PROFESSOR ROBERT McFARLAND MA (Oxon), MBBS, PhD, MRCP, MRCPCH.

Robert ‘Bobby’ McFarland is Professor of Paediatric Mitochondrial Medicine and Action Medical Research Professor of Neuromuscular Disease at the University of Newcastle.

A former Head Boy, Bobby McFarland left the Academy in 1987 to read Medicine at Oxford. After graduation, he spent three years studying clinical medicine at King’s College Hospital in London, qualifying in 1993. He then undertook a further three years of paediatric training in London and in Newcastle and began his PhD in 2000 on a Wellcome Trust Clinical Scientist Fellowship. This was followed by a Medical Research Council Scientist Fellowship which led to his appointment as Clinical Senior Lecturer and Consultant Paediatric Neurologist to Newcastle upon Tyne Hospitals Foundation Trust.

Professor McFarland’s research aim is to understand the processes that cause mitochondrial disease in children.