Bust of Professor Sir Roy Calne FRS

Image: © Tiger Taken: 5 Dec 2014

This sculpture cast in bronze by Laurence Broderick appropriately adorns the corridor outside the main operating theatres in Addenbrooke's Hospital, where Roy Calne pioneered organ transplantation while Professor of Surgery at Cambridge University (1965-1998). He performed the first liver transplant in Europe at Addenbrooke's in 1968 and continued to advance immunosuppressive techniques which have enabled many transplant recipients to enjoy prolonged and active lives with their new organs. In this study he is represented in a thoughtful pose, resting his head on his left hand while his detached right hand holds a human liver he is about to transplant. In addition to his medical and surgical skills, Sir Roy was a talented artist who has worked in various media, and it is a fitting tribute that he himself contributed to this composition by sculpting the liver, which Laurence Broderick suggested was an item outside his normal experience and better assigned to the hand of a specialist. Update: both Roy Calne and Laurence Broderick died in 2024, respectively on 6th January and 18th April.

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