Pioneering vet and researcher to speak at Fellowship Day

A veterinary surgeon who is also the award-winning developer of one of the most common anaesthetic drugs has been announced as the guest speaker at this year’s RCVS Fellowship Day.

Fellowship Day 2019 takes place at The Royal Institution on Friday 20 September when the RCVS will be welcoming its fourth cohort of 29 new Fellows who are joining the learned society under the initiative’s three new routes to entry.

All Fellows of the RCVS have been invited to attend the occasion, which will showcase some of the best of veterinary science and endeavour, and have been encouraged to bring along a colleague or peer who might be interested in joining the Fellowship in the future.

This year’s keynote speaker is Dr John (Iain) Glen MRCVS (pictured above) who will be delivering a presentation titled ‘Try, try and try again: some personal reflections on the development of the anaesthetic propofol’ about his ground-breaking work at the AstraZeneca anaesthetics research team in which he discovered and developed propofol. Listed by the World Health Organisation as an ‘essential medicine’, propofol is one of the most common anaesthetic drugs in use today.

For this work Dr Glen was awarded the Lasker-DeBakey Medical Research Award in 2018 which is given to medical researchers who make contributions to the understanding, diagnosis, treatment, cure or prevention of disease.

The event will also see the return of the ‘Fellows of the Future’ competition, which debuted last year, in which undergraduate and postgraduate veterinary students are invited to present a current or recent research project to Fellows in attendance. Each presentation will be judged by a panel and a prize will be awarded to the best presentation.

We are also inviting all RCVS Fellows to participate in ‘Fellows in Focus’ – an insight into the breadth and depth of knowledge and expertise within the Fellowship – in which they will have the opportunity to deliver a 10-minute talk on a topic of their choosing. Fellows can submit their proposed presentation topic using our dedicated webform as well as browse talks from previous years.

Anthony Roberts, our Director of Leadership and Innovation, said: “This is our fourth Fellowship Day and it is starting to become a major event in the veterinary calendar at which we celebrate the new cohort of Fellows, showcase the amazing and impactful work of the wider Fellowship and inspire the next generation of veterinary surgeons.

“We are delighted to welcome Dr Glen as our keynote speaker. He is a wonderful example of how veterinary knowledge, expertise and skill can not only benefit animals, but also have a wider application as well, in his case discovering a drug that has been used as an anaesthetic by millions worldwide.

“We also look forward once again to a range of interesting and eye-opening presentations from veterinary surgeons both established and new.”

The full agenda for the day, which will be hosted by current Chair of the Fellowship Board Professor Nick Bacon, is available to view at our dedicated Fellowship Day webpage where there are also details on how to register and book tickets for the event.