Forrester Cockburn

Forrester Cockburn (born 13 October 1934) was a British Paediatrician and emeritus professor at the University of Glasgow. Cockburn is most notable for conducting research into fetal/neonatal nutrition and brain biochemistry, inherited metabolic diseases and Pediatric ethics. Cockburn was awarded the prestigious James Spence Medal in 1998. Professor Cockburn died aged 91 in February 2026 .

Life Cockburn's early education was at Leith Academy. In 1959 Cockburn graduated from the University of Edinburgh, with an MB ChB, later gaining a Doctor of Medicine with honours (cum laude) in 1966 with a thesis titled: Phenylalanine: its role in infant nutrition and disease. Cockburn further stated:

They are going to destroy 40 years of work building up Yorkhill as a unique centre for treating mothers and babies. If the Queen Mother's closes, they will destroy Yorkhill’s service for very young babies. Neonatologists - the doctors who treat them - will scatter. No neonatologist will stay at a hospital where babies are not born. They will not be able to keep up their skill and expertise. Inborn errors of metabolism in humans : monograph based upon proceedings of the international symposium held in Interlaken, September 2–5, 1980., Forrester Cockburn; Richard Gitzelmann. Lancaster : MTP Press., 1982 Children : a handbook for children's doctors.,Forrester Cockburn; Oliver Peter Gray. London : Pitman, 1984. Practical paediatric problems., James H Hutchison; Forrester Cockburn. Singapore : PG Publishing Pte, 1986. Fetal and neonatal growth., Forrester Cockburn. Chichester : John Wiley & Sons, 1988 The lipid story : new pieces in the jigsaw : proceedings of a Milupa symposium held in September 1993 at the Queen's Medical Centre, Nottingham, UK., Forrester Cockburn. Macmillan Press, 1994 Advances in perinatal medicine : proceedings of the XV European Congress of Perinatal Medicine, Glasgow, September 1996., Forrester Cockburn. New York : Parthenon, 1997 Children's medicine and surgery., Forrester Cockburn; et al. Arnold, 1999. Cultured Cell and Inherited Metabolic Disease : Monograph Based Upon., R Angus Harkness; Forrester Cockburn. Dordrecht : Springer Netherlands, 2012.

Awards and honours CBE 1996 for services to children and medicine. James Spence Medal 1996 The Royal Society of Edinburgh 1999