A local graduate and the recipient of many academic awards, Dr Christopher Kennedy is the grandson of Professor Gordon King, the Founding Dean of the University of Western Australia’s Medical School.
Dr Kennedy undertook training to become a Fellow of the Royal Australian and New Zealand College of Ophthalmologists and Fellow of the Royal Australian College of Surgeons while simultaneously completing his PhD thesis.
His PhD consisted of laboratory research into the ageing human eye with Professors Ian Constable and Elizabeth Rakoczy at the Lions Eye Institute in Perth. His PhD was awarded by the University of Western Australia with the grade of Distinction and he went on to complete two further post-graduate Fellowships in Vitreoretinal Surgery and Medical Retina in the USA (University of Virginia) and UK (Bristol).
Heralding from a family with a strong history of academic achievement, Dr Kennedy demonstrated an academic inclination himself from school days when he followed in his father’s footsteps to be Dux of Scotch College and receive a General University Exhibition.
By the time he had completed post-graduate training, his awards included the Friendly Societies Health Services Prize, Medical Defence Union Medicolegal Scholarship, Eric Cyril Lawrence Medical Research Fellowship, Australian Society for Medical Research Award, Young Investigator of the Year (Royal Perth Hospital Medical Research Foundation), and the Athelstan and Amy Saw Medical Research Fellowship. With an increasingly strong desire to apply his knowledge and skill more directly for the benefit of patients, he chose to divert from a more purely academic, research-based career path to concentrate more exclusively on patient treatment in private and hospital practice.
He established the retinal surgery service at Fremantle Hospital in 1998 and co-founded St John of God Eye Clinic in Subiaco with the widely respected, late Dr Dermot Roden, building it into one of the best-equipped Eye Practices in Australia with a reputation for delivering expert care of the highest quality.
Dr Kennedy has been an Executive Board Member as well as past Treasurer and Secretary of the Western Australian Branch of the Royal Australian and New Zealand College of Ophthalmologists. He is a Member of the American Academy of Ophthalmologists, Oceanic Retinal Association, Australian & New Zealand Society of Retinal Specialists, and American Society of Retinal Specialists and current Head of the Department of Ophthalmology, St John of God Hospital, Subiaco.
Hon. Geoffrey A. Kennedy – Supreme Court Judge & Royal Commissioner – Father
Local Graduate of Scotch College (Dux of School, General University Exhibition) & the University of Western Australia (Faculty of Law). Rhodes Scholar & Oxford University Graduate. Queens Councillor, Senior Puisine Judge of the Western Australian Supreme Court, Commissioner of the Royal Commission into the WA Police Service, Commissioner of the Royal Commission into the Commercial Activities of the WA Government (“WA Inc.”), Pro-Chancellor and Chancellor of the University of Western Australia, Awarded the Office of the Order of Australia (AO).
Professor Gordon King – Founding Dean of UWA Medical School – Grandfather
Graduated from Bristol Grammar School then studied Medicine at the London Hospital, England. He became the youngest doctor in history to obtain Fellowship of the Royal College of Surgeons.
He subsequently worked in England, China, Hong Kong, Australia and Kenya. He was recruited by the University of Western Australia to become the Founding Dean of the Faculty of Medicine at the University of Western Australia in 1956 as well as their Professor of Obstetrics and Gynaecology. Prior to that, he had been the Founding Dean of the Medical School in Hong Kong and, following retirement from his Western Australian positions, he joined the University of Nairobi to become Founding Dean of Medical School at the University of Nairobi, Kenya and their Professor of Obstetrics and Gynaecology. For his achievements, he was awarded the Office of the Order of the British Empire (OBE).
