Alexander Parker Mowat (5 April 1935 – 11 November 1995) was a Scottish

paediatric Pediatrics ( also spelled ''paediatrics'' or ''pædiatrics'') is the branch of medicine that involves the medical care of infants, children, adolescents, and young adults. In the United Kingdom, paediatrics covers many of their youth until the ...

hepatologist Hepatology is the branch of medicine that incorporates the study of liver, gallbladder, biliary tree, and pancreas as well as management of their disorders. Although traditionally considered a sub-specialty of gastroenterology, rapid expansion ...

. He established the paediatric hepatology unit at

King's College Hospital King's College Hospital is a major teaching hospital and major trauma centre in Denmark Hill, Camberwell in the London Borough of Lambeth, referred to locally and by staff simply as "King's" or abbreviated internally to "KCH". It is managed b ...

, London, which became a referral centre for children across Britain with liver diseases.

Biography

Mowat was born in 1935 in

Cullen, Moray Cullen ( gd, Inbhir Cuilinn) is a village and former royal burgh in Moray, Scotland, on the North Sea coast east of Elgin. The village had a population of 1,327 in 2001.United Kingdom Census 2001

, and was educated at Aberdeen Medical School, qualifying in 1958. After serving in the Royal Army Medical Corps in the Far East, he returned to Aberdeen to take up a research post in

the Rowett Institute The Rowett Institute is a research centre for studies into food and nutrition, located in Aberdeen, Scotland. History The institute was founded in 1913 when the University of Aberdeen and the North of Scotland College of Agriculture agreed ...

's enzymology department. He also completed a two-year fellowship at the

Albert Einstein College of Medicine Albert Einstein College of Medicine is a research-intensive medical school located in the Morris Park neighborhood of the Bronx in New York City. Founded in 1953, Einstein operates as an independent degree-granting institution as part of t ...

in New York, where he studied

hepatology Hepatology is the branch of medicine that incorporates the study of liver, gallbladder, biliary tree, and pancreas as well as management of their disorders. Although traditionally considered a sub-specialty of gastroenterology, rapid expansion ...

(liver medicine). On his return from New York, Mowat became a

registrar at Aberdeen Medical School. Mowat was appointed a consultant paediatrician and paediatric hepatologist to

in London in 1970. At the time, paediatric hepatology was a nascent specialty in medicine, and at King's Mowat established one of the first specialised units to treat children with rare diseases including biliary atresia, portal hypertension and liver cancers. He staffed the unit with a combination of hepatologists, paediatric surgeons, transplant surgeons, radiologists, pathologists, specialist nurses and dieticians. Under Mowat's direction, the unit pioneered new techniques for liver transplantation in children, one of which involves a parent donating part of their liver to the child. In 1986, Mowat received government funding which made the King's paediatric hepatology unit a supraregional referral centre for children all over the United Kingdom. He was appointed professor of paediatric hepatology at King's College in 1990. Mowat was elected

Fellow of the Royal College of Physicians The Royal College of Physicians (RCP) is a British professional membership body dedicated to improving the practice of medicine, chiefly through the accreditation of physicians by examination. Founded by royal charter from King Henry VIII in 1 ...

in 1975. He authored the textbook ''Liver Disorders in Childhood'', first published in 1979, which was regarded as the leading reference on the subject, and his research group at King's published over 200 articles on the subject of paediatric hepatology. He was made an honorary consultant in paediatrics to the

Royal Air Force The Royal Air Force (RAF) is the United Kingdom's air and space force. It was formed towards the end of the First World War on 1 April 1918, becoming the first independent air force in the world, by regrouping the Royal Flying Corps (RFC) an ...

. Mowat died suddenly in 1995 after giving a lecture at a medical conference in Chile.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Mowat, Alex 1935 births 1995 deaths British paediatricians British hepatologists 20th-century Scottish medical doctors Fellows of the Royal College of Physicians Academics of King's College London