Honorary graduates 2018

Professor Sir John Savill, FRSE FMedSci FRS (DSc)

Tuesday 17 July 2018 3:00pm

John Savill graduated in physiological sciences from Oxford in 1978 and in medicine from Sheffield in 1981. He received a PhD (London) in 1989. He spent seven years in the Department of Medicine at the Royal Postgraduate Medical School, Hammersmith Hospital, with spells as an MRC Clinical Training Fellow and Wellcome Trust Senior Clinical Research Fellow.

He was Chair of Medicine at Nottingham; subsequently moving in 1998 to Edinburgh as Professor of Medicine where he set up and became the first Director of the University of Edinburgh/Medical Research Council Centre for Inflammation Research.

He served as the first Vice-Principal and Head of the College of Medicine and Veterinary Medicine; and was appointed to the Regius Chair of Medical Science in 2017. He was Chief Scientist for the Scottish Government Health Directorates (part-time). In 2010 he was appointed as Chief Executive and Deputy Chair of the Medical Research Council, combining this with Head of College duties in Edinburgh; he left the role in March 2018.

His work has been recognised by fellowships of the Royal Colleges of Physicians of London and Edinburgh, the Academy of Medical Sciences, the American Society of Nephrology, The Royal Society of Edinburgh, The Royal Society and honorary fellowships from the Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh and the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health. He was a member of the Medical Research Council from 2002 to 2008 and chaired two research boards during this period. He was knighted in 2008 for services to clinical science.