Quick Facts
Biography
Kevin Fong (born 21 May 1971) is Consultant Anaesthetist at UCL Hospitals, and is Anaesthetic Lead for both the Patient Emergency Response Team and Major Incident Planning. He is an Honorary Senior lecturer in physiology at UCL where he organises and runs an undergraduate course Extreme Environment Physiology. He is an expert on space medicine 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. 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'.
Education
Fong was educated in South Harrow in London, at St Anselm’s (Roman Catholic) primary school, followed by Salvatorian College, a Catholic state comprehensive school in Wealdstone and Greenhill Tertiary College 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. 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). 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.
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 program Superhumans in 2004, an episode of Frontierson 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 and has been interviewed in other programs.
He wrote and presented Space Shuttle: The Final Mission (BBC) in July 2011, an hour-long documentary following the final mission of the Space Shuttle, meeting and interviewing those involved in the mission.
Fong was featured in Esquire magazine's 2004 list "UK's 100 Most Influential Men Under 40".
He is the author of the 2014 book, Extreme Medicine: How Exploration Transformed Medicine in the Twentieth Century (ISBN 1594204705).
Kevin also presented the 2015 Royal Institution Christmas Lectures, entitled "How to survive in space".
Fong is currently starring as the resident scientist in the ITV series "It's Not Rocket Science".
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.
Personal life
Fong now lives in Brixton in South London, with his wife Dee and two sons.