Keith M Kendrick

Professor Keith Kendrick was born in London in 1954 and has been writing poetry since he was a young teenager. He left school at 16 to pursue a career in advertising in London for several years but subsequently decided to gain University entrance. He received his first and doctoral degrees in Psychology from the University of Durham in England in 1976 and 1979 respectively and published his first two scientific papers in Science (1979) and Nature (1980). During his studies he moved from the Arts, to the Social Science Faculty and finally to the Science Faculty having first opted in his first year to major in English and Philosophy. After holding research or lecturing posts in the University of Durham, Institute of Zoology in London and University of Cambridge he spent most of his scientific career working at the Babraham Institute in Cambridge in England from 1986 to 2011 researching how the brain controls social and emotional behaviours and memory. In 2011 he moved to Chengdu in China as a State Recruited Expert Professor in the University of Electronic Science and Technology of China where he is focused on developing therapies to help improve social problems in young children with autism following on from discoveries he made while working in the UK. He has published over 300 scientific papers including many in the most prestigious general science and psychiatric journals. His work has also attracted considerable media coverage around the world and featured in several television documentaries. Before leaving the UK, he gave over twenty public lectures in the City of London after being appointed Professor of Physic (Medicine) at Gresham College. This ancient College was founded in 1597 by Sir Thomas Gresham, the then Lord Mayor of London, to inform the business community of new knowledge discovered in the arts, humanities and religion, law, commerce and science. Previous Professors have included the celebrated architect Sir Christopher Wren and scientist Robert Hooke. In China Professor Kendrick has received the highest award given to foreigners, “The International Friendship Award” in 2019.