Professor Kay-Tee Khaw is a distinguished Singaporean British physician and academic renowned for her pioneering contributions to gerontological medicine and disease prevention research. She served as Professor of Clinical Gerontology at the University of Cambridge from 1989 until her retirement in 2018, while concurrently holding a Fellowship at Gonville and Caius College since 1991 and later being honored as a Jeffrey Cheah Professorial Fellow in 2015. Her medical training commenced at Girton College, University of Cambridge, followed by advanced studies at St. Mary's Hospital Medical School and a Master of Science in Epidemiology at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine. Early in her career, she held a prestigious Wellcome Trust Research Fellowship from 1979 to 1984, with appointments spanning the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, St. Mary's Hospital in London, and the University of California, San Diego where she served as an assistant professor in 1985.
Professor Khaw's research has fundamentally advanced our understanding of health maintenance in later life and the prevention of chronic diseases including cardiovascular conditions, cancer, and osteoporosis through meticulous longitudinal population studies. She served as a principal investigator for the landmark European Prospective Investigation into Cancer in Norfolk (EPIC-Norfolk), part of a decade-spanning, ten-country collaboration involving half a million participants that has generated invaluable insights into diet, lifestyle, and disease relationships. Her work particularly emphasizes the role of nutrition and hormones in healthy aging, establishing critical evidence for preventive healthcare strategies that have influenced clinical guidelines worldwide. Through systematic epidemiological approaches, her research has identified key modifiable factors that significantly impact longevity and quality of life in older adults, transforming contemporary approaches to geriatric care and preventive medicine.
Beyond her research contributions, Professor Khaw has profoundly shaped global epidemiological practice through her coordination since 1989 of the International Society of Cardiovascular Disease Epidemiology and Prevention's Ten Day Training seminar, which has trained over 1,600 physicians and scientists from more than 100 countries. Her leadership and mentorship have extended to supervising more than 25 PhD candidates and serving on influential commissions for the World Health Organization and United Kingdom health agencies. Honored with a CBE in 2003 and recognition as a Fellow of the Academy of Medical Sciences, her work continues to influence public health policy and clinical practice internationally. Though retired from her full professorship, her enduring legacy in gerontological research and disease prevention remains foundational to contemporary approaches in healthy aging and chronic disease management.
