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, 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.

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.

Honours

Burgen was appointed Fellow of the Royal Society in 1964, 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. He became an Honorary Fellow of Darwin College, Cambridge, in 1989. He was founding President and praesis perpetua honoris causa of Academia Europaea.