10th June 2020
The first in a series of events in collaboration with The Royal Society of Arts. Author and doctor Dr Gavin Francis in conversation with Professor Liz Grant.
Dr Gavin Francis is a GP and award-winning writer who resides in Edinburgh. He is the author of four books: True North, Travels in Arctic Europe (2008); Empire Antarctica – Ice, Silence & Emperor Penguins (2012), which was SMIT Scottish Book of the Year 2013 and shortlisted for the Costa, Ondaatje, Banff, and Saltire Prizes; Adventures in Human Being (2015), which won Saltire Non-Fiction Book of the Year 2015, was the Observer’s Science Book of the Year, and was a winner in the BMA Book Awards; and Shapeshifters – On Medicine & Human Change (2018), which was a book of the year in The Sunday Times and The Scotsman. His fifth book, Island Dreams, was released by Canongate Books in 2020. He is a Fellow of the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh, and a Fellow of the Royal College of General Practitioners.
Professor Liz Grant is the Assistant Principal and Director of the Global Health Academy, and Co-Director of the Global Compassion Initiative at the University of Edinburgh, whose purpose is to enable and embed the evidence and practice of compassion within the university, in Scotland and globally. Professor Grant holds a chair in Global Health and Development, and is responsible for developing and supporting global health partnerships with colleagues in low- and middle-income countries. She sits on the Scottish Government NHS Global Citizenship Board. She has been an advisor to a number of global health charities, and serves as a trustee for CBM Scotland.