Friday 24 July 2009 morning ceremony

Dr Clive Lee (DEng)

Clive Lee was born in 1939 and educated in Solihull in the West Midlands. In 1957 he began his University Apprenticeship, working for Rolls-Royce whilst studying at Nottingham University where, in 1961, he was awarded a 1st Class Honours degree in Mechanical Engineering. He joined the University of Exeter in 1966 as an Assistant Lecturer and is still here today as an Honorary University Fellow in the School of Engineering, Computing and Mathematics.

Clive is probably best known for his work with the team that invented the Exeter Hip. The Exeter Hip was first implanted in November 1970. The latest development, the Exeter Universal Hip, was introduced to the market in 1988 and, together with the X-Change impaction cancellous grafting revision system, is proving to be a considerable clinical success. Worldwide it is the most widely used cemented total hip joint and it is the most frequently used total hip replacement in the NHS, with more than 50 per cent of the market. In February 2009, it was confirmed that over 850,000 Exeter replacement hip joints had been implanted since November 1970; it is forecast that the one millionth patient will receive their Exeter hip joint in May 2010.

Clive Lee is a member of many professional societies and has held a variety of other external appointments. He has also published extensively in academic journals in the UK and internationally.

Clive is married with two children and lives in Exeter.

Professor Robin Ling (DSc)

Born in 1927 in London, England and brought up in the West Riding of Yorkshire, Professor Ling went on to study medicine at the University of Oxford and later at St. Mary’s Hospital, London.

He graduated from Oxford with the degrees of B.M. B.Ch. in December 1952.

Subsequent postgraduate surgical training in orthopaedics in London, Vancouver and Edinburgh was followed by an appointment as consultant orthopaedic surgeon at the Royal Infirmary of Edinburgh and the Princess Margaret Rose Orthopaedic Hospital, Edinburgh in 1961.

He became a consultant at the Princess Elizabeth Orthopaedic Hospital in Exeter in June, 1963, becoming an honorary consultant there in April 1991.

Starting in 1965, Professor Ling developed a special interest in replacement arthroplasty of the hip that led to work in the School of Engineering Science at the University of Exeter, in co-operation with Dr. Clive Lee and others, that has continued ever since then, and produced what became known subsequently as the ‘Exeter Hip’.

He served as President of the British Orthopaedic Research Society in 1979-80, President of the British Orthopaedic Association 1986-7, Vice-President of the European Orthopaedic Research Society 1989-1991, President of the British Hip Society 1991-93 and President of the International Hip Society 1997-98.

He was appointed Honorary Professor of Bioengineering in the School of Engineering of the University of Exeter in 1986; awarded an Honorary Fellowship of the Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh in 1989; appointed Officer of the Order of the British Empire in 1992; awarded Corresponding Fellowship of the Australian Orthopaedic Association in 1999 and Honorary Fellowship of the British Orthopaedic Association in 2000.

Professor Ling has served as Visiting Professor of Orthopaedics in various Universities in the U.K., North and South America and Asia. He has authored or co-author many publications in the fields of biomaterials, biomechanics, implant fixation and hip replacement and delivered numerous eponymous lectures in various parts of the world (including the inaugural John Charnley Memorial Lecture) on these subjects.