News archive 2005

Alumnus Rory Bremner made King's Fellow

11 Aug 2005, PR 57/05

The 2005 King's College London Fellows have been announced. The 13 new Fellows include the satirical impressionist and writer, Rory Bremner plus former College students and staff, current staff, and others closely associated with King's.

The Fellowship of King's College London (FKC) is the most prestigious award the College can bestow. The award of the Fellowship is governed by a statute of the College and reflects distinguished service to the College by a member of staff, conspicuous service to the College, or the achievement of distinction by those who were at one time closely associated with the College. The following have been awarded a Fellowship of King's College London in 2005.

Rory Bremner Satirical impressionist and writer, alumnus of King's

Professor Sir Graeme Catto Vice-Principal (Health), King's, and President, General Medical Council

Professor David Clark Professor of Psychology and Head of the Department of Psychology, Institute of Psychiatry, King's

Professor Ray Gosling Professor Emeritus of Physics Applied to Medicine, King's

Professor David Hayton Professor of Law, and former Dean of the Faculty of Law, King's

The Reverend Nicholas Holtam Vicar of St Martin-in-the-Fields

Professor Maurice Lessof Professor Emeritus of Medicine, UMDS, and former Chairman of the Royal Hospitals NHS Trust

Sir Jonathan Michael Chief Executive, Guy's and St Thomas' NHS Foundation Trust

Professor Andrew Porter Rhodes Professor of Imperial History and former Head of the Department of History, King's

David Potter College Treasurer, King's

Dr Victoria Solomonidis Cultural Counsellor, Greek Embassy, London, alumna of King's

Mario Vargas Llosa Writer, novelist, playwright and broadcaster

Baron Weidenfeld Founder and Chairman, Weidenfeld and Nicolson

Biographical notes on each of the new Fellows can be found below.

 

Rory Bremner
Rory Bremner is the outstanding political satirist of our time. This is widely recognised and indicated by the awards he has been given, including the British Comedy Award in 1993; the BAFTA for best light entertainment performance in 1995 and 1996 and the RTS Awards for best television performance in 1995, 1999 and 2000. He was elected the Channel 4 political humourist of the year in 1998 and 2000. His last series towards the end of 2004 showed him on his best form ever. Satire can only really work if it is imbued with a deep sense of moral purpose that is certainly true of Rory Bremner's satire on politicians. They are an essential feature of our political scene. Rory Bremner read French and German at the College and this has been put to good use through his opera translations of Kurt Weill's Silver Lake in 1999 and Bizet's Carmen in 2001.

Professor Sir Graeme Catto
Professor Sir Graeme Catto has a distinguished career as an academic clinician and has made enormous contributions to King's as Vice-Principal for the College's Health Schools and Dean of the Guy's, King's and St Thomas' Hospitals Medical & Dental Schools since 2000. Two years after his appointment he was appointed President of the General Medical Council and since 2003 has served as Pro-Vice Chancellor in the University of London. He is an ambassador for academic medicine and medical education and it was for these services that he was knighted in 2002.

Professor David Clark
David Clark is Professor of Psychology and Head of the Department of Psychology in the Institute of Psychiatry at King's. His work on the treatment of panic and agoraphobia is internationally recognised as having revolutionised the treatment of this disorder. He has successfully extended this work to other anxiety problems, notably social phobia and post-traumatic stress disorder, through a combination of meticulous experimental work and innovative clinical trials. As Professor of Psychology at King's he has developed an unrivalled centre specialising in the integration of psychological research, treatment development and evaluation.

Professor Ray Gosling
Professor Ray Gosling contributed to the discovery of the structure of DNA as a PhD student at King's working alongside Rosalind Franklin, and their X-ray crystallography images appeared in a joint paper in Nature in 1953. He continued to research the applications of physics to medicine, publishing more than 200 papers over the course of his career, and he is now Professor Emeritus of Physics Applied to Medicine at King's. He made a major contribution to the 50th anniversary celebrations for the DNA discovery held at King's in 2003.

Professor David Hayton
Professor David Hayton has served the College with great distinction since 1987. He is the leading academic authority on the law of trusts and succession in the UK and has published numerous books and learned articles on this subject. He was editor of the King's College Law Journal from 1995 to 2000. He has twice been head of the UK delegation to the Hague Conference on Private International Law, he is a judge of the Supreme Court of the Bahamas and has just been appointed a judge of the newly-formed Caribbean Court of Justice.

The Reverend Nicholas Holtam
The Reverend Nicholas Holtam has been Vicar of St Martin-in-the-Fields (described as ‘the country's premier parish church') since 1995. He took his Bachelor of Divinity and AKC at King's in 1978 and after ordination served at St Dunstan and All Saints, Stepney, at Lincoln Theological College and then as Vicar of Christ Church and St John with St Luke's in the Isle of Dogs. St Martin's serves the whole social spectrum in its patch from Buckingham Palace to the homeless people in the Strand. Nicholas Holtam is currently leading St Martin's £34 million refurbishment campaign in order to sustain its work in the community. He is an accomplished broadcaster and a regular contributor to the Church Times. Earlier this year he gave a lecture on spirituality and pastoral care at Westminster Abbey in honour of a former Dean of King's, Eric Abbott. He works closely with King's in the College's local area and in connection with its links with South Africa.

