October 17, 2022

Martin Hudson, M.B.B.S., MRCP (UK), FRCP Edin., was presented with the George J. Kidera Award from the International Airline Medical Association (IAMA) at the International Conference on Aerospace Medicine (ICAM) in Paris in September. The award is given annually in recognition of outstanding achievement in the field of Aviation Medicine.

Dr. Hudson served his residency at St. Bartholomew’s Hospital, London, in 1965. After obtaining a Private Pilot’s License, he joined the Medical Branch of the Royal Air Force and became a member of the Royal College of Physicians in 1971. From 1972 to 1999 he was in General Practice and in 1977 became a UK CAA Authorized Aviation Medical Examiner. He was awarded the Fellowship of the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh in 1998 in recognition of his research and teaching in the field of hypertension.
   In 1999, he set up an Aviation Medicine Consultancy as an approved Aviation Medical Examiner for the European Aviation Safety Agency (EASA), UK Civil Aviation Authority (UK CAA), USA Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), Transport Canada (TC) and the Civil Aviation Safety Authority of Australia (CASA). He was appointed as the Consultant Aviation Medicine Adviser to Thomas Cook Airlines (UK) in 2000 and continued in this role until October 2017.
   Dr. Hudson was a Vice-President of the UK Association of Aviation Medical Examiners, having served for 12 years as its Treasurer and then for 3 years as Chairman. He has been a member of the Aerospace Medical Association (AsMA) since 2000 and was appointed a Fellow of the AsMA in 2013. He served as Chairman of AsMA’s Air Transport Medicine Committee for 4 years from 2011 to 2015 and was a member of the AsMA Mental Health Group. He served as President of the Airline Medical Director’s Association from 2018-2019. He was also a member of the European Society of Aerospace Medicine (ESAM) Advisory Board and served as the ESAM liaison representative with ICAO. In 2017 he co-authored a chapter in Professor Robert Bor’s latest book on ‘Pilot Mental Health’. He was also much involved with the development of Peer Support Groups both for Airline Pilots and for Aviation Medical Examiners.
   Dr. Hudson recently retired after over 40 years as an AME, announcing this during the Kidera award ceremony: “To have my name added to the previous winners of this award is very humbling, but there could not have been a better way to finish my 45-year career in Aviation Medicine. This has been immensely rewarding and I am pleased to think that I have made a contribution to this amazing and important scientific discipline. In this I have had enormous and dedicated support from my wife Sue, who has also enjoyed the journey with me. This would not have been possible without her.”



























Dr. Martin Hudson, right, receives the Kidera Award from Dr. Elizabeth Wilkens, left, President of IAMA, and Dr. Brinio
Veldhuijzen van Zanten, middle, from the IAMA Awards Committee.