Kelvin J. A. Davies PhD, DSc, FRSC

Kelvin J. A. Davies, PhD, DSc, FRSC is the James E. Birren Chair of Gerontology. Professor Davies was born and raised in London, England and is a dual citizen of Great Britain and the U.S.A. Educated at London University, Liverpool & Lancaster Universities, the University of Wisconsin, the University of California at Berkeley, and Harvard, he was previously a faculty member at Harvard University and Harvard Medical School. Before moving to USC’s Andrus Gerontology Center in 1996, Professor Davies was Chairman of the Department of Biochemistry & Molecular Biology at the Albany Medical College in New York, where he was also John A. Muntz University Professor and Distinguished Professor of Molecular Medicine.

Deeply involved in research into oxidative stress and free radicals, Professor Davies is the (founding) Editor-in-Chief of the premier scientific journal in the field, Free Radical Biology & Medicine. Professor Davies is a Fellow of the Oxygen Society; a Fellow of the Society for Free Radical Biology & Medicine; a Fellow of the Gerontological Society of America; a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science; a Fellow of the Royal Society of Chemistry; a Fellow of the Royal Society of Biology, a Fellow of the Royal Society of Medicine; a Fellow of the Royal Institution of Great Britain, and a Fellow of Academia Europaea (the Academy of Europe). He is the winner of several prizes and awards, including the Harwood S. Belding award of the American Physiological Society, the Sir Arthur Harden Trophy, the Bari Prize in Biochemistry & Molecular Biology, the Gold Medal of the European Society for Free Radical Research, the Lifetime Scientific Achievement Award of the Society for Redox Biology & Medicine, Mellon Mentoring Awards, and the Chester M. Southern Outstanding Career Achievement Award.

Professor Davies has been awarded some ten honorary doctoral degrees and professorships from European, American, and Asian Universities. He is past President of the Society for Free Radical Biology & Medicine and the International Society for Free Radical Research. In 1996, he was named the National Parkinson Foundation Scholar. Recently he was presented with the Trevor Slater Award and gold medal by the International Society for Free Radical Research, and in 2012 Professor Davies was knighted as a Chevalier de l’Ordre National du Mérite de France (Knight, National Order of Merit of France) by the President of France.