Dr Kevin Fong - MSc MRCP FRCA

Dr Kevin Fong is a doctor of medicine with a special interest in human space exploration and extreme environment physiology. He holds degrees in medicine, astrophysics and engineering, and is an honorary senior lecturer in physiology at University College London. He has completed specialist training in anaesthesia and intensive care medicine, has worked with NASA’s Human Adaptation and Countermeasures Office at Johnson Space Centre in Houston and the Medical Operations Group at Kennedy Space Centre in Cape Canaveral. Kevin currently works as a consultant anaesthetist at University College London Hospital, is founder and associate director of the Centre for Altitude, Space and Extreme environment medicine.

In 2012, Kevin presented ‘Extreme A&E’, a four part medical series for C4, a two part series about extreme physiology entitled ‘To Boldly Go’ and presented a Horizon Guide on Senses for BBC2. In 2011, he wrote and presented ‘Space Shuttle – The Final Mission’ (BBC2) and presented two Horizon documentaries ‘Back from the Dead’ and ‘How to Mend a Broken Heart’, both of which were received with critical acclaim. He also appeared on ‘Jon Snow’s Paralympic Show’ after filming with Paralympian Sophia Warner, and discussed engineering on BBC2’s ‘James May’s Things You Need to Know’. Kevin has written and presented various radio programmes including ‘Frontiers – Viruses’ and ‘Scott’s Legacy’ for BBC Radio 4, he wrote and delivered a lecture entitled ‘Why we should not retreat from the final frontier’ for the Freethinking Event in 2011 and a science documentary about SET1 and the Drake Equation (BBC World Service) and been a guest presenter on Health Check. He is a regular panellist on Sony Award winning radio series ‘The Infinite Monkey Cage’ (BBC Radio 4).

Kevin is an innovative public speaker on medicine, innovation and engineering and is a regular contributor to the Times Higher Education magazine. His first book is entitled ‘Extremes’ (Hodder & Stoughton 2013).

As a junior doctor in 1999, Kevin organised the Futures in UK Space Biomedical Research conference, in partnership with the British National Space Centre; senior delegates from NASA, the European Space Agency and the National Space Biomedical Research Institute were in attendance. This event was the first of its kind in the UK and led to the establishment of a new undergraduate course in extreme environmental physiology and a strategy for furthering the UK’s involvement in programmes of human space flight.

In the decade that followed, Kevin worked and trained at NASA’s Johnson Space Centre in Houston, Texas and at Kennedy Space Centre in Cape Canaveral. Kevin founded CASE, the Centre for Altitude, Space and Extreme environment medicine, at UCL in 2001. This small group comprised clinicians and scientists with a special interest in space, high altitude, aviation and dive medicine, as well as environmental extremes. In 2003, Kevin was awarded a prestigious NESTA fellowship. This grant allowed him to further pursue his interest in extreme environments. He would later be involved in the planning of the Cauldwell Xtreme Everest expedition, serve as a dive medical officer for Coral Cay Conservation and return to NASA to participate in a project investigating artificial gravity.