April Alumni Weekend

Our alumni weekend events will begin with registration and refreshments in the McEwan Hall Basement Foyers. Come along to meet other Edinburgh Medical School graduates and re-familiarise yourself with one of the most beautiful buildings on central campus.

In this introductory talk, Professor Lorna Marson (Professor of Transplant Surgery and Chair of the Edinburgh Medical School 300 Steering Group) and other key staff members will update on recent developments at Edinburgh Medical School. Find out what has changed since your student days and learn about our exciting year-round activities to mark the 300-year milestone. Talks will be followed by a networking reception.

Join Professor Kenneth Baillie, Professor of Experimental Medicine, and Professor Jim Wilson, Professor of Human Genetics, as they share their career and research journeys. This event will include a drinks reception from 18:30 – 19:30.

Join fellow alumni in the student union to continue conversations and make new connections. This evening gathering will also feature special musical performances from past and present students.

Note: This is a parallel session - we invite you to choose and book your preferred session

Hear from our academic community about some of the fascinating research taking place at Edinburgh Medical School today.

Confirmed talks

Brain health visualised

Professor Joanna Wardlaw

"Brain imaging has advanced hugely in the last 50 years representing a fusion of biology and medicine with physics, chemistry, and engineering. In my working lifetime, it has rapidly changed understanding of brain development, health and behaviour, and disease. In this talk, I will very briefly highlight a few insights revealed by modern brain imaging and on key ways that these have revolutionised treatment of common conditions such as stroke, dementia and multiple sclerosis."

Professor Joanna Wardlaw, CBE, MD, FRSE, FMedSci, is Professor of Applied Neuroimaging at the University of Edinburgh, Foundation Chair in the UK Dementia Research Institute, and Consultant Neuroradiologist for NHS Lothian. Her work focuses on understanding the brain and its blood supply, and on treatments to improve blood flow to the brain, including thrombolytic drugs that are now in routine use to treat stroke, and more recently on treatments for small vessel disease and vascular dementia. Working with many colleagues, she has been instrumental in advancing understanding of the causes of cerebral small vessel disease and is now testing treatments in clinical trials. She has set up national research imaging facilities, co-ordinated international research networks, advanced stroke care worldwide and published over 1000 papers. A Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh and of the UK’s Academy of Medical Sciences, she has received awards from many UK and international brain and heart organisations, and was made a Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) for services to Medicine and Neuroscience in 2016.

Professor Joanna Wardlaw will be joined by a second staff speaker, to be confirmed.

Note: This is a parallel session - we invite you to choose and book your preferred session

In this session, we explore how Edinburgh Medical School graduates have used their expertise to create positive impact. Two inspiring graduates will share their personal journeys since graduation, with time for Q&A.

Confirmed talks

When the Work Seems Impossible: What I Learnt About Medicine, Parenting, and Life in the African Rainforest

Dr Joyce Samoutou-Wong 

A proud graduate of Edinburgh Medical School, Joyce has dedicated her life to serving those with the least access to healthcare. Along with her husband, she is the co-founder of New Sight, a pioneering charity that began with sight-saving services in rural Republic of Congo and is now expanding into a full general teaching hospital in one of the world’s most resource-limited settings. New Sight also partners with more than 40 local schools and publishes a national children's magazine, extending its impact beyond medicine into education and community transformation. Her work has been recognised internationally for its innovation, compassion, and impact.

When the Work Seems Impossible: What I Learnt About Medicine, Parenting, and Life in the African Rainforest is a candid and deeply personal reflection on navigating leadership, family life, and delivering medical care in the face of desperate needs, relentless challenges and scarce resources. With honesty, humour, and stories of failure and grace, Joyce shares the lessons drawn from the most unlikely places - from homeschooling to threats of Ebola and armed rebels. Her reflections on finding hope, purpose, and compassion under extreme pressure offer heartfelt encouragement to all those working tirelessly in the NHS and to anyone feeling stretched, discouraged, and overwhelmed. The talk also offers practical insight into increasing health access in low- and middle-income countries and delivers a powerful professional reminder: even in the harshest conditions, healthcare providers can — against all odds — build, lead and heal.

