Outstanding Alumni Awards: Professor Sir Robert Lechler

09 Jul 2014

Honour for leading figure in Medical research and education

Professor Sir Robert Lechler, MBChB Medicine (1985), has been awarded an Outstanding Alumnus Award for his dedication to the field of Medicine.

Outstanding Alumnus Awards are presented to alumni who have achieved distinction in their profession; or through exemplary service to the University or the wider community; or through outstanding service of a personal or humanitarian nature.

The Awards were initiated by our founding universities and the first recipient was Sir Terry Leahy, former Chief Executive of Tesco plc (UMIST) and Mr Barry Purves, Film Director, (Victoria University of Manchester).

Sir Robert, Executive Director King’s Health Partners and Vice-Principal (Health) King’s College London, qualified in medicine in Manchester in 1975. He then spent four years as a junior doctor training in general medicine and nephrology, before embarking on a PhD in transplantation immunology at the Royal Postgraduate Medical School.

Following the PhD, he returned to full-time clinical work for two years and completed his scientific training at the National Institutes of Health in Bethesda, USA. In 1986, he came back to the UK to take up a post as a senior lecturer at the Royal Postgraduate Medical School, becoming head of the Department of Immunology in 1994. He moved to Imperial College Faculty of Medicine as Dean of Hammersmith Campus in 2001 and was subsequently appointed head of the Division of Medicine in 2003.

Robert became Dean of King’s College School of Medicine in 2004. The following year he succeeded Professor Sir Graeme Catto as Vice-Principal (Health) in charge of the five Health Schools of King’s. Robert was also Deputy Chair of Guy’s and St Thomas’ NHS Foundation Trust from 2004-2009. He was appointed as Executive Director of King’s Health Partners in June 2009.

Robert’s research interests revolve around transplantation tolerance: how to persuade the immune system to “tolerate” the foreign organ, while retaining full capability to fight off infections and cancer. Robert is Chair of the Clinical Trials Expert Advisory Group, as well as a member of the Academy of Medical Sciences, Medical Schools Council. He also heads a leadership giving fund, the Medical Circle, which raises money for medical research. In 2012, Robert received a knighthood in the Queen’s Birthday Honours for services to academic medicine.

Presiding Officer, Dean and Vice Chancellor of the Faculty of Medicine and Human Sciences Professor Ian Jacobs, said: “It is with great pleasure I welcome back one of our former students, Professor Sir Robert Lechler whose dedication to the field of Medicine has led to significant progress in clinical care and high quality research.”