Arnold Burgen

Sir Arnold Stanley Vincent Burgen FRS (20 March 1922 – 26 May 2022) was a British physician, pharmacologist, academic and university administrator. He was Master of Darwin College, Cambridge,^[1] from 1982–89, Deputy Vice-Chancellor of The University of Cambridge from 1985–89, and founding President of the Academia Europæa.

Early life

Burgen was born in Clapton, East London. He attended Christ's College Finchley, a grammar school in Finchley, north London. He was subsequently a student at the Middlesex Hospital Medical School beginning in 1945; (now part of University College, London) before going on to become a Doctor of Medicine in 1950.^[2]

Career

• House Physician, Middlesex Hospital, 1945; Demonstrator, 1945–48, Asst Lectr, 1948–49, in Pharmacology, Middlesex Hospital Medical School.
• Professor of Physiology, McGill University, Montreal, 1949–62; Deputy Director, University Clinic, Montreal General Hospital, 1957-62.
• Sheild Professor of Pharmacology, University of Cambridge, 1962–71; Fellow of Downing College, Cambridge, 1962–71, Hon. Fellow 1972
• Director, National Institute for Medical Research, 1971-82.
• President, the International Union of Basic and Clinical Pharmacology 1972–75

Personal life

Burgen was married to British crystallographer Olga Kennard. He died on 26 May 2022, at the age of 100.^[3]

Honours

Burgen was appointed Fellow of the Royal Society in 1964,^[4] Fellow of the Royal College of Physicians in 1969, and was knighted in the 1976 New Year Honours. Burgen was elected a Foreign Associate of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States in 1987.^[5] He became an Honorary Fellow of Darwin College, Cambridge, in 1989. He was founding President and praesis perpetua honoris causa of Academia Europaea.

References