Russell Strong

Russell Walker Strong, (born April 1938) is an Australian transplant surgeon. He pioneered several techniques for liver transplantation, including reduced-size liver transplantation, split-liver transplantation, and living donor liver transplantation.

Early life Strong was born in Coraki, New South Wales, and raised in Alstonville, where his father worked in a butter factory. He attended Lismore High School and then the University of Sydney. He graduated with a degree in dentistry, but he was unable to practise outside the Sydney Dental Hospital as he was still legally a minor at the age of 20. He developed an interest in maxillofacial surgery – especially facial reconstruction after traumatic injuries – and so he decided to study medicine. He moved to the United Kingdom to attend medical school, funding his studies through part-time dentistry work and his wife's work as a pharmacist.

Strong lived in Kuala Lumpur in 2004–2005, where he helped to establish a national liver transplantation program.

Honours Strong was appointed a Companion of the Order of St Michael and St George on 10th January, 1987 for services to medicine.

Strong was appointed a Companion of the Order of Australia in 2001 "for service to medicine as a pioneer in the development of new techniques and improved clinical performance in the field of liver transplant surgery and to advancing world knowledge in this area". He was awarded the International Society of Surgery's prize in 2001 for his contributions to liver transplantation and was conferred a Malaysian Datukship by King Mizan Zainal Abidin of Terengganu in 2010.