Hugh Montgomery (physician)

Hugh Edward Montgomery is a professor and the director of the UCL Institute for Human Health and Performance at University College London. He discovered that an allele of the gene with the DNA code for angiotensin-converting enzyme (ACE) influences physical fitness; the first discovery of a gene related to fitness.

Montgomery was educated at Plymouth College and qualified as a medical doctor in July 1987 from the Middlesex Hospital Medical School, University of London. He leads a research group in cardiovascular genetics which has published over 100 publications including original research papers in journals such as Nature, The Lancet and the New England Journal of Medicine.

He holds an appointment as a Professor of Intensive Care Medicine at UCL and practises as a consultant in critical care, cardiology and internal medicine at the Whittington Hospital in north London.

Montgomery has several notable achievements outside the field of medicine. He has been awarded the title of London Leader by the London Sustainable Development Commission for his work in climate change and health under the auspices of Project Genie; he was also a founding member of the UK Climate and Health Council and one of the co-authors of the UCL-Lancet Commission" in 2009. Montgomery is also a published children's book author.

Montgomery has a wide variety of interests. Montgomery has complemented his interest in fitness with achievements which include the 100 km ultra marathons, holding the world record for underwater piano playing as well as visiting Everest with the Xtreme Everest research group to undertake research.

He is the co-Editor-in-Chief of the Open Access journal Extreme Physiology & Medicine, published by BioMed Central.

Hugh Montgomery is married and has two sons.

• 2007 Presented the televised annual Royal Institution Christmas Lectures on the subject Back from the brink: the science of survival.
• 2010 Chosen to present the Ellison-Cliffe Lecture at the Royal Society of Medicine.

• Royal Institution Christmas Lectures 2007: Back from the brink: the science of survival
• Hugh Montgomery address on Science & Environment, Royal Institution Unconference, September 2011