a prehospital doctor with Air Ambulance Kent Surrey Sussex [ citation needed ] and specialises in space medicine [4] [5] in the UK and is the co-director of the Centre for Aviation Space and Extreme Environment Medicine (CASE Medicine), University College London.
Fong is best known for his television appearances, particularly as an occasional presenter of the long-running BBC2 science programme, Horizon . He presented the 2012 Channel 4 series Extreme A&E where he visited trauma centres all over the world. [6] In 2015, he presented the Royal Institution Christmas Lectures, an annual series of lectures in front of a live audience of schoolchildren, and broadcast on BBC Four, with the subject How to Survive in Space. [7]
Fong was born in London and educated at St Anselm’s (Roman Catholic) primary school in Harrow on the Hill, followed by Salvatorian College, a Catholic state academy in Wealdstone and Greenhill Tertiary College [7] in Harrow, London. He holds Bachelor's degrees in astrophysics and medicine from University College London and a master's degree in astronautics and space engineering from Cranfield University.[ when? ]
Fong has worked as a Consultant in anaesthesia and intensive care medicine at UCLH, and was co-founder and co-director of the Centre for Aviation, Space and Extreme Environment Medicine (CASE), [8] UCL Medical School. He is Professor of Innovation and Engagement for Science and Medecine in the Department of Science, Technology, Engineering and Public Policy at University College London and an Honorary Lecturer in Physiology at King's College London.
Fong has also been a longstanding advocate of furthering the UK's involvement in international programmes of human space exploration. In 1999 he organised and hosted an international space biomedical conference at UCL, [9] with senior representatives from ESA, NASA and the British National Space Centre, to discuss strategies for furthering UK involvement in programmes of space biomedical research. He later launched the UK's first undergraduate course in Space Medicine and Extreme Environment Physiology and contributed to several high-level reviews of human space exploration strategy, including the UK Space Exploration Working Group (2007), the UK Space Exploration Review (2008) and the Royal Astronomical Society's Commission on the Scientific Case for Human Space Flight (2007).
His post-graduate medical training includes general medicine, emergency medicine, anaesthesia and intensive care medicine. He holds three postgraduate medical diplomas: Member of the Royal College of Physicians, Fellowship of the Royal College of Anaesthetists and Fellowship of the Faculty of Intensive Care Medicine.
He was a NESTA Fellow between 2003 and 2008. [10] During this time he took part in a diving expedition for Coral Cay and worked regularly with NASA as a visiting researcher with the Human Adaptation and Countermeasures Office at Johnson Space Center and occasionally with the medical group at Kennedy Space Center. It was during one of his visits to NASA that he completed his master's degree in Astronautics (co-supervised by Professor William H. Paloski, Director of NASA’s Space Life and Physical Sciences Research and Applications Division). [11]
In 2011 Fong was awarded The Wellcome Trust's first Public Engagement Fellowship, designed to give the awardees the freedom, resources and environment to enable innovative public engagement projects that examine, explore and debate the big scientific challenges faced by society. This was followed in 2016 by a senior fellowship award from the Wellcome Trust in Innovation and Engagement.
In March 2020, Kevin was seconded to NHS England as National Clinical Advisor in Emergency Preparedness Resilience and Response for the COVID-19 incident. [12]
Fong was a guest in Material World , on 20 January 2000, where he argued for British participation in space travel research, particularly focusing on the long-term effects on the human frame. He presented Channel 4's science programme Superhumans in 2004, [13] an episode of Frontiers [14] on Radio 4, entitled Engineering Flu , and five episodes of the BBC documentary series Horizon . He also makes regular appearances for Health Check on BBC World Service [15] and has been interviewed in other programmes. [16]
Fong was featured in Esquire magazine's 2004 list UK's 100 Most Influential Men Under 40. [17]
He is the author of the 2014 book, Extreme Medicine: How Exploration Transformed Medicine in the Twentieth Century. [18] In July 2011, he wrote and presented Space Shuttle: The Final Mission (BBC), an hour-long documentary following the final mission of the Space Shuttle, meeting and interviewing those involved in the mission. He appeared as the resident scientist in the ITV series It's Not Rocket Science . [16] He has appeared as an expert guest on The One Show . [19]
He appeared in Operation Gold Rush with Dan Snow, 2016, following the route and trials and tribulations experienced by stampeders in the Klondike Gold Rush of the late 19th century. [16]
Fong presented the 2019 BBC World Service podcast 13 Minutes to the Moon, detailing the Apollo 11 Moon landing. A second series was released in 2020 to mark the 50th anniversary of the Apollo 13 mission. [20]
In 2011, he was awarded a Wellcome Trust Public Engagement Fellowship. [21] [22]
He was appointed Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) in the 2019 Birthday Honours for services to medicine and healthcare. [23]
On 6 August 2017, he was a guest on BBC Radio 4's Desert Island Discs .
Fong presented the 2015 Royal Institution Christmas Lectures, entitled How to survive in space. [7]
Fong is a member of the Royal College of Physicians (MRCP) and a Fellow of the Royal College of Anaesthetists (FRCA).
Fong lives in Brixton in South London, with his wife Dee and two sons. [7]
The Association of Anaesthetists, in full the Association of Anaesthetists of Great Britain and Ireland (AAGBI), is a professional association for anaesthetists in the United Kingdom and Ireland.
