UK HealthCare

Neurology’s Dan Han elected as fellow of The Royal Society of Medicine and The Royal Society for Public Health

Dr. Dan Han was recently elected as a Fellow of The Royal Society of Medicine and The Royal Society for Public Health in the United Kingdom.
Dan Han, Psy.D., was recently elected as a fellow of The Royal Society of Medicine and The Royal Society for Public Health in the United Kingdom. Photo by UK HealthCare Brand Strategy.

LEXINGTON, Ky. (Sept. 23, 2022) — Dan Han, Psy.D., chief of the neuropsychology division at UK HealthCare, and professor of neurology, neurosurgery, and physical medicine and rehabilitation at the University of Kentucky College of Medicine, has been elected a fellow of The Royal Society of Medicine and The Royal Society for Public Health in the United Kingdom. Han was one of the last fellows elected to these royal societies under the patronage of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II.

These recognitions are in relation to his international work in the field of neurogastronomy, which is the study of flavor perception in the brain and the ways it affects global health and sustainability. Formulated as a new academic discipline by Gordon Shepherd of Yale University, neurogastronomy as an international movement proliferated here at the University of Kentucky with Han, along with Tim McClintock, Bob Perry, Sid Kapoor, Kelsey Rahenkamp, Lilian Brislen and Bret Smith (former UK chair of Neuroscience). 

Han has been funded by the Department of Defense, National Institutes of Health, Department of Education, foundation grants and clinical trials, involving studies of brain–behavior and program development. Clinically, Han specializes in brain injury and neurological diseases, and leads a consult division serving 24 hospital service lines and 58 regional hospitals and clinical practices. His work has been featured in Newsweek, National Geographic, BBC, NPR, Apple Podcast, Spotify, the APA Monitor on Psychology, among many others, with coverage spanning 16 countries in 11 languages.

About the Royal Society of Medicine:

The Royal Society of Medicine was established in 1805 as the Medical and Chirurgical Society of London. The society has a long and rich history as a cross-specialty society sharing scientific, medical and health care knowledge. Early fellows of the Royal Society of Medicine included Charles Darwin (naturalist and biologist), Edward Jenner (inventor of the smallpox vaccination), Sigmund Freud (neurologist and founder of psychoanalysis), Jean-Martin Charcot (leading neurologist and discoverer of disorders such as Parkinson’s), Thomas Addison (physician and discoverer of Addison’s disease), and Sir Alexander Fleming (awarded the Nobel Prize in 1945 for the discovery of penicillin).

About the Royal Society for Public Health:

Established in 1856, The Royal Society for Public Health is one of the oldest public health organizations in the world. It focuses on protecting the health of people through charity and policy work. The Royal Society for Public Health awards fellowship to acknowledge and celebrate the achievements of people working in public health roles in the UK and globally. At the moment, it has fellows around the world who work in a multitude of public health areas encompassing environmental health, food safety, health care, policy-making and infectious diseases.

As the state’s flagship, land-grant institution, the University of Kentucky exists to advance the Commonwealth. We do that by preparing the next generation of leaders — placing students at the heart of everything we do — and transforming the lives of Kentuckians through education, research and creative work, service and health care. We pride ourselves on being a catalyst for breakthroughs and a force for healing, a place where ingenuity unfolds. It's all made possible by our people — visionaries, disruptors and pioneers — who make up 200 academic programs, a $476.5 million research and development enterprise and a world-class medical center, all on one campus.   

In 2022, UK was ranked by Forbes as one of the “Best Employers for New Grads” and named a “Diversity Champion” by INSIGHT into Diversity, a testament to our commitment to advance Kentucky and create a community of belonging for everyone. While our mission looks different in many ways than it did in 1865, the vision of service to our Commonwealth and the world remains the same. We are the University for Kentucky.