Professor Maurice Lessof
Maurice Lessof was Professor of Medicine at Guy's and later at UMDS between 1971 and 1989. He was a national and international authority on food allergy and made seminal contributions to this subject. He published more than 100 papers in scientific journals and is the author of textbooks on medicine, allergy and immunology. As head of a large department of medicine at Guy's he facilitated the development of 11 professorial units of medical specialities with international reputations. He also played a major role in the Royal College of Physicians, as a Senior Vice-President, Senior Censor and member of the Council.

Sir Jonathan Michael
Sir Jonathan Michael has been a key partner of the Guy's, King's and St Thomas' School of Medicine since his appointment as Chief Executive of the Guy's and St Thomas' NHS (Foundation) Trust in 2000: one of the largest and most successful trusts in the country. He is clearly determined that it should acquire a reputation for academic excellence in partnership with the College. He has been an invaluable ally in the College's bid to accommodate the MRC National Institute for Medical Research and will be a vital partner in establishing the King's medical, dental and biomedical schools as pre-eminent in research and training. He trained as a doctor at St Thomas' Medical School, qualifying in 1970. He was knighted in 2005 for services to the NHS.

Professor Andrew Porter
Andrew Porter joined King's as a lecturer in 1971 and was appointed to the Rhodes Chair in Imperial History in 1993. He has attained a position of international eminence in the fields of Imperial and Commonwealth history, and has done much to secure the College's position as a leading centre for teaching and research in his field worldwide. He has been Head of the Department of History on three occasions and has done an immense amount to help the Department to achieve top ratings in successive Research Assessment Exercises and teaching appraisals. He has also contributed much to the flourishing of the School of Humanities.

David Potter
David Potter has contributed greatly to the financial and strategic management of the College as Treasurer of UMDS and, since 1998, of King's. He had a significant input in the merger discussions, in particular the PPP project and the sale of the College's west London estate. He initiated the Standard and Poor's rating of the merged institution (the first public rating of any UK university) in which King's achieved AA-. He has provided business and financial leadership and much valuable advice and support to College officers during increasingly challenging times.

Dr Victoria Solomonidis
Dr Victoria Solomonidis is a distinguished alumna of King's, where she wrote her prize-winning doctoral dissertation on modern Greek history. She has had a distinguished career in the Greek Ministry of Foreign Affairs, specialising in Cultural Policy, working as Cultural Attaché/Counsellor at the Greek Embassy, and as the UK Representative of the Hellenic Foundation for Culture. She has remained a constant friend to the College's Department of Byzantine & Modern Greek Studies, helping it to flourish by providing Embassy support for various events and encouraging members of the Greek community to support activities at the College.

Mario Vargas Llosa
Mario Vargas Llosa is one of the world's greatest living novelists. Born in Peru in 1936, he has an international reputation as a brilliant writer, journalist and broadcaster. He has also been leader of Peru's Liberal Movement party and in the 1990 elections stood as presidential candidate for the Democratic Front. He first came to fame in 1962 with the publication of La ciudad y los perros, and his 16 novels and four plays have been translated into more than 30 languages. He has received the Príncipe de Asturias Prize (1986), the Cervantes Prize (1994), the medal of the Légion d'Honneur (1985) and the Gold Medal of the Pan American Society and is Doctor Honoris Causa of more than 30 universities around the world. In the late 1960s he taught in the Department of Spanish & Spanish-American Studies at King's: an experience which he has always recalled with special affection.

Baron Weidenfeld
Arthur George Weidenfeld, Baron Weidenfeld, is the founder and Chairman of the publishing house Weidenfeld and Nicolson, established in 1948. He was born and educated in Austria, at the Piaristengymnasium and the University of Vienna (law) and Diplomatic College. Among the many honorary degrees or fellowships he holds are those from the University of Exeter, the Vienna Diplomatic College and the Ben Gurion University of Negev of which he was also Chairman of the Board of Governors (1995-2004). He is a fellow of St Peter's College and St Anne's College, Oxford and he has received honours from many countries including Chevalier, Legion d'Honneur (France, 1990), Knight Commander, Cross, Badge and Star, Order of Merit (Germany, 1991) and the Cross of Merit for Arts and Science (Austria, 2002), Grand Ufficiale of the Order of Merit of the Republic of Italy (2005). He is Vice Chairman of the Development Campaign for the University of Oxford. He has been a member of the South Bank Board, a trustee of the English National Opera and the National Portrait Gallery and various other cultural and especially musical institutions. He was made a Knight in 1969 and created a Life Peer in 1976.

Notes to editors

King's College London
King's College London is one of the two oldest and largest colleges of the University of London with over 13,800 undergraduate students and nearly 5,700 postgraduates in ten schools of study. It is a member of the Russell Group: a coalition of the UK's major research-based universities. The College has had 24 of its subject-areas awarded the highest rating of 5* and 5 for research quality, demonstrating excellence at an international level, and it has recently received an excellent result in its audit by the Quality Assurance Agency. King's is in the top group of UK universities for research earnings, with income from grants and contracts of £100 million, and has an annual turnover of more than £348 million. In 2004 the College was once again awarded an AA- financial credit rating from Standard & Poor's.



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