International Honors

Kelvin Davies wins the European Society for Free Radical Research's top award
By Jonathan Riggs

Kelvin Davies, Ph.D.

Kelvin J.A. Davies, Ph.D., D.Sc., began 2012 on a professional high, winning the European Society for Free Radical Research (SFRR Europe) Biennial Award. The top award of the organization, it will be presented to Davies at the 16th Biennial Meeting of the Society for Free Radical Research International (SFRRI) in London this coming September.

“I must say that this took me completely by surprise—I had not even considered this award, which usually goes to scientists who are actually working in Europe,” Davies said. “On the other hand, I do have a lot of European collaborators and, of course, I am an Englishman.”

Consisting of a medal, a financial reward and an invitation to present the prestigious SFRR Europe Biennial Lecture, the award honors Davies’s lifetime of work as one of the most distinguished researchers in the field.

His research centers on the role of free radicals and oxidative stress in aging, and he is particularly interested in the protective roles of proteolytic enzymes and genes required for adaptation to oxidative stress. At the USC Davis School of Gerontology, Davies’s lab is currently attempting to define a more molecular underpinning for the Free Radical Theory of Aging by analyzing how human’s ability to adapt to oxidative stress declines over time.

“We are immensely proud of Dr. Davies’s professional accomplishments and international reputation,” said Gerald C. Davison, dean of the USC Davis School. “This award reaffirms his role—and that of our school—as leaders in the science of aging on a global scale.”

A former president of SFRR International and its American subsidiary, the Society for Free Radical Biology & Medicine, Davies has also won the Lifetime Scientific Achievement Award of the Society for Free Radical Biology & Medicine as well as its Distinguished Service Award. Even with all of the accolades he has earned over the years, however, this honor is particularly meaningful to Davies.

“I gratefully thank my colleagues in SFRR Europe for giving me this award,” he said. “Their approbation means a great deal to me.”

The 2012 Biennial Meeting of SFRRI will be held at Imperial College, London, Great Britain from Sept. 6-9, 2012.  Dr. Davies will receive his award and deliver his lecture, “A Radical View of Adaptation & Ageing,” at the Royal Institution in London.