Professor Gary French
BSc, MD, FRCPath, DipHIC
Professor French was a lecturer in Microbiology at London and then the University of the West Indies (1977 – 79). In 1980, he became a Senior Lecturer/Hon Consultant in Microbiology at St Thomas’. He was appointed the Foundation Chair of Microbiology at The Chinese University of Hong Kong, and Head of the Department of Clinical Microbiology at the Prince of Wales Hospital in 1982. Professor French returned to UK in 1990 and was appointed Professor of Medical Microbiology at King’s College London (KCL). Until his retirement in November 2011, Professor French was Consultant in Microbiology and Head of Infection Control at the Guy’s and St Thomas’s Hospital NHS Trust (GSTT). He was also advisor in Infection Control to the Moorefield’s Eye Hospital and the Lambeth & Southwark Primary Care Trust, and Civil Consultant in Microbiology of the Royal Air Force from 2001-2009.
Professor Gary FrenchAs an Honorary Professor at KCL and Honorary Consultant at GSTT, Professor French continued to supervise MD research degrees at KCL and a large Department of Health funded research project on rapid MRSA diagnosis at GSTT and King’s College Hospital, London.
Professor French is a Fellow of the Royal College of Pathologists, a member of the Hospital Infection Society, the British Society for Antimicrobial Chemotherapy, the Association of Medical Microbiologists, the Pathology Society of Great Britain and Ireland, and the European Society for Clinical Microbiology and Infectious Diseases. He was Chairman of the Hospital Infection Society from 1999 -2001 and Editor of the Journal of Hospital Infection from 1995-1999. He was also a Board Member of the International Federation of Infection Control from 2000-2006.
Professor French has the Diploma in Hospital Infection Control (DipHIC), which is the highest UK postgraduate specialist qualification in hospital infection awarded by the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine.
His areas of specialist interest are clinical microbiology, hospital and healthcare-associated infections, antibiotic therapy and antimicrobial resistance.