Dr Joyce Samoutou-Wong will be joined by a second alumni speaker, to be confirmed.

Note: This is a parallel session - we invite you to choose and book your preferred session

Between a quarter and a fifth of young people in the UK now suffer a mental disorder. One in four adults are prescribed psychiatric medication. Within the NHS 90% of all clinical encounters are with GPs, and about a third of those appointments concern mental health.  In this lecture, writer, GP and alumnus of 1999 Gavin Francis will talk about the history of mental health care in Edinburgh, the development of mental health diagnoses over the centuries, and explore new approaches to approaching the mental health and ill-health.

Gavin Francis is Edinburgh's current director of MBChB admissions and a GP on the isles of Iona and Mull.  He has written many award-winning books about aspects of medicine and culture, including Shapeshifters, Recovery, Free For All, & Adventures in Human Being.

Note: This is a parallel session - we invite you to choose and book your preferred session

Meet our current Edinburgh Medical School students to find out how the student experience has changed. In this ‘speed-networking’ style session, you will have the opportunity to discuss a range of topics and compare experiences across decades.

Between the morning and afternoon sessions, there will be time to take part in optional activities at your leisure. Take this time to enjoy tours and displays, learn about student projects, share your memories and explore the future role of technology in teaching at our Edinburgh Medical School 300 ‘Digital Hub’.

Edinburgh’s Anatomical collections have global importance, and are the legacy of more than three centuries of intellectual effort directed towards understanding the body in sickness and health.  The values and methods of the medical school have always reflected those of the society around it.  This presentation will focus on the richness of those collections, and the ways in which the collection evolved over the centuries, as the values and the priorities of the medical school changed.  It will explore the question of how often medicine and medical science have got things wrong (e.g. Phrenology) and how that influenced what went into the collection, but also how often the collections have been the foundation for new understandings of the body that have gone on to revolutionise the way we understand and influence health and wellbeing. 

Malcolm MacCallum is well-placed as the curator of the museum to tease out these questions, and Nicole Anderson, whose PhD explored the subtleties and challenges of repatriation of human remains within the anatomical collections gathered during the colonial period, is well placed to offer a nuanced perspective on the role and responsibility of a modern curator. 

The first professor of general practice in the world was appointed in Edinburgh, and this session will offer a history of academic general practice and primary care in the city. Before the Royal Infirmary was built all physicians were generalists, and attended patients in their own homes; this session will take the audience through these earliest efforts at community medicine, through the story of the 19th century dispensaries for the poor, into the twentieth century, the establishment of the academic discipline of general practice, and showcase some of the exciting research being conducted today.

Speakers to be confirmed

During the day on Saturday, you will have the option to visit the Anatomy Lecture Theatre and Anatomical Museum. Due to limited capacity in the venue, we are offering hour-long slots throughout the day and ask that attendees come at their allocated ticket time. 

If you are interested in joining, please indicate your preferred time slot on the Eventbrite booking form. We will be in touch closer to the time to confirm your space:

• 9:00 – 10:00
• 10:00 – 11:00
• 12:15 – 13:15
• 13:15 – 14:15
• 16:00 – 17:00

Are you interested in sharing your memories and perspectives on single-use medical plastics? Take part in one of two focus group sessions led by student researcher Danielle Farrow to contribute your views and learn about the work of her interdisciplinary team, After the Single Use.

After the Single Use is a bold global cooperative across four continents that promises to develop a new field of critical humanities, and social science research on medical plastics and circular healthcare economies. Through combining ethnographic and archival research with experimental methods from art, design informatics, environmental advocacy, and participatory research, the team aims to expand and transform methodologies to tackle the interdisciplinary challenges of environmental change and contribute to understandings of healthcare waste as a historical and social issue.

Danielle Farrow is a PhD student taking an ethnographic perspective on the transition away from single use plastics in the Scottish NHS and seeking to further our understanding on how concepts of value, disposability, use and reuse shift over time.

Find out more about After the Single Use

• 12:30 – 13:15
• 13:30 – 14:15