Geraint Ellis Rees is Vice-Provost of research, innovation & global engagement at University College London (UCL). Previously he served as Dean of the UCL Faculty of Life Sciences, UCL Pro-Provost, Pro-Vice-Provost (AI) and a Professor of Cognitive Neurology at University College London. He is also a Director of UCL Business, a trustee of the Alan Turing Institute, a trustee of the Francis Crick Institute and a trustee of the Guarantors of Brain.
The Primary FRCA is a postgraduate examination in anaesthesia, more fully called the Primary Examination of the Diploma of Fellowship of the British Royal College of Anaesthetists (RCoA).
The Royal College of Anaesthetists (RCoA) is the professional body responsible for the specialty of anaesthesia throughout the United Kingdom. It sets standards in anaesthesia, critical care, pain management, and for the training of anaesthetists, physicians' assistants (anaesthesia), and practising critical care physicians. It also holds examinations for anaesthetists in training, publishes the British Journal of Anaesthesia, and informs and educates the public about anaesthesia. Its headquarters are in Churchill House, London.
The Final FRCA is a postgraduate examination in anaesthesia, more fully called the Final Examination of the Diploma of Fellowship of the Royal College of Anaesthetists.
The UCL Ear Institute is an academic department of the Faculty of Brain Sciences of University College London (UCL) located in Gray's Inn Road in the Bloomsbury district of Central London, England, previously next to the Royal National Throat, Nose and Ear Hospital, the UK's largest ear, nose and throat hospital until it closed in 2019.
The UCL Centre for the History of Medicine (UCLCHM) was an academic research and teaching centre for the history of medicine at University College London (UCL) in London. It succeeded the Wellcome Trust Centre for the History of Medicine at UCL. The UCLCHM was founded in 2011, and from September 2011, it took over some of the former staff of the Wellcome Trust Centre at UCL, including four emeritus academic staff, six teaching staff, and associated staff in a number of other UCL departments.
Stuart Graham Cull-Candy is a British neuroscientist. He holds the Gaddum Chair of Pharmacology and a personal Chair in Neuroscience at University College London. He is also a member of the Faculty of 1000 and held a Royal Society - Wolfson Research position.
Elizabeth Matilda Tansey is an Emerita Professor of the history of medicine and former neurochemist, best known for her role in the Wellcome Trust's witness seminars. She previously worked at Queen Mary University of London (QMUL).
Sophie Kerttu Scott is a British neuroscientist and Wellcome Trust Senior Fellow at University College London (UCL). Her research investigates the cognitive neuroscience of voices, speech and laughter particularly speech perception, speech production, vocal emotions and human communication. She also serves as director of UCL's Institute of Cognitive Neuroscience.
Maria Fitzgerald is a professor in the Department of Neuroscience at University College London.
Aileen Kirkpatrick Adams is a British retired consultant anaesthetist.
Sir Malcolm Keith Sykes was an English consultant anaesthetist.
Ramani Moonesinghe OBE MD(Res) FRCP FRCA FFICM SFFMLM is Professor of Perioperative Medicine at University College London (UCL) and a Consultant in Anaesthetics and Critical Care Medicine at UCL Hospitals. Moonesinghe was Director of the National Institute for Academic Anaesthesia (NIAA) Health Services Research Centre between 2016 and 2022, and between 2016 and 2019 was Associate National Clinical Director for Elective Care for NHS England. In 2020 on she took on the role of National Clinical Director for Critical and Perioperative care at NHS England and NHS Improvement.
Judith Hulf is a British anaesthetist. She was the president of the Royal College of Anaesthetists from 2006 to 2009.
John Francis Nunn was a British physician who was the dean of the Faculty of Anaesthetists, Royal College of Surgeons from 1979–82.
Irene Mary Carmel Tracey is Vice-Chancellor of the University of Oxford and former Warden of Merton College, Oxford. She is also Professor of Anaesthetic Neuroscience in the Nuffield Department of Clinical Neurosciences and formerly Pro-Vice-Chancellor at the University of Oxford. She is a co-founder of the Oxford Centre for Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging of the Brain (FMRIB), now the Wellcome Centre for Integrative Neuroimaging. Her team’s research is focused on the neuroscience of pain, specifically pain perception and analgesia as well as how anaesthetics produce altered states of consciousness. Her team uses multidisciplinary approaches including neuroimaging.
Ravi Prakash Mahajan of the Nottingham University Hospitals NHS Trust and Queen's Medical Centre, Nottingham, was president of the Royal College of Anaesthetists in 2018–21.
Joseph Charles Stoddart MD, FRCA, FRCP was an English anaesthetist and intensive care specialist, who played a significant role in the development of intensive care in the UK. He spent most of his career at the Royal Victoria Infirmary in Newcastle upon Tyne, where he established one of the UK's earliest dedicated intensive care units in 1970. He was a founding member and early chair of the Intensive Care Society.
Miratul Muqit FRSE FMedSci is a British neurologist and a Programme Lead at the MRC Protein Phosphorylation and Ubiquitylation Unit (MRCPPU) in the School of Life Sciences at the University of Dundee. His research focuses on the study of the PINK1 gene, mutations in which are a major cause of Parkinson's disease.