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Kevin Fong

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Kevin Fong
Born
Kevin Jeremy San Yoong Fong

(1971-05-21) 21 May 1971 (age 53)
Brent, London, United Kingdom
CitizenshipBritish
EducationSalvatorian College, London
Greenhill Tertiary College, London
Alma materUniversity College London
Cranfield University, Bedfordshire
Known forLecturer, scientific advisor, course organiser, television presenter, writer
Scientific career
FieldsPhysiology
Anaesthesia
Space medicine
InstitutionsUniversity College London

Kevin Jeremy Fong OBE (born 21 May 1971)[1] is a British doctor and television presenter. He is a consultant anaesthetist and anaesthetic lead for Major Incident Planning at UCL Hospitals. He is an Honorary Senior lecturer in physiology at UCL where he organises and runs an undergraduate course Extreme Environment Physiology. Fong also flies as a prehospital doctor with Air Ambulance Kent Surrey Sussex. In addition, he is an expert on space medicine[2][3] in the UK and is the co-director of the Centre for Aviation Space and Extreme Environment Medicine (CASE Medicine), University College London (UCL).

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.[4] 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'.[5]

Early life

Fong was born in London and educated at St Anselm’s (Roman Catholic) primary school in South Harrow, followed by Salvatorian College, a Catholic state academy in Wealdstone and Greenhill Tertiary College[5] in Harrow. He holds degrees in astrophysics and medicine from University College London and a master's degree in Astronautics and Space Engineering from Cranfield University.

Career

Kevin Fong is a member of the Royal College of Physicians and a Fellow of the Royal College of Anaesthetists. He has worked as a Consultant in anaesthesia and intensive care medicine at UCLH, and was co-founder and co-director of CASE Medicine, UCL Medical School. He is an Honorary Lecturer in Physiology at King's College London and UCL.

He was a NESTA Fellow between 2003 and 2008.[6] 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 Bill Paloski, now Director of NASA’s Space Life and Physical Sciences Research and Applications Division).[7] He is a Fellow of the National Endowment for Science Technology and the Arts and is an Advisor to the British National Space Centre and Chair of the UK Space Biomedical Advisory Committee.

In 2011, he was awarded a Wellcome Trust Public Engagement Fellowship.[8][9]

He was appointed Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) in the 2019 Birthday Honours for services to medicine and healthcare.[10]

In media

Fong was a guest in Material World (BBC Radio 4), 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,[11] an episode of Frontiers [12] 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[13] and has been interviewed in other programmes.

Fong was featured in Esquire magazine's 2004 list "UK's 100 Most Influential Men Under 40".[14]

He is the author of the 2014 book, Extreme Medicine: How Exploration Transformed Medicine in the Twentieth Century (ISBN 1594204705). 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 presented the 2015 Royal Institution Christmas Lectures, entitled "How to survive in space",[15] and appeared as the resident scientist in the ITV series "It's Not Rocket Science". He has appeared as an expert guest on The One Show.[16]

He appeared in Operation Gold Rush with Dan Snow, 2016, following the route and trials and tribulations experienced by stampeders in the Gold Rush in the Klondike in the late 19th century.

On 6 August 2017, he was a guest on BBC Radio 4's Desert Island Discs.

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 disaster.[17]

Personal life

Fong now lives in Brixton in South London, with his wife Dee and two sons.[5]

See also

References

  1. ^ Ancestry.com. England & Wales, Birth Index: 1916–2005 [database on-line]. Provo, Utah, US: Ancestry.com Inc, 2008. Original data: General Register Office. England and Wales Civil Registration Indexes. London, England: General Register Office.
  2. ^ Fong, K. J. (2010). "Risk management, NASA, and the National Health Service: Lessons we should learn". British Journal of Anaesthesia. 105 (1): 6–8. doi:10.1093/bja/aeq139. PMID 20551024.
  3. ^ Fong, K. J.; Arya, M.; Paloski, W. H. (2007). "Gender differences in cardiovascular tolerance to short radius centrifugation". Journal of Gravitational Physiology : A Journal of the International Society for Gravitational Physiology. 14 (1): P15–P19. PMID 18372686.
  4. ^ Channel 4 Extreme A&E Synopsis [1].
  5. ^ a b c "Kevin Fong". The Royal Institution. Retrieved 28 December 2015.
  6. ^ "Fellowship programme - 15 years of". Nesta. Archived from the original on 2013-11-18. Retrieved 2013-11-18.
  7. ^ "Dr. William Paloski". Uh.edu. 2013-05-16. Archived from the original on 2014-05-05. Retrieved 2013-11-18.
  8. ^ "Engaging Fellows: Kevin Fong | Wellcome Trust Blog". Blog.wellcome.ac.uk. 2012-02-23. Retrieved 2013-11-18.
  9. ^ "Wellcome Trust | Wellcome Trust". Wellcome.ac.uk. 2011-07-19. Retrieved 2013-11-18.
  10. ^ "No. 62666". The London Gazette (Supplement). 8 June 2019. p. B11.
  11. ^ "Review of 2004; Physician Dr Kevin Fong in Superhuman" (PDF). Channel 4.
  12. ^ Frontiers: Engineering Flu - BBC Radio 4
  13. ^ "BBC Radio 4 - A Trip Around Mars with Kevin Fong". Bbc.co.uk. 2013-03-27. Retrieved 2013-11-18.
  14. ^ Alison Roberts (6 August 2008). "Beijing on Thames". Evening Standard. Retrieved 8 February 2019.
  15. ^ "How to survive in space".
  16. ^ Sarah Wells. "Immunotherapy goes viral: ICR research on cancer-killing viruses featured on BBC's The One Show". Institute of Cancer Research. Retrieved 19 October 2020.
  17. ^ "BBC World Service – 13 Minutes to the Moon". BBC.
Media offices
Preceded by Royal Institution Christmas Lecturer
2015 		Succeeded by
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