Introduction
Sir Ralph Kohn FRS FMedSci FBPhS (9 December 1927 – 11 November 2016) was a British medical scientist, recipient of the Queen's Award for Export Achievement for his work in the pharmaceutical industry.
Education
Educated at Salford Grammar School, he won a scholarship to the University of Manchester where he obtained a PhD in pharmacology.
Career and research
In 1991, he set up the Kohn Foundation, which supports research and innovation in science and medicine, as well as the arts and education. The foundation endows several prizes for young scientists and musicians. It supports the Royal Society Kohn Award for science broadcasting and the Royal Academy of Music Bach Prize and the Royal Academy of Music / Kohn Foundation Bach Cantata Series.
Awards and honours
Kohn was elected an Honorary Fellow of the Royal Society in 2006, in recognition of his contributions to science via the Kohn Foundation. He was also an honorary fellow of the Academy of Medical Sciences. In November 2008, he delivered the Bynum Tudor Lecture at Kellogg College, Oxford.
He was knighted in the 2010 New Year Honours for services to science, music and charity.
Personal life
His interests included music and singing (baritone). In 2004, he was a guest on Sue Lawley's BBC Radio 4 radio programme, Desert Island Discs.
Kohn financed John Eliot Gardiner’s Bach Cantatas project:
We should give them [artists] the sort of means which will allow them to lead a reasonable existence where they can devote themselves with heart, soul and body to their work", Kohn says. "But the patron should not be their possessor. As Clifford Curzon once said: 'Isn't it nice that we can give something to young artists so that we can lift them closer to the stars.' That's all it's about.
Kohn died on 11 November 2016, aged 88.