Medical excellence recognised through Faculty of Medicine Fellowships

Achievements in clinical medicine, academic leadership and medical technology were recognised through the Faculty of Medicine Fellowships this week.

Professor Patrick Maxwell, Regius Professor of Physic and Head of the School of Clinical Medicine at the University of Cambridge,  and  Professor Freddy Boey, Deputy President and Provost of Nanyang Technological University (NTU) in Singapore,  were awarded the Fellowships by Professor Dermot Kelleher, Principal of the Faculty of Medicine, at an event attended by staff across the Faculty of Medicine and beyond.

Fellowships of the Imperial College Faculty of Medicine have been awarded annually since 1999 to recognise outstanding contributions to medical science.

At this year’s ceremony, held on 12 February 2013, Professor Boey delivered a guest lecture, offering insights into how NTU, a relatively young university, has achieved academic and research excellence. The Singaporean university, which was established in 1955, has seen significant growth over the last five years, attracting leading academic staff from overseas, increasing research grants and investing in a new building project worth $1.2 billion.

Professor Boey commented that high calibre academic staff, known as “big elephants” in Singapore, had driven NTU’s success. He also highlighted the university’s collaboration with Imperial to establish the Lee Kong Chian School of Medicine, which has expanded NTU’s disciplines. The new medical school will admit its first cohort of students later this year. Professor Boey paid tribute to the high levels of commitment at Imperial to bring this ambitious project to fruition.

Concluding his guest lecture, Professor Boey reflected on his research interests, describing some of the medical devices that he has developed, including biodegradable coronary stents and a device to control the delivery of drugs to manage the eye disease, glaucoma.

Professor Dermot Kelleher thanked Professor Boey for sharing how NTU has developed through a focus on excellence. Professor Kelleher said, “LKCMedicine is not only a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to create a new medical school, but also offers the chance to build a strong and sustainable partnership between two world-class universities.”

The evening concluded with a formal presentation of the Fellowships to Professor Maxwell and Professor Boey by Professor Dermot Kelleher.

Professor Patrick Maxwell, Regius Professor of Physic and Head of the School of Clinical Medicine at the University of Cambridge

Professor Maxwell received the Faculty of Medicine Fellowship in recognition of his outstanding contribution to medicine. Professor Maxwell has authored over 200 research papers, making a number of important discoveries in the control of genes by oxygen.

Professor Maxwell joined the Institute of Molecular Medicine in Oxford in 1991 and after a series of promotions within the University became Reader in Nephrology in 2000.  In 2002 he left Oxford to join Imperial as Professor of Nephrology, before moving to become Chair of Medicine at University College London in 2008. In 2011 he was appointed Dean of the Faculty of Medical Sciences at UCL. In 2012 he took up the prestigious appointment of Regius Professor of Physic at the University of Cambridge, and now heads the School of Clinical Medicine at Cambridge. 

Professor Maxwell has won a number of accolades for his work, including the Royal College of Physicians Goulstonian Lecturer, 2001, and the Renal Association’s Martin Lockwood Award, 2000.  He currently holds a prestigious Wellcome Trust Senior Investigator award.

Professor Freddy Boey, Provost of Nanyang Technological University

The Faculty of Medicine Fellowship was awarded to Professor Boey in recognition of his achievements in the field of biomedical engineering and his outstanding contributions to the development of the Lee Kong Chian School of Medicine.

Professor Boey’s research focuses on functional biomaterials for medical devices, nanomaterials and nanostructures for cell regeneration and he has published in excess of 330 publications. 

Professor Freddy Boey joined Nanyang Technological University (NTU) in 1987, was appointed Vice Dean of the School of Materials Science & Engineering in 2000, and subsequently Chair and Dean in 2004. In 2011 Professor Boey was appointed Deputy President and Provost of NTU. He was awarded Singapore’s silver Public Administration Medal by the Government of Singapore in 2010 and is a founding Fellow of the Academy of Engineering Singapore.