Lifetime Achievement Award

Each year we award an outstanding individual for their fundamental contributions to gastroenterology as a whole and the UEG community in particular. 

Awardees have helped to improve the lives of people with gastrointestinal diseases and their contributions, leadership and impact have been of importance for the UEG community. Their work is widely acknowledged by the gastroenterological community.

Watch the recording of the award ceremony for this year’s awardee Michael Farthing at UEG Week Virtual 2021!

Professor Michael Farthing has made an outstanding and lasting contribution to gastroenterology, academia and professional societies including UEG. He has had a career-long commitment to international medicine, including in low-income geographical locations. This began with studying in India as a medical student and further developed with an academic interest in gastrointestinal infectious disease. Across the globe he has inspired a generation of researchers to pursue careers in clinical and basic science studies in infectious GI disease including HIV, parasitology, and tropical enteropathy. Consequential work continues in Africa and other locations. While Professor of Gastroenterology at Barts and the London Medical School, he led one of the top academic departments in the United Kingdom , inspiring many gastroenterologists who now hold major academic or leadership roles internationally. He has been on the editorial boards of numerous journals and was editor of Gut 1996-2002, overseeing an increase in influence and impact factor. He has a lasting legacy from his senior leadership roles in universities across the United Kingdom. Michael was Pro-Vice Chancellor of the University of London 2005, and became Vice-Chancellor of the University of Sussex in 2007. He currently holds a position as honorary Professor at University College London Medical.

His long-lasting engagement with European societies spans from positions as President of the EAGEN, British Society of Gastroenterology and Vice President of the World Gastroenterology Organisation. 

Within UEG, as Chair of the Scientific Committee he fostered the development of a science- and education-based congress program that was strictly focused on quality. As Chair of the Future Trends Committee he was the driving force behind the White book of Digestive Health and“Healthcare in Europe 2040 – Scenarios and implications for digestive and liver diseases”. Under his (vice) presidency from 2012-2015 UEG further professionalised its organisation to be prepared for future challenges and to secure a prosperous next generation