P R E S S   R E L E A S E

        A Professor Kenneth Edward Frederick Hobbs is a distinguished medical professor and a world-renowned liver surgeon.

        Professor Hobbs obtained the Bachelor of Medicine and Bachelor of Surgery degrees from London University in 1960 and the Master of Surgery degree from the University of Bristol in 1970.  He became a Fellow of the Royal College of Surgeons of England in 1964 and is also a Licentiate of the Royal College of Physicians of London.  Professor Hobbs is a pioneer in the field of liver surgery.  His innovative research in liver surgery and transplantation started in the 1960s and has since brought forth many advances in the field.

        Professor Hobbs was appointed Foundation Professor of Surgery of the Royal Free Hospital School of Medicine at the University of London in 1973 when at 37, he was one of the youngest professors of surgery ever to be appointed in the UK.  He became the Dean of Medicine of the University from 1994 to 1998.  Upon his retirement in 1998, he was appointed Emeritus Professor of Surgery of the University.

        Professor Hobbs has made tremendous contributions to the advancement of medical education.  He has nurtured numerous outstanding practitioners in the field.  He has also contributed immensely to medical development in the United Kingdom.  He was appointed Member of the United Kingdom General Medical Council in 1996, and has served as Vice-Chairman of the Council’s Professional Conduct Committee and Chairman of its many committees of inquiry into the misconduct of doctors.  He is now a non-Council professional member of the Fitness to Practise Committees of the Council.  Also, he served on the United Kingdom Medical Research Council as Chairman of one of the Grants Committee from 1984 to 1986.  From 1991 to 1993, he was a Member of the Medical Sub-Committee of the United Kingdom Universities Funding Council.  Professor Hobbs has been Trustee and Board member of Stanley Thomas Johnson Foundation of Berne, Switzerland since 1976, and has been the Chairman and President of the Foundation since 2000.  He is also a Trustee of the East Grinstead Medical Research Trust from 1999.

        Professor Kenneth Hobbs has been an External Examiner and External Assessor of the Faculty of Medicine and the Department of Surgery of The Chinese University for many years.  He has made generous contribution of his expertise towards the rapid and healthy development of the University's then newly-established Faculty of Medicine since its early years.